Plants and Flowers

Prunus armeniaca L. (syn. Armeniaca vulgaris Lam.)
The native land of his tree is Northeast China. It is widely cultivated in many countries of a warm temperate climate. It is widely cultivated in the Central Asia, on the Caucasus and the south of the CIS’ European part.

Apricot is a tree of the average size. Leaves are roundish or ovate, attenuatous with serratulate edge. Flowers are white or pink.

The plant can be formed as a tree or a bush, and also be used for bonsai.
Apricot is usually engrafted on a plum tree or the Mongolian wild apricot. To receive a harvest cross-pollination is required.

Plants of an apricot from stones will be winter-hardy and adapted to local conditions. From ten plants received from stones, seven or eight plants will have good fruits. It is better to take stones from trees, grown in more northern zones.

Avocado is rather unpretentious plant, but requires high air humidity. Therefore the pot should be put on a tray with damp pebble, only make sure that the pot stands on gravel, instead of the water. The place should be light; it grows well at the windows looking southwest and southeast.

The plant is heat-loving, winters at temperature not below 16С. The ground should be equally damp within the whole year. In spring and summer the plant needs mineral fertilizer each two weeks.
Avocado should be transplanted annually; to strengthening branchiness – nip the ends of stalks.

The soil should be friable and in no event become caked sclerosed. Besides, the avocado does not stand sour soils. For cultivation you should use a mix of the garden ground, humus or crude peat, large-grained sand (1:1:1) with addition of lime. To improve aeration of the soil, add sand, haydite, moss or peat.
The avocado is frequently affected with powdery mildew.

The botanical name - Реrsеа americana. Laurel family.

Now the avocado is widely cultivated in tropics and subtropics, including the south of the Black Sea coast in the Caucasus.

Avocado is not an indoor plant, but it can be easily grown from a stone. For some years a sapling before your eyes will grow up to 1 m height. In room conditions an avocado does not blossom and, accordingly, does not fructify.

Plant a stone with its blunt end in a mix of wet peat and ground haydite, the sharp end should be visible above a surface of the ground. It is better to start it in the spring. Cover a pot with a glass or a polyethylene package to keep an increased humidity of air, and place on a stray sun light or artificial illumination in a warm place with a temperature 18°С. Sprouts appear within a month.

As against indoor plants, only small amount of exotic fruit has pottery cultures and recommendations on their maintenance within the year, the others are grown by flower growers-experimenters by trial and error. The knowledge of natural growth conditions helps in successful cultivation of exotic plants in the house.

Seeds, after extraction from exotic fruits, are washed out in running water, dried for some hours, processed in growth-promoting factor, sowed in a pot and watered. We know well, the depth for habitual to us seeds. However seeds of tropical fruits have their germination features which should be taken into account: for example, large avocado’s stone are not planted deeply; some seeds are steeped before planting to swell within several days (date stone).

To create high humidity in a pot with the planted seeds some construct “mini- hothouse”, as warming of a pot or its location in a warm place will speed up germination of seeds.
You should be ready that some seeds of exotic fruits (especially trees or palm trees) need a lot of time to come up (weeks and even months) and do not despair. The spring is optimum time for seeds with fast germinating capacity and rootage of fruits’ vegetative parts.
Seeds of unripe fruits will not come up, as well as mechanically damaged seeds, frozen seeds (from the fruits, which were in the frozen condition for a long time).

The modern fruit market impresses innocent person with the vegetative wonders and rich assortment of surprising exotic fruits, forcing buyers to fill up their lexicon with the intricate names (guava, shaddock, cherimoya and many - many others …).

The beauty, taste and aroma of this marvelous fruits bewitch and are remembered for a long time, and unfamiliar seeds found inside for some reason are not thrown out. Many people would like to learn more about these exotic fruits, and even more they want to couch their seeds or try to implant vegetative parts (a top of pineapple, ginger’s rhizome).

When a fruit has been eaten with pleasure, on a palm you have fresh seeds and stones, quite viable and potentially ready to grow.
Parent plants of exotic fruits (palm trees, lianas, grasses) grow in the same place, whence originate our already habitual room plants, so they can grow in room conditions. Certainly, exotic plants grown in a pot from seeds in a room or winter garden will not be so powerful. Also it is not known, whether they will blossom sometime, and especially, whether will they give fruits (it is clear, that taste of fruits will differ) - all the same the passion to experiments forces us try to grow them from seeds.

