When asked how to care for azalea, even experienced flower growers respond that this flower is whimsical and complex in growing, caring for it requires patience and skills. But its decorative beauty, bright colors during the riotous winter flowering, bringing in the spring house, made azalea a popular and beloved representative of domestic flowers.
Room azalea - home care
Having learned the peculiarities of how to care for the azalea flower at home, fulfilling all the agrotechnical requirements, you can get a luxurious tree. To make this beauty blossom, it should be looked after carefully and regularly, the most important conditions in this process, which must be ensured, are the following:
- Lighting. Azalea can not bear the scorching rays of the sun, it is necessary to create shaded conditions for her.
- Humidity. The air should be moistened, especially during the heating season, regular spraying is required.
- Temperature. Comfortable azalea feels at + 10-15 ° C, in autumn the temperature can be reduced to + 6-8 ° C, for this put the pot on the street or on the balcony.
- Watering. Drying or overmoistening is fatal, the soil should be moderately moist.
- Top dressing. This flower is fertilized exclusively by a balanced, special complex.
- Circumcision and nipping. Such procedures are necessary for the correct formation of the bush and for the appearance of buds.
- Transfer. It is better to transplant the transhipment method.
- Reproduction. This summer event occurs with the help of stem cuttings.
Azalea care after purchase
When buying azalea, choose the medium-sized bush, the big one will hardly adapt, the small one may turn out to be weak. Bring the flower into the house, let it stand for 30 minutes without removing the packaging from it. Cultivation and care of azalea at home begins with transplanting the plant, it should be done after 10-14 days of adaptation. When transplanting, rinse the roots thoroughly, washing off the soil in which the plant was sold.
Pots with plants put on the windows facing east, protected by a special film from the scorching sun rays. If after the purchase you saw that the soil is over-dried, the pot is light, pour azalea with warm, standing water. In the first days after the acquisition, the plant needs to be fed (zircon suitable) and disinfected (using phytosporin).
Azalea - spring care
After receiving a gift or buying a flower in the store, find out how to properly care for azalea, especially it should be done in the spring. After the whimsical beauty has faded, it should be carefully examined and dried off. After the appearance of young shoots and leaves, pinch the tops, this will ensure an intensive flowering in the future.
Take care of the pruning, which allows to form the crown of the bush, the more azalea is more effective, having the shape of a ball. If the crown is dense, it is possible to thin it, for this purpose remove all growing in the shoots, and weakened twigs. Closer to the end of spring, the beginning of summer - the time of transplantation is coming. Young azalea (up to 3 years of age) is transplanted every year in low and wide containers, starting from the fourth year - the transplant is carried out in a year or two.
How to take care of azalea in the summer?
Summer is a good time for feeding azaleas, for this purpose potassium or ammonium sulphates, ammonium nitrate are suitable. Experienced growers, giving advice on how to care for azalea in summer, are recommended to alternate the upper watering of the soil with the lower (drawing moisture from the pallet). The main summer problem encountered by fans of azalea, maintaining the temperature regime is not higher than 15-17 ° C and the lack of drafts.
In summer, care for the flower and water it better in the morning, do this every day when the soil is overdried, the capacity with azalea can be put for a short time (1-2 hours) into the water. Very important during this period are everyday spraying, especially if the room is dry air. The period from the end of May to the beginning of August is favorable for the reproduction of azalea, it can be done by seeds, cuttings or division.
Care for azalea during flowering
Abundant flowering of azalea can be observed in case of timely circumcision and pinching of the tips of the stems, if the bush is allowed to grow luxuriantly - the number of buds will decrease. Increasing the flowering period, you need to properly care for the plant, removing the buds and seed boxes in time, otherwise they will weaken the plant, pulling the juice out of it.
Care for a blooming azalea requires strict adherence to the necessary temperature for it, the room should be cool. Unlike some domestic plants, a pot of blooming azalea can be rearranged and rotated, this does not affect the buds. After the flowers appeared, the azalea stems can be supported by additional supports, which are wooden slingshots.
How to care for azalea after flowering?
Caring for the tired and weakened, after flowering, tree, do the following:
- at the end of the process, transplant it into acidic loose soil, especially used for acidophilus;
- after the flowering process is over, cut the crown, shorten all last year's shoots, remove the weakened and heavily thickened branches;
- care for azalea after flowering falls on the spring and summer period of the year, during this period regularly prishipyvayte tops of new shoots, until July;
- by removing the flower from the heat, wrap the pot with moist moss, which is constantly sprayed to make it moist and cool.
Azalea - home care, transplant
Care for azalea, especially her transplantation at home, is very important in the life of the plant. The best time for this is the period immediately after flowering. The transplant should be performed with great care, since this flower has a superficial root system. Soil lump, located around the roots, can not be violated, so use the transshipment method, in which fresh soil is added to the existing root soil. Use for flattening azaleas flat containers, planting a flower in it, lightly humidify and well spill the soil.
Pruning Azaleas
The rules of azalea care at home prescribe the pruning that is necessary for the further ideal development of the tree. Having studied how to take care of azalea, timely carrying out the procedure of cutting unnecessary and weakened branches, you will create for a subsequent flowering a healthy tree with a beautifully shaped crown. Experienced growers, having resorted to information from the lunar calendar, choose for this event the most favorable period after flowering. Circumcision is made with a sharp pruner, which is well wipe with alcohol.
How to water azalea at home?
Increased attention should be given to how to water azalea:
- The flower is hygrophilous, so it is very important to monitor the moistening of the soil. The dry land will ruin azalea, but too much moisture for it is harmful.
- Water for irrigation is better fixed, even boiled, the perfect option will be rain or distilled.
- Do not allow excess liquid to stagnate in the pan, azalea can die due to rotting roots.
- Resorting to tricks, some fans of domestic plants provide a cool azalea temperature regime with pieces of ice laid out along the edges of the pot, melted cold water is sometimes useful for azaleas.
- In cold periods, when the temperature decreases - watering is reduced, in summer, on the contrary, they are increased and often sprayed.
- As mentioned above, alternate watering the top layer of the soil and moistening the soil with water from the pan.
Care for azalea in the pot - top dressing
Care for azalea at home implies periodic fertilizing of the flower, it should be produced throughout the spring, summer and autumn, bypassing the winter season, because of the "hibernation" of the plant. When giving advice on how to properly care for azalea, I want to warn beginning flower growers from experiments with the composition of fertilizers, use only special complexes designed for this type of plant, only correctly balanced mixtures will be of use. Apply fertilizer every 7-10 days, applying fertilizers with the following trace elements:
- ammonium sulfate;
- ammonium nitrate;
- superphosphate;
- potassium sulphite;
- superphosphate (recommended during budding).
Fulfilling these recommendations on how to take care of azalea, you will receive in the house a magnificent, surprisingly bright flower, capable, decorate any interior, cheer up the master and relieve depression. The most important factor affecting the health and development of the plant is the creation of comfortable conditions for it, close to the natural ones and the provision with all the necessary ingredients.