Vriesia - home care, photo

Vriesia (Vriesia) - perennial herbaceous plant of the Bromeliad family. The homeland of Vriesia is Central and South America. The plant is an epiphyte, it needs roots only for attachment to the substrate, and special reservoirs located in the bases of leaf sockets take on the function of accumulating and absorbing nutrients.

In the process of growth, vriesia forms dense funnel-shaped rosettes of soft or leathery leaves up to 1 m high. A leaf plate can have various colors: from a plain emerald to a tiger (in a dark and light green strip) and mottled (with light or brown spots on a dark background). Inflorescences have bright keeled bracts and small nondescript flowers.

You will also be interested in other plants from the bromeliad family: bilbergia and echmea.

Useful properties of vriesia

According to some reports, vriesia works as a natural air filter, absorbing harmful impurities from it (including tobacco smoke). Otherwise, the use of this plant is exclusively aesthetic: its spectacular inflorescences can decorate any home or office interior.

Features of care for vriesia at home. Briefly

Care for vriesia at home

Bloom

Depending on the planting time, a vriesia flower at home can bloom in February-April or May-July. The flowers themselves are unprepossessing, whitish or yellowish.

The main decoration of the plant is bright bracts, tightly adjacent to each other and forming a long spike. In different varieties, they are red, orange, yellow or combine several colors at once in their coloration.

Temperature mode

Vriesia is thermophilic, the optimum temperature for its cultivation should be + 22-24 ° C in the summer, + 18-20 ° C in the winter

The minimum allowable temperature is + 16 ° C, if the room is colder, the plant will begin to hurt and may even die.

Spraying

It is possible and necessary to spray vriesia, but this should be done very carefully, preventing moisture from entering the bracts.

For spraying, you should take only warm, settled water.

Vreezia Lighting

Sveta need a lot, but direct sunlight for her is not desirable: being under their constant influence, the flower quickly loses its decorative effect. In winter, it is better for the plant to allocate a place on the southern window, and with the advent of summer, move it to the eastern or, in extreme cases, the western window sill. Home vriesia normally tolerates "life" in the shade.

Watering Vrieses

Watered vriesia directly to leaf sockets, making sure that moisture does not stagnate there for a long time. For irrigation take soft warm water. During active vegetation, the soil should be constantly moistened (but not flooded), while resting, the substrate between the irrigations is allowed to dry slightly.

Vriesia pot

The root system of the plant is quite compact, so the capacity for the flower needs to be selected not too voluminous - the roots should "sit" in it tightly, but be able to develop. An important condition for the normal growth of vriesia is a good drainage of the soil, therefore pots for planting plants are at least a third filled with expanded clay or broken brick.

Primer for vriesia

The optimal soil composition for vreezia includes leaf and turf soil, peat, sand, pine bark, charcoal and moss. If it is not possible to prepare the substrate yourself, you can purchase soil for bromeliads or orchids in a flower shop - its composition is also quite suitable for vriesia.

Fertilizer and fertilizer

Vriesia does not have any special "claims" to the nutritional value of the soil, so it often does not need to be fed. Fertilizers are usually applied once per season - when the plant is about to bloom. Do this through watering in a socket or spraying with weak solutions of preparations for bromeliads or orchids.

Roots are not involved in plant nutrition, therefore root dressing is ineffective.

Vriesia transplant

The newly acquired plant should be transplanted into a new soil immediately after purchase (if it does not bloom, the flowering is allowed to complete flowering and after transplanted).

Transplantation is required for young plants every 1-2 years as the soil is entangled in roots. Adults are enough to transplant once every 5 years.

Rest period

The rest period is from October to February. While vriesia is resting, caring for it at home is minimized: it is watered only to maintain leaf turgor, top dressing is excluded, air temperature is maintained at + 18-22 ° C.

How to make vriesia bloom

The flowering stimulator may be ethylene gas. To ensure its presence and effect on vriesia, the plant is placed in a plastic bag, after putting the usual apple there.

Propagation of Vriesia

It is easiest to propagate vriesia with children from the mother bush, which appear when the plant blooms. Lateral shoots are separated from the main outlet, as soon as they reach a third of the height of the "parent". Then the children are dried for a couple of days, after which they are seated in separate containers in a special soil. Young vrieses can bloom only after 3-4 years

A more complex and time-consuming method is seed propagation. Sown them in mini-greenhouses in a mixture of sand and sphagnum moss. The first shoots at a constant temperature of + 25 ° C appear after 3 weeks. When plants unfold 3 leaves, they should be planted in separate pots. Flowering in vriesia grown in this way occurs only 5-10 years after sowing.

Diseases and Pests

Diseases of vriesia, as a rule, are caused by violations of the rules for caring for the plant, they are manifested by the following symptoms:

• dry leaves Vriesia - the flower is uncomfortable due to too low humidity in the room. The problem is solved by regular spraying of the plant;
• black leaf tips Vrieses also speak of dry air in the room, which can be moistened by regularly spraying a flower or placing a pot with a plant in a wide tray with expanded clay moistened with water;
• wither leaves vriesia - most likely the flower is in a room too cool for it. Due to the prolonged exposure to low air temperature, rot can also develop on the plant, which is quite difficult to deal with, which is why it is necessary to adhere to the recommended temperature regime when growing plants;
• rotting roots - the most probable cause of this problem is the flower’s gulf, the roots affected by rot need to be cut off, the places of the cuts must be treated with crushed coal, after which the vriesia is transplanted into a new substrate and in the future they carefully monitor the watering regime;
• gray spots on the leaves indicate infection of the plant with some kind of fungal disease. In this case, remove all damaged leaves, replace the topsoil and treat the flower with a fungicidal preparation;
• the leaves are pale - the plant does not have enough light, it is necessary to rearrange the pot with it in a more sunny place, making sure that the lighting is scattered.

The most dangerous enemy is the bromeliad shield. Much less often on a plant you can find a mealybug or spider mite. In the fight against these pests, special insecticides are most effective.

Types of vriesia with photos and names

Brilliant vriesia (Vriesia splendens)

The most popular variety in indoor floriculture. It is a medium-sized plant, forming rosettes of hard lanceolate leaves of a dark green hue with transverse pale green stripes (leaf length - up to 80 cm). Inflorescences are spike-shaped with bright red bracts and nondescript yellowish flowers.

Kilevaya Vriesia (Vriesea carinata Wawra)

Lush rosettes of the plant are formed by narrow scaly leaves of a light green shade about 20 cm long. The inflorescences are medium-sized (about 6 cm long), they consist of bright red with greenish tips of bracts and small yellow flowers with short legs.

Sanders Vriesia (Vriesia saundersii)

A low plant that forms voluminous rosettes of hard curved leaves about 30 cm long. Platinum leaf has a bluish-green hue with many bright brown spots. A loose panicle inflorescence, consisting of many keeled yellow-green bracts, crowned with small flowers of a yellowish tint.

Vriesia zamorensis (Vriesea zamorensis)

An elegant undersized plant with lush rosettes of glossy bright green leaves about 30 cm long and variegated inflorescences, consisting of saturated red bracts with yellow tips and small whitish flowers.

Watch the video: How I Care For My Bromeliads Joy Us garden (May 2024).