This crop is a terrestrial herbaceous plant. It can also be epiphytic. This is a bright representative of the Bromeliys. In this genus, there are about one hundred and thirty varieties. In its natural habitat, this culture can be found in regions such as Brazil, Central USA, India. Guzmania grow best in open mountainous areas, can be found at an altitude of 25,000 meters above sea level. This variety was described in 1802. The plant got its name thanks to the famous zoologist, botanist from Spain, A. Guzman. He also explored the South of America closely.
Today, many home flower lovers can choose from a wide variety of types and varieties of guzmania. This flower has a very decorative rosette, which includes elongated leaves and a spectacular inflorescence that resembles a cone in its shape. Among the main advantages of this culture is the long flowering period.
Conditions for growing guzmania
- This culture blooms only once, after the end of flowering, the rosette dies off.
- For normal growth and development of guzmania, a certain light regime must be observed. A lot of light is required, but the scorching direct rays will become destructive for the plant. Better to choose diffused lighting.
- The temperature should vary from +13 to +27 degrees. Higher or lower temperatures will be dangerous for the plant. The most optimal option during the period of growing green mass is +25 degrees. When the guzmania blooms, it is better to lower the temperature to +20 degrees.
- Water the plant regularly, as a rule, watering is carried out when the upper part of the soil dries up. You cannot transfuse the plant.
- As for the level of humidity in the air, it should be high enough. Spraying of plants should be carried out every day. For this, it is most convenient to use a spray bottle. In this case, the water should be at room temperature and separated for at least a couple of days.
- You need to feed the plants once a month, starting in March and ending in September. For this purpose, you can purchase a special feed for the Bromeliad family. Be sure to read the instructions carefully. It is best to reduce the concentration by half what is indicated on the label.
- This culture does not need a transplant.
- Guzmania reproduces, as a rule, with the help of lateral offspring. Rarely growers use the seed method of propagation.
- Guzmania can be affected by spider mites, scale insects, mealybugs.
- As for the diseases that guzmania can suffer from, most often the plant can suffer from gray and root rot.
Characteristics of guzmania
All representatives of the Bromeliads, including guzmania, has leaves overlapping near the base. Usually the color of the leaves is monochromatic, green. But there are varieties in which there are stripes on the leaf plates, located across or along. In its length, the Guzmania leaf can vary from forty centimeters to seventy. The rosette, which consists of leaves, is usually about fifty centimeters in diameter. But there are varieties in which the dimensions are shifted both down and up. The length of the peduncles is also different, it depends on the type of guzmania. This culture blooms in March or autumn, in September.Flowering takes about a few months. The flowers themselves do not have a special decorative appearance. The bracts are of primary interest from the point of view of beauty. They acquire a lacquered texture, can have a wide variety of colors: yellow, white, orange, red. The length can vary from four to five centimeters. An adult plant in its height can reach about seventy centimeters, and no more than sixty centimeters in width. When growing guzmania at home, the height of the plant reaches a maximum of forty centimeters. After the end of flowering, which lasts about six months, the plant dies.
How to properly care for guzmania at home
In order for this culture to feel good on your windowsill, you need to follow some rules for caring for the plant. Guzmania is quite demanding on heat, loves high air humidity, and for normal growth, you will need to maintain the desired level of illumination. A lot of light is needed, it must be diffused. The plants should not be exposed to direct sunlight.
Guzmania loves warmth. For a plant that will soon bloom, a certain temperature regime must be observed, it must reach no less than +25 degrees. When the plant is in bloom, it is better to lower the temperature by five degrees. Guzmania can survive a decrease in temperature to +13, but only on condition that this decrease is short-lived. Although this culture is demanding on heat, the plant should not be in a room for too long where it is too hot (above +26 degrees), since in such conditions the plant may die.
Guzmania loves high levels of humidity. To comply with this requirement, you need to spray the plant with a spray bottle every day. For this purpose, it is best to use filtered water or distilled water. From October to February, the plant should be moistened only in the morning. When you spray the bush, be careful not to get moisture on the bracts. This is due to the fact that due to the ingress of moisture, the flowering period will become much shorter.
Before water treatments, the water must be filtered or purified water must be purchased at the store. The fact is that plant roots react very badly to lime and chlorine, which can be contained in plain tap water. The water should not be cold, the temperature should be about +20 degrees. Watering is carried out so that the soil mixture is slightly moistened all the time. A sign that it is time to water the guzmania is the dried topsoil. Water is poured directly into the outlet, which consists of leaves. How often you need to water the guzmania strongly depends on the temperature and humidity level of the environment in the room. If the temperature regime and the level of illumination are lower than indicated in the recommendations, then you need to water the plants less often. But even under such conditions, moisturizing the plant through the leaves with a spray bottle and warm water is a mandatory requirement that must be observed daily. Starting in spring and continuing in summer, the plants need to be watered and sprayed more often, since at this time the guzmania is gaining in growth most actively.
