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Flowering plants are the decoration of a home green corner. They are treated with particular care, and they regularly delight their owners with beautiful flowering. Such is the exotic handsome spathiphyllum. It is also called «women’s happiness.» The flower is considered unpretentious, but this does not mean that it does not need to be looked after. Under adverse conditions, the leaves become smaller, their color fades, and the buds simply do not form. Let’s analyze what kind of care is needed at home for the flower «female happiness» so that it pleases with a decorative look and flowering.

All about growing spathiphyllum

Species features
Is it possible to keep at home
Conditions for normal development
– Lighting
— Temperature and humidity
— The soil
— Watering
— top dressing
— Cropping
How to take care in winter
Transfer
How to propagate a bush
Diseases and pests
Possible problems

Species features

Exotic is native to America. In nature, it is a herbaceous perennial, it belongs to the Aroniev family. At home, breeding varieties are grown, which have been bred since the middle of the last century. There are already several dozen of them. They have bright green glossy foliage. The leaves grow from a basal rosette, and the stems are very shortened, or they do not exist at all. Leaf blades are oval, with pointed tips, 30 to 100 cm long. The root system is creeping, shortened.

Exot blooms for six to ten weeks. An inflorescence in the form of an ear is formed on the peduncle, covered with a bright white veil-bract. At the end of flowering, the bedspread turns green. In nature, the flower is odorless, breeding varieties have a weak aroma.

The decorative bush is not only beautiful, it cleans the air well from toxic substances: alcohol vapors, formaldehyde, benzene, acetone, etc. It is popularly believed that its presence does not allow mold to develop.

Is it possible to keep a flower «female happiness» at home

Apart from superstitions that should not be taken seriously, exotics can be dangerous for children or pets. Oxalate crystals are present in its tissues. If they get into the mouth, irritation or even swelling of the mucous membranes is possible. You need to know about this and place the plant in the house so that everyone who can harm it does not get to it.

Normal growth and development of culture is possible only in favorable conditions. Let’s list what care is needed for the indoor flower «female happiness» (it is in the photo below).

What conditions do exotics need

1. Lighting

The opinions of experts differ: some consider the exotic to be shade-tolerant, others, on the contrary, light-loving. Nevertheless, the plant does not tolerate exposure to direct sunlight: burns appear. Excessive shading is also not useful for him: he stops blooming or does it unevenly. That’s why the best place for a bush is considered western or eastern window sills. At the same time, it is desirable to cover it from the active sun. But if there is not enough natural light, it also grows successfully with artificial light.

2. Temperature and humidity

The homeland of decorative culture is the tropics, so it needs heat and high humidity. From spring to autumn, 19-25˚С are normal for a flower. It tolerates heat quite well under conditions of high humidity, but a rise in temperature above 32 ° C is undesirable. In winter, it is possible to lower the temperature of the content, but not lower than to 16˚С. At the same time, it is necessary to completely eliminate drafts and a cold window sill — this does not tolerate exotic.

Spraying should be regular, once every one or two days. For additional moisture, the pot is placed in a tray with wet moss or expanded clay. You can put a flat bowl of water next to it.

Once every one and a half to two weeks, the plant needs to be bathed. To do this, they take it to the bathroom, cover the soil with plastic and wash the leaves with warm water. If bathing is not possible, it is necessary to periodically remove dust from the leaves. To do this, you need a damp sponge or rag.

3. Soil

The best soil for a houseplant «female happiness» is a light and fertile substrate. He does not tolerate heavy mixtures. Of the soils sold in the store, a soil mixture for Aronium is suitable for him. You can prepare the substrate yourself. It is necessary to mix in equal proportions peat soil, sand, humus and leafy soil. To the resulting mass add a few small pieces of charcoal, preferably birch.

4. Watering

Exot should be watered only with settled water. It is boiled and left for a day. Watering should be regular so that the earthen ball does not dry out. Otherwise, the leaves lose turgor and hang with “rags”. True, if they are immediately watered, they restore elasticity. However, the roots in dry soil die very quickly. Therefore, it happens that the leaves that have restored turgor turn yellow and die after a short time. In the warm season, spathiphyllum is watered two to three times a week. In winter, reduce the number of waterings to one..

5. Top dressing

During the growing season, the plant needs top dressing. Moreover, if it vegetates in winter, there are such varieties, they continue to feed it. Fertilizer should be applied every two to three weeks, in winter — once a month. Exot responds well to specialized mixtures or mineral complexes with equal parts nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. He doesn’t like organics.

6. Cropping

It is not necessary to form a bush, regular pruning is not needed. He only needs sanitary, that is, yellowed and dried leaves must be cut off in a timely manner. Cut and faded inflorescences. This activates the bookmark and the growth of new ones.

Features of winter care

There is no active growth during this period. The bush is gaining strength for further development. Proper care of the flower «women’s happiness» (spathiphyllum) at home at this time involves keeping it cool. The optimum temperature is 18-20˚С. There should be no drafts. For the time of airing, the bush is best taken out of the room. If the window sill is cold, the container must be placed on a foam stand.

