Plants and Flowers

Other two Arbutus’ varieties are Arbutus andrachne, which fruits are edible, but not especially tasty, and Arbutus glandulosa, which grows in Northern America, with its native land in Mexico.

Arbutus is room ornamental evergreen plant. Leaves are oval and bright-green, inflorescences are cream, similar to inflorescences of the lily of the valley.
After flowering the tree is decorated with bright orange edible, but insipid fruit. Frequently flowers and berries decorate a tree simultaneously.

It is propagated with seeds, which are sowed on a surface of the ground at a temperature 20-25 С and covered with glass. Shoots are sprayed, not watered.

The plant will blossom not earlier, than in 12 months, it grows slowly. In November it starts to shed the leaves. At this time watering should be limited and temperature lowered to 12-14 С.
In 3 months the plant should be put in warmer premise.

Guava positively reacts to monthly one-fold fertilizing and also prefers growind in large capacities with a fertile soil.
It propagates in various ways: cuttings, seeds, grafts and top grafting.
Seeds are sown in pots. Germination of seeds requires the temperature not less than 22-24°С.
Soil mix for seedlings and young plants is made from sod soil, humus and sand (1:1:1). With the years soil is made heavier.

P. littorale is more favorable variant for indoor cultivation. In rooms it blossoms abundantly with small white fragrant flowers. Flowers consist of 8-10 petals; sets of the same white stamens and a small pestle with roundish flat stigma.

Cultivation of these plants is very grateful pastime. It is difficult to not become successful planting them. They are unpretentious, and are likely to take an important place in assortment of room fruit crops.

The native land - tropical America.
It is widely cultivated in the tropical countries; and occasionally is grown in room conditions.
Guava - a tree or a large bush. Young shoots are tetrahedral. Leaves are elliptic, 7-15 centimeters in length and 3-7 centimeters in width, naked on above and fuzzy from below, with nerve.

Flowers are single or 2-3 in a bosoms of leaves, white.
Fruit is green, pear-shaped, up to 12 centimeters in length, with pink, white or yellow fragrantly pulp.
It seldom fructifies in room conditions.
Leaves, flowers and fruits have bactericidal action as they contain volatile oils. Daily use of fresh leaves (9 g) in the raw state or extract from them, as a tea, considerably lowers glucose content in blood and urine at initial stages of diabetes.

This plant prefers light and very warm places, temperature throughout the year should be +22-24°С.
In summer it is put outdoors in protected from wind places. In winter it is placed in a light room.
Plant should be watered lavishly.

All flower growers are united by the love to the beautiful! Even a banal ficus has its beauty, grace and vigorous energy of life, if it is well-groomed, healthy and vigorous.
But frequently healthy outwardly plant suddenly fades and nothing can help – it dies for some days. What to do then?

First, you should remember, that there are no ready recipes. The alive organism of plants can not be precisely forecasted and consequently none “miracle recipe” will give an absolute guarantee of success. However our simple attentiveness and knowledge of bases, what is good and what is bad for the plant, will help to lower morbidity and percentage of lost plants.

Second, even the most skilled flower growers are not insured from mistakes and simple inadvertence, in addition, it is not simple to diagnose correctly the “patient” - frequently the plant starts “to mope” without obvious reasons.

Roses should be pruned two times a year: before wintering or in February-March (leaving four - five alive buds on each strong sprout, and two – on a weak one) and during flowering (deleting withered flowers as required and yellowed leaves).

Roses categorically do not tolerate drafts: if there is no opportunity to find other place for your rose, make the small linen or paper screen around the plant, approximately half of its height.

Most frequent pests and illnesses of roses are powdery mildew and the web mite.
Powdery mildew can be cured by rinsing a plant with soda solution every day within a week (two teaspoons for a liter of water). Do not forget to cover the soil around the plant with polythene - the solution should not get in a pot.
It is very difficult to get rid of a mite, which frequently affect roses. Therefore it is better to antisepticise preventively a new plant by special preparations.

After your beauty has finally felt at home in a new pot (it will take about two weeks), you should organize extranutrition. Roses can be added fertilizer in two ways: spraying or root fertilizing. Usually store fertilizers have precise instructions. Read it attentively and lower a little recommended dosage. During the spring-and-summer period fertilizing is needed once in two - three weeks, in the evening, after usual watering. In autumn and winter roses don’t require add fertilizer.

For comfortable existence of a rose in room conditions you should control temperature and humidity. During vegetation (in spring and summer) the soil should always be moderately damp, leaves can be sprayed from the bottom side with cold boiled water.

