Aphelandra indoor flower is a low-growing shrub that quickly gains green mass and is an excellent tool for landscaping rooms. With proper care, an aphelandra flower at home can develop and grow for many years. Only a transplant is required as the aerial part of the plant increases. Read the helpful information and see the Aphelandra photo below.
The genus Aphelandra (also found as aphelandra) includes up to 200 species of evergreen shrubs and semi-shrubs of the Acanthus family. Homeland – tropical rainforests of North, Central and South America.
Aphelandra protruding
Aphelandra squarrosa (Aphelandra squarrosa) is grown in the rooms – a low-growing shrub with variegated large leaves. Against the green background of the leaf blade, bright white stripes stand out along the middle and lateral veins. The flowers are collected in spike-shaped inflorescences of a quadrangular shape. The decorativeness of the plant is given not by the flowers themselves, but by their bracts.
The bulging aphelandra has a variety of Leopold (Aphelandra squarrosa var, leopoldii) with strong reddish stems. Leaves 20-30 cm long, dark green, silvery-white along the veins. The flowers are light yellow, the bracts are bright orange.
The variety Louisa (Aphelandra squarrosa var. louisae) has thin, dark green, reddish stems. The leaves are narrow, up to 12 cm long, dark green with a silvery-white pattern along the veins. Flowers canary-yellow. Bracts are dark yellow, green in the center.
Orange Aphelandra (Aphelandra aurantiaca) is an evergreen undersized shrub with a thick, juicy, slightly reddish stem that becomes woody with age. The leaves are large (up to 25 cm long), opposite, oval-oblong, pointed at the top, silver-green. The inflorescence is spike-shaped, tetrahedral, 10-15 cm high. The flowers are bright orange with green bracts. Flowering is short, not more than a week.
Aphelandra tetrahedral (Aphelandra tetragona) sometimes reaches a height of 1 m. It is a shrub with scarlet tubular inflorescences, which are ears in shape. The bracts are usually green in color and contrast well with the flowers. The leaves are oval in shape, 15 cm wide, 30 cm long.
Sinclair’s Aphelandra (Aphelandra sinclairiana) reaches a height of 3 m. The leaves are opposite, fleshy, entire, dark green with depressed veins. Straight, thin, with coral bracts, an inflorescence spike up to 20 cm long is located at the ends of the branches. Flowers tubular, pink; bloom for several weeks.
Indoor Aphelandra Plants: Home Care for Flowers
The afnelandra plant prefers a bright place with protection from direct sunlight (to avoid burns, fading and curling of the leaves). The optimum pH of the substrate is 4.5-5.5. Well houseplants aphelandra grow in warm (23-25 ° C) rooms with humid air, it does not tolerate dry air at all.
Aphelandra flowers are watered abundantly two to three times a week with warm soft water. When caring for aphelandra at home, you should not allow the clod of earth to dry out and temperature fluctuations. Feed every two weeks, alternating organic and complex mineral fertilizers. Old plants, stretching out, lose their lower leaves, so the aphelandra is renewed annually by cuttings.
Propagated by apical and stem cuttings, leaves, seeds. From December to April, the tops of the shoots are rooted in home greenhouses at a temperature of 22-24 ° C. For reproduction, well-developed, but not coarsened leaves are selected. They are cut with an axillary bud from non-flowering shoots in autumn or winter. Peat with sand or perlite (3:1) is used as a substrate. Rooted cuttings are planted in pots in a soil mixture consisting of leafy, soddy soil, peat, humus and sand (4: 1: 1: 1: 1), with the addition of charcoal and bone meal, phosphorus must be added. When seed propagation, sowing is carried out with fresh seeds in February-March. Seedlings appear in two weeks. Plants bloom in 9-12 months.
Diseases and pests
The main pests are scale insects, worms, spider and strawberry mites, aphids. Gall nematodes can damage plant roots. Drafts, dry air or low temperatures cause aphelandra to drop leaves.