From time to time, the plant needs additional nutrition. To do this, you need to use special feeding, which are intended specifically for the Bromeliad family. This fertilizer can be purchased at any gardening store. When preparing the nutrient solution, make its concentration half that indicated on the label. Boron and copper should not be allowed in the feeding, guzmania treats these elements very badly. Fertilization is carried out from March to September. This is done once a month.Top dressing is poured into an outlet with leaves or spraying over the foliage.
Guzmania transplant is carried out once. The plant is transplanted from a store container into a permanent pot. This is done only if necessary. The root system of this culture is quite compact, so the pot for transplanting should be a maximum of ten to twelve centimeters in diameter in size. The bush, as it grows in growth, is able to overturn the pot, for this reason additional weighting will be required. To make the pot more stable, it is recommended to put the container with the flower in the planter. At the bottom of the pot, where the guzmania will grow, you need to place a layer of drainage. The soil should be loose, moisture-permeable. The acidity level should vary from 5.5 units to 7. The components of the soil mixture can vary. It can consist of:
- fern (three parts), ground sphagnum roots (one part),
- sand (one part), leafy earth (two parts), moss (one part), coniferous bark (two parts),
- Humus (two parts), peat (four parts), sand (one part), turf (two parts).
If you do not want to complicate your life by preparing the soil mixture yourself, you can purchase a ready-made mixture in the store. Suitable soil for ferns and orchids.
At the bottom of the container there should be a drainage layer, a little prepared soil should be poured on top, after which the plant is transplanted by transshipment from the previous pot to a new one. At the same time, you should try to preserve a clod of earth as much as possible. All empty space must be filled with the prepared substrate. It is worth remembering that the root system of a plant is quite fragile, so you need to try not to damage it during transplantation.
The flowering of this culture occurs once. Many growers claim that guzmania is an annual plant. True, sometimes the expectation of the long-awaited flowering extends for more than one year. The bush that has faded is slowly dying. If the plant has formed offspring, then you can try to propagate your guzmania. But at the same time, the mother plant will still die.
How to propagate guzmania
In this part of our article, we will talk about how to propagate guzmania using offspring and the method of dividing a plant. It should be noted right away that the events are very similar to each other. After the end of flowering in guzmania, shoots are formed on the sides, which are the "descendants". The rosette of the main plant, which has finished blooming, gradually dies off. At the same time, lateral processes appear in the immediate vicinity of it, which after a while form their roots. When the root system of the offspring grows one and a half centimeters, they can be removed from the mother bush. You need to cut off the seedlings using a well-sharpened knife. The blade must be disinfected. The places where the cut was carried out, both on the mother plant and on the shoot, must be treated with a garden varnish.
The roots of "children" are formed at different rates, so it is most likely that it will not be possible to transplant all the processes once. The shoots are planted in different containers, which must contain soil intended for orchids. After planting, the plants need to be moved to a warm room. At first, young plantings need to be covered with plastic wrap. This is necessary to maintain a high level of humidity. When the plants have more or less got stronger and grown, they are transplanted to their permanent habitat by "transshipment". Care must be taken to avoid injuring the fragile root system.
This culture can also be propagated with the help of seeds. To do this, the planting containers must be filled with soil mixture for growing bromeliads. Such soil should contain a certain amount of fine peat and sand. Before planting, the seeds must be washed in a manganese solution.After that, they must be thoroughly dried, and then the seeds are evenly laid out on the surface of the soil. They do not need to be placed under the soil layer. It takes quite a lot of light for the seeds to germinate. After sowing, you need to stretch polyethylene on top or install glass. The containers are removed to a warm room, where the temperature regime varies from +22 to +25 degrees. From time to time, you need to remove the shelter for air circulation. If necessary, moisten the soil with a sprayer. In this case, the water should be warm. The sprouts hatch, as a rule, after fifteen to twenty days. Plants need to dive after they are eight to ten weeks old. For a dive, you need to use soil consisting of peat (four parts), leafy earth (two parts) and sod land (one part). After a couple of weeks, the plants can be moved to a permanent container. Guzmania, which was grown by the seed method, will begin to bloom after three to five years.
What problems can you face
- If the soil is moistened too often and abundantly, then there is a risk that the root system of the plant will begin to rot.
- If you keep guzmania in an excessively warm and humid place, then a problem may arise in the form of a fungal disease.
- If the plant is exposed to direct sunlight, burns may occur. This is evidenced by spots on the foliage of brown color.