In a dormant period (in autumn and winter) roses are watered less often, soil in a pot stays dry for two - three days. Water should be a little bit colder than a room temperature. To struggle with dryness of air you may put a pot on the tray with damp stones (pebble), and moisten them as required. If the rose is located on a window sill, it will be useful to separate it from a room by a polyethylene screen; it will reduce harmful influence of dry hot air from batteries.

Tiny copies of larger garden relatives, domestic roses, get the increasing popularity. How to look after these capricious beauties, what may be done so that they feel well and delight our eyes as long as possible?

The most widespread mistake made by beginning flower growers: do not transplant your rose at once. Some flowers can tolerate it, but not roses!

Put it on a southern or southeast window or a balcony and wait for couple of weeks. If the flower doesn’t show any signs of ailment, it can be transplanted. Roses are very sensitive to damages of roots, therefore transplant it, trying not to injure soil clod. On a bottom of a pot put 1 centimeter of drainage layer (for example, haydite); if a pot doesn’t have drain hole - 4 centimeters, at least.

Do not transplant a rose in too big pot: it can begin to blossom worse. The new pot should be more than an old one 5 centimeters on height and 3-5 in diameter. After transplanting put a rose on a northern window or in a shaded place for one-two day.

It is important to pay attention to appearance of a plant. But condition of roots is even more important a. If you have an opportunity - take out root tuber from a pot. If roots are healthy and have white color, have twined round land clod and got out through a hole below - the plant is healthy and grew in this pot for a long time; if roots are dark and begun to rot, the plant is seriously ill. Do not pursue quantity of branches and leaves. If a plant has healthy roots, it will push young growth as soon as it feels comfortably.

A big or a small plant is a matter of preferences. The compact form looks more interesting, than a long stick. On the other hand, compactness can be achieved artificially, owing to special growth decelerator, and in some months you neat hibiscus will start to produce long shoots.

Plants are living organisms which always interact with surroundings, and its illnesses and pests. The healthy organism has the immunity to cope with various misfortunes. The plants living in the nature are able to cope with coccids and aphids. Besides, plant pests have natural enemies.

Frequently all troubles begin in a shop, where all plants stand in one close heap, it is not enough light, it is a lot of (or a little) water, stagnant air – a nice environment for a mould. One or two small insects on a plant are not so terrible, as it may seem. If you manage to create correct conditions, the plant will grow and thrive.

Contrary to existing stereotypes, plants will be perfectly blended with an interior of any style. The main thing is to choose suitable plants. Plants of clear and distinct forms (Sansevieria trifasciata, Monstera deliciosa and dragon tree), or - for sharp contrast – ferns with feather-like leaves or pink azalea will suit direct and elegant bent forms of furniture from steel, glasses, marble and varnished wood.

Furniture from bamboo and rattan, small lockers and wattled shelves, low little tables and seats can be decorated with orchids, wax plants, jasmine, etc. Japanese notes to an interior can be given by bamboo, azaleas and Bonsai plants.

English and French styles of furniture are in harmony with bushy and gentle blossoming plants: cyclamen, camellia, and also palm trees and treelike tub-gardening plants.

Tendency to natural beauty, and flowers as one of its best expressions, is natural for the person. However to become successful in decorating own house with plants, you should know a lot of them. Therefore flower design will best do good expert on a phytodesign.

But to cover all window sill with flower pots does not mean to interlace harmoniously alive plants in an interior. The modern phytodesign has developed many laws and rules. Something from these regulations can be successfully replaced with presence of good sense of taste. But there are such aspects which need an advice of the expert to understand.

Corner stone here, as in everything that concerns design of a dwelling, are the sizes of an apartment. The spacious a room, the larger plants and their amount. Treelike plants have decorative qualities, especially such large-leaved species, as dragon tree, philodendron or a ficus bengalese which are perfectly looked in rooms with a few items of furniture (in halls and vestibules). For small rooms it is better to select average or small species with wide and gentle leaves.

Especially beautifully plants look on a modest, softened background. If the pattern on wall-paper is fine or absent at all, it would be better to choose large-leaved plants. And on the contrary, bright pattern of wall-paper demands filigree fern leaves.

Light angle is also important when designing an interior with plants. The good effect is achieved, when tone of curtains, wall-paper, or furniture upholstery is repeated in plants. If the interior is built on contrast of black and white, rich colors of plants will give freshness to the general image of the room.