Calceolaria: how to care for and propagate the plant

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Calceolaria (Calceolaria) belongs to the family Norichnikovye. Homeland – Central and South America. Calceolaria is a herbaceous flowering plant.

It has dark green, slightly pubescent soft leaves and unusually shaped bright yellow-orange speckled flowers. In the people, this plant was nicknamed “lady’s shoe.” Blooms from the second half of March to May for 3 to 5 weeks in a row.
Calceolaria hybrid (C. hybrida).

About fifty flowers can appear on one bush, the average diameter of which, depending on the variety and species, varies in the range of 2.5-6 cm. The culture is perennial, but it is often cultivated as an annual at room conditions and in the garden.

Types and varieties of calceolaria

The plant has a fairly extensive species diversity. The most popular calceolaria are:
Calceolaria hybrid (C. hybrida).

Calceolaria whole-leaved (C. rugosa).

Calceolaria purple (purpurea).

Calceolaria Mexican (C. mexicana).

Calceolaria Darwin (C. darwinii).

But in home gardening, it is most often the first four species that can be found.

Calceolaria hybrida is a flower whose foliage is light green. The plant blooms in various shades from white to variegated multi-colored combinations. By right, the most favorite variety of gardeners is considered to be “Danti”, which blooms very abundantly with red flowers.

The whole-leaved look is similar to a cloud consisting of bright yellow drops. The maximum height of the bush is 50 cm. The leaves of small sizes are combined into a rosette.

The flowers are medium-sized – the diameter is about 2 cm. Their color is yellow with brown dots over the entire surface.

Among the popular varieties, experienced gardeners call “Goldbouquet” with large flowers and a 30-centimeter bush height, as well as “Sunset” with red, yellow and orange flowers, placed on 10 short peduncles.

How calceolaria of these varieties look in the garden, look at the photo below.

The purple variety is a herbaceous perennial plant, whose height is about 50 cm. It is famous for the presence of spatulate basal leaves with serrated edges. The flowers are small, purple-red, have a furrowed oblong lower lip.
The Mexican species is distinguished by pale yellow flowers, the transverse diameter of which is about 5 cm. The height of the plant varies between 20-50 cm – it depends on the conditions in which the “green pet” grows.

How elegant and gentle the Mexican calceolaria indoor flower looks, look at the photos that are presented to your attention below.

How to grow an annual calceolaria in the garden: planting and care in the open field

This plant is grown in the garden as an annual if the region is dominated by a mild climate. At the very beginning of spring, seeds should be sown in a flower bed. You can pre-germinate them in a container at room conditions, and then transplant the calceolaria seedlings into open garden soil.
As soon as the flower stalks fade, they must be immediately removed along with damaged leaves. A completely faded bush dies off on its own without the intervention of a gardener. If, after proper planting in open ground, calceolaria is provided with proper care, then it will be able to bloom in the garden continuously for 30 days, at least. In the next season, you will have to plant new seeds or pre-germinated seedlings.
Among the popular species, plants perform planting in the garden of multi-petioled and thin calceolaria – they lend themselves best to outdoor care, as they are less sensitive to the changeable conditions of the outdoor habitat.

Growing calceolaria at home

Culture needs bright diffused light. Vases with flowers are recommended to be placed on the eastern, western, northern window sills. In the garden, plants should be planted so that they are slightly shaded from direct sunlight by trees.
During flowering, a cool content is necessary (+ 10 … + 13 ° С). If the temperature exceeds +18 ° C, flowering stops, and the plant becomes vulnerable to diseases and pests. Based on this criterion, you can conclude whether the region of your residence is suitable for garden cultivation of such a “green pet”.
Growing calceolaria as a perennial in a room and care requires appropriate care during the cold season. In winter, the temperature regime in the room must be maintained within +12 ° С. Artificial lighting with fluorescent lamps will also be required.
The plant is undemanding to air humidity. If there is a need to increase this indicator, you need to place flowerpots on a pallet on which moistened expanded clay, moss or peat are laid out. You can put the pots in a cache-pot, filling the voids between them with a wet layer of peat. When growing calceolaria at home in the context of care in hot weather, spraying is prohibited, since water drops can leave damage on the soft edge of the foliage.
Home care for calceolaria also includes planting it from a technical transport pot into a decorative flowerpot.
First you need to place a large drainage layer at the bottom, which can be clay shards, expanded clay or brick chips. And then by the transshipment method, i.e. without disturbing the soil clod around the root system, the plant should be moved to a new flowerpot. It is important to ensure that the roots are not damaged. The root neck does not deepen. The void must be covered with a substrate, which is prepared from humus, peat, leafy soil, sand (2: 1: 1: 1). To simplify further care of the calceolaria flower, when planting in the soil, it is recommended to add a little crushed activated carbon or wood resin. This will help prevent the development of root rot processes. The earth must be carefully tamped, and then the transplanted plant should be watered with settled or filtered water.
The plant both at home and in the garden needs daily watering in sunny, warm weather, and 2-3 times a week in cloudy and cold weather. Particular attention should be paid to irrigation when the crop is flowering. If the top layer of the substrate is dry, you need to water it urgently.
After full flowering, watering is reduced. If the “green pet” is grown as a perennial crop, then during the autumn-winter sleep it needs to be watered only as the soil dries out. In all cases, it is recommended to use water at room temperature, previously settled or filtered.
A homemade calceolaria flower transplanted from a technical pot into a decorative flowerpot needs to be fed as part of the care. After transshipment, after 14 days, complex mineral fertilizers must be applied. Further, the culture should be fed 1 time in 10 days until the period of its flowering is over.
Starting from the earliest period of development, the plant requires pruning to form a neat crown. It is necessary to get rid of the lateral processes regularly. So the bush will be much stronger, the inflorescences will be thicker, the buds will be larger. Sometimes the bush begins to lean to one side. To increase its stability, you can use special circular supports. Some gardeners grow such “green pets” as ampelous plants.
Every gardener who grows a calceolaria flower as a perennial is interested in how to care for him when flowering is over. First of all, you need to perform pruning, and after this procedure, leave the flower for 2 months in a dark and cool room.
It is necessary to moisten the soil in a flowerpot moderately and infrequently, the main thing is not to let the earthy one dry out. After the appearance of young shoots, the flowerpot should be placed in a bright room, regular watering and fertilizing should begin.