You would like to put the bought plant on a window sill as soon as possible, but not hurry. Two-three-week quarantine will allow you to determine – whether this plant sick or healthy, whether there are plant pests, whom you have not noticed at once (for example, such pests as coccids, have development cycle in some days, and it is not enough to destroy only adult specimen – you should repeat treatment in a certain amount of days). A quarantine plant should be put separately from the others, taking into account conditions of its maintenance. Whether to transplant it or not - decide from roots: if roots have densely twined land clod, transplant it; otherwise - wait.

If you see, that a plant has the big dark leaves – then, most likely, it grew in a shadow. Train it gradually to bright light to avoid burns. And on the contrary, a plant with light leaves, most likely, was exposed to the sun, and being placed in a shadow it shed leaves.

Any changes in conditions of the maintenance should be gradual - it is one of the main keystones to success.

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.

Purchase of a plant begins, first of all, with your purse. If an expensive purchase for experiment on a window sill will strongly affect your budget, it would be better to refrain from a purchase, especially if you see this plant for the first time and have no idea about needed conditions. All of us are impulsive buyers in sellers’ joy… But then it appears, that the bought plant needs absolutely other conditions, and you are unable to create them.

The plant is a living organism which can please you, but also can die. And it offends, if it was the plant which cost a lot. Do not forget, that besides cost of the plant, you should spend money for its maintenance. Most likely, you will buy a ground mix, fertilizers, a new pot, a new shelf to put it there, and also lamps for additional illumination.

So, learn about your future purchase as much as possible. Start with the Latin name. Do not trust the popular names. These names are thought out for buyers. For example, who will buy Dissotis rotundifolia? And an intriguing name “Spanish shawl” is other thing. The same name can be given to completely different plants. Don’t be lazy and find the Latin name, even if the seller does not know it.

Find as much as possible information about the maintenance. Having spent some time for search, you will save more time and forces later. How to water a plant, what light does it need, what its mature size – I is very important for the successful maintenance.

Before an approach of a cold night water plants which grow in your garden in an open ground. The plant should “slake its thirst”, so when its roots “will be switched off” because of cold, leaves have not lost the elasticity because of lack of water. If it happens, metabolism in leaves will be stopped, and they will freeze. The temperature of the ground is higher than air temperature; therefore watering won’t be harmful. If air temperature falls below zero, water all plant from a hose (warm water is preferable). At cooling and freezing water gives a lot of heat.

This advice does not concern plants in pots if you need to transport them - plentiful watering will lead to wet soil for a long time, which is bad for indoor plants in the winter.

You may warm a plant at a cold snap. For example, the small heater near a tree will allow to lift temperature a little. The best choice for this purpose is to use infra-red heaters with reflectors, which allow to heat up the removed objects without wasting energy for heating of air.

Next day after a cold night the plant should be “enabled to get warm�, being put on the sun. Tropical plants can survive a short-term cold snap (for example, one night), but they won’t survive cold for some days.

Tropical plants are afraid of a cold wind very much. The first symptom is the darkened and ragged edges of leaves. The cold wind implies the lowered air humidity and faster water evaporation from leaves’ surface. At that roots of a plant have not time to supply leaves with water as the temperature falls and all processes are being slowed. In result leaves dry. Therefore it is very important to protect tropical plants from a wind. When you plan where to place plants in a garden, plant them so that they have been protected from a wind (by the house or other plants). Even the small difference of temperatures (in one - two degree) is vital.

Tropical plants are afraid of sharp change of temperature, even for several hours. If the temperature falls gradually they have time “to get used” (evaporation from leaves decreases, etc.).

If you expect cold front or are going to transport a plant, bring it to a warm place, or close a plant from a wind, having wrapped up it in a layer or, even better, in a light cloth - for example, in a bed-sheet. In this case the bed-sheet has advantage as it allows a plant to breathe. The plant can be held easy under a white bed-sheet within several days – there will be enough light, and it can be watered directly through a fabric.