It is better to organize diffused lighting. If a backlight is used, it should be on top. For better development of leaf plates, it is desirable that light falls on them in a narrow beam.

Watering should be reduced so that the earth ball dries out before the next moistening. Spraying is also undesirable. It is permissible only in cases where the heating dries the air too much.

Flower transplant «female happiness» at home

Regular transplantation is needed only for young specimens.. They grow quickly and fill the container with roots. Therefore, they are transplanted on average once a year, it is better to do this in early spring. Adult exotics need a transplant less often: about once every five years. The signal will be the root processes that appear from the drainage hole.

Replanting a bush is easy. We have compiled a step by step guide.

1. Prepare the pot. The container should be 1.5-2 cm wider than the old one. A seedling that is too large will take a long time to master, growing roots. At this time, it will not bloom.
2. Prepare the soil and drainage: pebbles or expanded clay.
3. At the bottom of the container, fill in a layer of drainage, on top — a little earth.
4. Water the bush, wait until the water drains. Carefully remove the plant from the pot.
5. Examine the root shoots. Sick or rotten cut off with a sharp tool. Sprinkle slices with crushed charcoal.
6. Place the bush in a new pot. Fill the voids with substrate. Seal it carefully. Do not deepen the root neck, otherwise the seedling will not bloom.

After transplantation, spathiphyllum should be watered only after two to three days.. So it will be easier for him to settle down in a new place. Prior to this, the bush is sprayed daily.

How to propagate exotic

There are two ways to propagate a bush. The first is growing from seed. This is not the easiest method. Seeds lose their germination very quickly, it is almost impossible to get normal seedlings from «obsolete» seeds. Seedlings in any case will turn out weak. They develop slowly, just as reluctantly enter into flowering. In addition, there is a risk that the plant does not inherit the traits of the parent specimen. This is typical of hybrid species. That’s why easier and more efficient to propagate the bush by division.

This is usually done during the spring transplant. The bush extracted from the pot is inspected, growth points are found. With a sharp, disinfected knife, the rhizome is carefully separated. It is good if all divisions retain the root system. But this is not always the case. Seedlings with roots should be immediately planted in prepared containers. Cuttings without root processes are first rooted. This can be done in water or in a substrate. It is best to take perlite or sand. After the roots appear, the seedlings are transplanted into a pot.

Diseases and pests

When grown in heavy soil and abundant watering, the bush can get sick root rot. It will turn pale, the leaves will wither. Treatment consists in transplanting into loose soil. But before that, the affected roots must be cut off, and the healthy ones should be treated with any fungicide.

Similar symptoms occur with phytosporosis. This is a fungal infection that softens and destroys the roots. To save the flower, they stop watering it. Give the earthen coma to dry completely. After that, they are treated with a solution of any copper-containing drug.

Insects can infect indoor exotics with a bacterial infection called gommosis. It is quite simple to determine it: spathiphyllum leaves turn black at the edges and wither. Affected leaf blades should be removed immediately, the plant should be lathered abundantly, preferably with laundry soap, then washed. If it doesn’t help, treat with an antibacterial agent, for example, Fitosporin.

More often than others, indoor bushes are affected by thrips, scale insects and aphids. All these are sucking pests that gradually suck the juices from the leaves. If a problem is detected, the affected specimen must be isolated so that the parasites do not move to neighboring ones. After that, processing is carried out. Actellik is equally effective against everyone. Aphids and scale insects can simply be peeled off from leaf plates and petioles. However, it is difficult to call this method effective. If you miss at least a few individuals, after a short time a new colony of parasites will appear.

Possible problems and solutions

Sometimes, even with sufficient care, there are problems with the appearance or flowering of the plant. Let us briefly describe them and their solutions.

• Leaves drooped. There can be several reasons: waterlogging or, conversely, overdrying of the soil. Fixing these issues is easy. Perhaps the bush just froze. Then they put it in a bowl of water. They are waiting for the earth to be saturated with moisture. At the same time, the leaves are sprayed with warm water.
• The tips of the spathiphyllum leaves dry, the edges turn brown, the plates curl. This indicates insufficient air humidity and cold.
• The cover of the peduncle turns green too quickly. This happens if the plant is too hot or the substrate is oversaturated with nitrogen.
• The appearance of yellow and brown spots on the leaf plate indicates that the bush is cold. It must be moved to a warmer place.
• Young leaves do not fully open. The compacted soil is to blame, which does not allow the roots to develop normally. The bush needs to be replanted.
• Variegated varieties lose color. This indicates a lack of light.

If the bush does not bloom, the reason most often lies in insufficiently good care. In conditions of too abundant or insufficient watering, in low light or in dry air, there will be no flowers. The age of the exotic is also important. Only mature specimens bloom, too young ones do not. With age, flowering occurs less and less. Old bushes practically do not bloom.