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There are flowering plants that not everyone can grow, and not at all because they are very difficult to sow or require some special, super-complicated care. It’s just that when growing them you need, first of all, patience and more patience. But if you manage to bring the growing process to victorious flowering, then a person can “get sick” with these flowers for a very long time. This is how people become fans and collectors of many unique and exotic plants. Among such representatives of the plant kingdom we can mention Saintpaulia, gloxinia, fuchsia and many other charming flowers.
Of course, one of the most striking examples of such plants is Calceolaria. Many consider it not just an annual, but even a disposable flower that should be thrown away after flowering, since nothing more can be expected from it. But it is not so. Indeed, in order to preserve calceolaria after flowering, and even more so to get it to bloom again, you need to put in a lot of effort and patience. And this is not possible under all conditions. And growing calceolaria from seeds at home is also not the easiest thing, which will require patience and care from you.However, having studied all the features and requirements of this non-standard flower, someone, perhaps, will be able to provide calceolaria with exactly the conditions in which it will be comfortable and happy without unnecessary stress.
Description of the plant
The genus Calceolaria belongs to the Norichaceae family and several hundred different species are known in it. However, at home and on plots, only Calceolaria crenate and numerous hybrid forms are usually grown. The plants are native to the countries of South and Central America - Argentina, Chile, Ecuador. Most varieties grow exclusively in Ecuador.
The name of the genus can be translated from Latin as “little shoe.” Indeed, the original shape of the flower evokes some associations with this shoe. Calceolaria plants can be of different heights - from 10 to 50 cm. The leaves are sessile, located quite often on an erect stem, forming something like a rosette. The leaves can be of various shapes, but are always covered with pubescence on both sides. The flowers seem to consist of two lips, and the upper one is so undeveloped that it is almost invisible, but the lower one resembles a slightly flattened balloon. The colors are very bright and varied. Yellow, orange, cream and various shades of red flowers predominate, but lilac, pink and blue shades can also be found. The color of calceolaria can be uniform, but more often in different shades with original patterns, as in the photo (tiger, marble, with spots of different sizes against a background of a contrasting color).
Seeds remain viable for a very short time, from one to two years. Therefore, it is best to grow calceolaria by sowing your own freshly harvested seeds. The seeds are not just small, but extremely tiny - 1 gram contains about 60,000 pieces. Therefore, many seed manufacturers sell them in special granules for ease of sowing.
Growing by seeds
Perhaps, growing calceolaria from seeds is akin to some kind of art, since the result is often very unpredictable. The sprouts may die during development, they may develop at very different times, and if they bloom, the sizes, shapes and colors of the flowers may differ greatly from what you expect. But in any case, this process can bewitch. Moreover, from the moment the calceolaria sprouts appear until the first buds bloom, it can take from 4 to 8 months and you need to be prepared for this. Species forms bloom approximately six months after sowing, but hybrid calceolaria are so variable that the flowering time is very difficult to predict. In addition, it strongly depends on both the conditions of detention and the actions of the amateur gardener himself. But now first things first.
Sowing seeds
It is unlikely that anyone would think of sowing calceolaria seeds in open ground. First of all, because of their microscopic size, and also because this plant is somehow not customary in our country to grow in flower beds. It is usually grown to decorate rooms, balconies, or planted in summer in pots or special outdoor flowerpots, but already in bloom.
Calceolaria is grown exclusively through seedlings also because, as mentioned above, it has an exceptionally long growing season.Therefore, you will have to be patient, otherwise you may simply not wait for the calceolaria grown from seeds to bloom.
- To sow calceolaria seeds, it is necessary to prepare a very light and breathable soil with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction. Peat tablets are ideal for sowing seeds.
- It is advisable to add fine vermiculite to ordinary soil for seedlings in a ratio of eight to one. Before sowing, the soil surface must be moistened and preferably sprinkled with fine calcined sand.
- Containers for sowing can be very small and shallow, since calceolaria seedlings can be difficult to see with a magnifying glass.
- Try to spray the seeds evenly over the surface of the soil/sand, never covering them with soil or shading them.
- If you sow seeds in granules, it is best to moisten them generously with a syringe after sowing. Otherwise, the shell may be so strong that the sprouts will not be able to break through it and the seeds will not sprout. Calceolaria seeds need light to germinate!
- The top of the container with crops must be covered with a transparent lid or polyethylene. In such an improvised greenhouse, seeds and seedlings will have to live for quite a long time, so it is better to make it convenient for you to monitor the seedlings and ventilate them regularly.
- After sowing, the container with calceolaria is placed in a bright, not necessarily warm, place. It germinates well at +18°+20°C, and even if the temperature drops to +12°+14°C.
- On average, seeds germinate quite quickly; sprouts from freshly harvested seeds appear within 4-5 days; it makes sense to wait up to two weeks for sprouts.If after two weeks they have not appeared, then there is no use in waiting any longer - most likely, the seeds are expired. This often happens with store-bought seeds.