Reproduction of calceolaria: growing from seeds and cuttings at home

It is difficult to propagate calceolaria indoors, so it is recommended to buy new plants every year. But you can try out in practice two different ways that answer the question of how to propagate home calceolaria if you are not used to retreating from difficulties:

  • Seeds.
  • cuttings.

Reproduction by seeds is carried out in spring – summer in a cool greenhouse. Calceolaria, grown from seeds at home, blooms the next year.
Seed material can be bought at any specialized store.
First you need to make a substrate by mixing peat and sand in a ratio of 7: 1. For 1 kg of earth mixture, it is necessary to add dolomite flour or dolomite chalk in a volume of 20 g. The soil must first be disinfected by calcining, and also moistened, and then planted. The seeds are not buried in the substrate, but the entire vessel is covered with glass or film. The emerging condensate will need to be constantly eliminated. You need to put the container in a room with an air temperature of + 18 ºC and good lighting. Properly growing a calceolaria flower from seeds at home involves regular spraying with soft water at room temperature as the topsoil dries out in a mini-greenhouse.
Shoots appear after 30 days. From this point on, they can be watered with a thin stream of water between the rows. A month later, the first dive is carried out, and after another 2 months, after the formation of rosettes, each seedling is dived into an individual flowerpot, the diameter of which should not be less than 7 cm. Now watering is needed with a frequency of 1 time for 14 days.
With the onset of September, young specimens are transplanted into other flowerpots with a diameter of 9 to 11 cm. Pots with plants are transferred to a room with good lighting and a temperature of + 8 … + 10 ºC.
Growing calceolaria at home from seeds during January – February provides for another transplant – into large-diameter flowerpots, which should be filled with a special substrate intended for adult plants. Next, you need to pinch over the 3rd or 4th leaf, transfer the containers with “green pets” to a permanent place of growth and expect the unsurpassed beauty of flowers to appear.
Another option on how to grow a new calceolaria on your own is to carry out cuttings. It is necessary to cut the cuttings from the shoots as soon as the flowering of the plant ends (in August) or even before it begins (February to March). Next, they need to be rooted in nutrient soil. Roots appear after 1 month. To form a dense bush, when propagating a calceolaria flower using this method, it is necessary to plant several rooted cuttings at once in one large pot with a substrate for adult plants.

How to deal with pests and diseases of calceolaria (with video)

The crop is most commonly parasitized by aphids and whiteflies. If aphids were seen in small numbers, they can be removed manually. If the lesion is severe, then it is necessary to carry out the treatment using Aktellik. By the way, this insecticide will be effective in the fight against whitefly. If necessary, you will need to repeat the treatment after 4 days. But it is important to remember that it is not recommended to spray the plant more than 4 times with an interval of 4 days – a chemical preparation can weaken and destroy it.
When organizing the care of a calceolaria flower, remember that the most dangerous disease for it is such a type of rot as gray. The reason for the development of the disease is constant excessive irrigation and excessive humidity of the surrounding air.
If you apply too much nitrogen fertilizer to the soil, then another disease can appear – gray mold.
To fight diseases, it is necessary to remove the affected areas of the plant with a sharp knife, then spraying with one of the means: Kuproskat, Oksihom, Topaz, Bordeaux liquid.
Watch our Calceolaria care video to learn how experienced gardeners share the secrets of growing a healthy, profusely flowering plant.

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