- If the air is not humid enough, the edges of the sheet plates may turn brown. The same sign indicates that the water used for irrigation is too hard. It also sometimes speaks of a lack of water in the outlet of the Guzmania.
- Do not be afraid that after the end of flowering, the plant begins to die off. This is a common occurrence.
- If spots of yellow color are formed on the leaf plates, which become more and more, and subsequently the leaf dies off altogether, then this indicates the activity of the red spider mite.
- The activity of such a pest as the bromelium scale is manifested in brown tubercles on the foliage of the plant.
- Mealybugs are identified by the presence of a white cannon on the foliage, which resembles cotton wool.
- If, after flowering, the shoots are not formed, this indicates a nutritional deficiency.
- If the leaves look sluggish, have a soft structure, they droop, this means that the plant is kept in too low temperature conditions.
What are Guzmania
This variety is usually home grown. It can be grown as an epiphytic plant as well as a plant growing in soil with a lot of stones. The rosette of such a flower consists of elongated leaves with a dense structure. The leaves are painted green, the shape is broad-linear. In the central part there are corolla-shaped inflorescences, painted in a bright tone. This part is often confused with the flower itself. However, the flowers are part of an inflorescence that resembles a spikelet in shape. At the same time, the flowers are not particularly distinguished by any decorative effect. In addition, the flowering process is not too long. This type of guzmania includes varieties:
- Guzmania purple. The rosette is quite spreading and consists of green leaves. In width, one sheet can reach from thirty to forty centimeters. The inflorescence is colored red or purple. One inflorescence contains many flowers. This variety blooms in spring, in March or in autumn, in September.
- Guzmania is modestly colored. The rosette includes green leaves. The bracts are pale orange. Moreover, their edges are brighter.
- Fiery guzmania. The rosette includes green leaves. In its length, the sheet can reach from twenty-five to thirty-six centimeters. The width is no more than two centimeters. Bracts have a bright color, fiery red tone.This plant blooms in summer, usually this process occurs in July - August. During this period, small-flowered inflorescences are formed.
- Guzmania is ordinary. Each leaf grows about twenty-five centimeters. Bracts grow straight and are pinkish or reddish. Such a plant blooms at different times. This process can occur in March, August, or December.
- Guzmania is small. The leaves of this variety are colored greenish-red or completely green. They are approximately two and a half centimeters wide. The inflorescences have a very beautiful lemon or red color. They grow straight or have a spreading shape.
Guzmania Donella - Smitta
The rosette of this species does not grow too densely, the leaves are green, have pale scales. The peduncle grows straight, the inflorescence is rather short, in shape it resembles a pyramid. Bracts are deep red in color. This guzmania blooms in April - May.
Blood red guzmania
The rosette has the shape of a glass, the leaves are broad-linear. Bracts are quite thin, colored deep red. The inflorescence is corymbose, the peduncle is not too well developed. This type includes some varieties:
- Bloody. The bracts are rounded, the apex is pointed. The flowers are white or greenish with a yellow tint. Flowering occurs in April - August.
- Short-legged. The bracts are pointed at the apex, resembling a helmet in shape.
The rosette has a spreading shape and consists of elongated leaves. The peduncle grows straight. Stipules are colored bright pink, have the shape of a wide, pointed ellipse. The inflorescence has a capitate shape, includes about twenty flowers, colored white-yellow. The base of the inflorescence is hidden under stipules. This type includes varieties:
- Musaika. The leaves are green, there are stripes. Such a plant blooms from June to September.
- Concolor. Leaves are plain.
- Zebrina. The leaf plates have wide stripes.
The leaves of this plant are lingual; closer to the end, narrowing is observed. The lower part has a dense texture. After a while, they disappear. Instead, small red streaks appear on the leaf blades. The rosette of leaves is shaped like a glass. The inflorescence is simple, spindle-shaped in shape. Not too many yellow flowers are formed on it. Flowering occurs in March - May.
A lot of leaves are included in the leaf rosette, which are painted greenish with a yellow tint. The leaves in the lower part have a paler color than the upper ones. The surface of the leaves is sometimes covered with small scales, which fall off after a while. The peduncle is naked, in its upper part there is a spikelet with many rows. The flowers are white. This type includes varieties:
- Monostachia. The leaves are colored in one color. Bracts are rather faded, there are oblong brown stripes. Flowering occurs in June - July.
- Variegata. Leaves are green with white blotches in the form of strokes.
- Alba. The leaves are colored in one tone. The upper part of the bracts is white and the lower part is green.
This is a fairly large plant relative to other species of guzmania. Leaves can be up to seventy centimeters in size.