Timing of sowing seeds
When is the best time to sow calceolaria seeds? There is probably no definite answer to this question. If you want to try planting calceolaria in the garden to decorate the area, then it would be best to sow the seeds for seedlings in one of the winter months, no later than March. However, remember that calceolaria really does not like direct sun and heat, so if you can provide it with shade and comparative coolness during the summer, then this makes sense.
In general, it is customary to sow calceolaria in mid-summer for spring flowering and in March-April for autumn flowering. It is during these periods that there is usually a shortage of flowers, so the flowering of calceolaria will come in handy.
But, you can sow it at almost any time of the year, depending on when you want to have flowering plants. It is best to focus on a period of 6 months, which usually passes from sowing seeds to flowering. But plants can bloom several weeks, or even months, earlier or later than planned. That's how calceolaria are - and it's hard to do anything about it.
Caring for crops before flowering
When the seedlings appear, you can only rejoice - there is no need to take any additional actions. Under no circumstances should you remove the polyethylene or the lid from the container with seeds, but you must ventilate the “greenhouse” once or twice a day, removing condensation from the lid.
It is necessary to water very carefully, preferably using a pipette or syringe along the edges of the container so that water does not get on the sprouts. You can water for the first time no earlier than a week after sowing and in the future be very careful with this procedure. Since calceolaria sprouts can die from both waterlogging and drying out. Moreover, the leaves of even adult plants no longer recover from flooding or overdrying.
But perhaps the most important thing is maintaining the correct temperature regime. Calceolaria feels best at a temperature of +14°+17°C. If the ambient temperature does not exceed +18°C and you do not remove the plastic cover, then you can water it no more than once a week and very moderately.
Additional lighting from February to October, even on a northern window sill, most likely will not be required. But from November to January, illumination can improve the condition and development of calceolaria.
Calceolaria love high air humidity, but they should absolutely not be sprayed. Because pubescent leaves can quickly rot. Therefore, keeping young plants under film for as long as possible, right up to picking, is more than justified - this allows you to worry less about their proper development.
About a month after germination, after two true leaves appear, the sprouts need to be pruned. At this age they are still very tiny, so you can use tweezers. But despite its delicate appearance, calceolaria tolerates picking well.When picking, you need to deepen the sprouts of calceolaria until the very first leaves. Any transplant helps plants develop much faster. Already 5-8 days after picking, calceolaria noticeably begins to grow.
Just keep in mind that the pots for picking should be very small. For the first time, 100 ml cups are suitable. At the bottom, do not forget to put a large layer of drainage - expanded clay, polystyrene foam. The soil can be used the same as for planting seeds.
If you try to plant calceolaria in large containers at once, then most likely it will not be able to immediately absorb a large volume of soil and will quickly die. But after a month or a month and a half, the calceolaria will again need to be transplanted into fresh soil, already in a 200 ml container.
No feeding is required for the first two to three months of calceolaria growth.
In general, the first two months of growth are the most difficult for calceolaria. During this period, it seems that she is not growing or developing at all. But if you survive this time, then after the second transplant the calceolaria will develop well and delight you with its appearance. Under favorable conditions, buds may appear on the plants already at the end of the third month. They form on the top of only the very central sprout, and at first there may be few of them, but over time they can form a whole bouquet of several dozen flowers on the calceolaria.
It may take several weeks from the appearance of the first buds to full bloom. If more than three months have passed since germination, and calceolaria is in no hurry to bloom, then you can try replanting it in a slightly larger container with fresh soil.Each transplant has a beneficial effect on the development of calceolaria and can stimulate the formation of buds. From the moment the buds appear, it is advisable to feed calceolaria once a week with a half dose of fertilizer.
Calceolaria is able to bloom vigorously and for a long time up to 6-8 months in conditions of light shading, high air humidity and coolness. Under other conditions, you are unlikely to be able to enjoy its flowering for more than one month.
Care after flowering
Even before the formation of buds, small additional sprouts - stepsons - can form between the leaves of calceolaria. It is recommended to remove them, since after this procedure there are more buds and the flowers increase in size.
After flowering, the leaves of calceolaria often dry out and wrinkle, but fresh sprouts and rosettes, as a rule, appear in the axils of the leaves. Immediately after flowering, calceolaria should be cut off and placed in a dark and cool place for several months, up to +5°C. Inspect the plants regularly and when new young shoots appear, place the pots with calceolaria in a brighter place. Resume your previous care, and the calceolaria will bloom again, although the flowering will not be as abundant and long-lasting as the first time.
Calceolaria can be propagated quite easily by cuttings. To do this, carefully separate the young shoots or cut off the very top part of the central shoot and plant it in a mixture of sand and peat. It is better to cover the top of the cuttings with a glass jar for better rooting.
Of course, it may seem that growing calceolaria is not worth the effort.But if you are able to provide it with suitable conditions of partial shade and coolness, then you will definitely succeed, and during its flowering you will not even remember the difficulties that you had to go through at the beginning of the journey.
