All posts by Vesi

Episcia ‘Pink Panther’

episcia 'pink panther'Episcia ‘Pink Panther’ is a lovely showy plant, that gets covered with pink blooms.

All episcia have very similar growing requirements. Most episcias are Episcia cupreata cultivars or hybrids. Some varieties are more needy, some bloom constantly, others were selected for foliage alone and seldom bloom. Some have large leaves and turn into big showy plants, other are miniatures. They have cute flowers with intriguing shape and usually sport fuzzy leaves with a metallic sheen to them. Some varieties can have glossy leaves.

Pink Panther has a gorgeous fuzzy foliage, and is a constant heavy boomer. It has  medium size leaves and rapidly grows to fill a pot. Great plant for hanging baskets, and absolutely lovely to have in your room!

The plant in these photos is grown in my Episcia Pink Panther flowerbedroom about 3 feet from a somewhat small east facing window and under a north facing window. Most of the flowers are towards the north facing window, though as you can see quite a few of them are facing east and make quite a gorgeous display as soon as you enter the room.

Originally a ground cover plant from Central and South America, episcias have been extensively grown, hybridized and selected for foliage and flowers, and make wonderful house plants.

Episcia ‘Pink Panther’ merch

Requirements:

Watering needs:

Water when the soil gets a bit dryer to avoid root rot. These plants are very easy to grow and have few requirements. They are related to the African violets and prefer bottom watering (these plants like to get soaked in water and then left to dry out). Watering from the top tends to make the soil compress more, and that makes it harder for the episcia to root its stolons. This results in a more leggy and less pretty plant. Since the leaves are hairy you don’t want to get any water on them and risk spotting on the leaves. These do great with a hygrolon strip through the soil and a water reservoir on the bottom as a passive watering setup. This also keeps the soil light and prevents clumping.

Light:

episcia pink pantherPart shade to shade. Episcias are relatively low light plants. They will do best with bright indirect light. Large unobstructed north facing window, or any east/west facing window. I’ve also grown them some distance from the window. They will flower as long as there is decent amount of light. You can also grow them under grow lights. South facing windows are not good for those plants, and the strong sun will burn the leaves, unless you very, very slowly get your plant adapted to the high light levels.

Humidity:

These plants like high humidity, though they don’t like their leaves to be sprayed directly. Having a tray with water and rocks, so that the plant pot stays above the water and is not soaking in it, is a great way to keep higher relative humidity around your episcia. Another way to make sure the humidity is higher is to grow it next to plants that do like to be sprayed. ‘Pink panther’ is not a very needy cultivar, and doesn’t require as much humidity or warmth as other episcias to thrive.

You can read more about humidity and tips on how to maintain it here.

Soil Type and Fertilizer:

episcia pink pantherI grow my episcias in african violet soil with some generic soil added to it, as well as a good amount of perlite. You can also make you own mix with regular soil, peat moss for acidity, and per-lite/vermiculite. These plants like light, fluffy, somewhat acidic soil. I sometime add charcoal and/or orchid bark at the bottom of the pot for an even better drainage. I use African violet fertilizer for these plants, at a lot lower than the recommended concentration once a week, spring to fall.

Propagation:

These plants are exceptionally easy to propagate. Cuttings and stolons are very easy to root, you can even root a leaf. I like to add moist soil in a zip lock bag and plant my episcia cuttings in there.  You can also bend the stem and plant the stolons (while still an intact part of the plant) in the same pot.

Other Care Tips and Personal Observations:

Episcia Pink Panther stolonsPink panther is quite a heavy bloomer. This variety is very showy and is a relatively low light flowering plant.

Trimming and regularly removing big old and damaged leaves and spent flowers will help maintain the plant looking its best. When re-potting the plant it helps after removing all the big old leaves to bend the stems and pot the stolons into the same pot. That will help make your plant get denser and more gorgeous as well as propagate it (you will have those stolons rooted and can always split your plant next time you re-pot it).

Plumbago auriculata (Leadwort)

20150908_103852Plumbago auriculata, commonly known as just Plumbago or Leadwort, is an ever blooming tropical shrub, that can be pruned and maintained at a desired size. Left to grow outside, it can reach 6 to 10ft in height, but remains much smaller when grown as a houseplant. In fact the plumbagos I have are constantly kept under 3 feet, and they don’t seem to mind it at all.

There are many cultivars out there for sale, some are smaller, some are white flowered or deeper blue flowered, though not all are year round bloomers. The one I have experience with is the Royal Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata ‘Monott’). It’s constantly covered with flowers. I grew it on an east facing window during the winter, as well as obscured west facing window, and it was flowering all throughout the winter months without a problem. One thing that can disturb the heavy blooming for some time is heavy pruning. Nevertheless, this plant does benefit from pruning. It not only helps maintain the desired shape and size,  but it also makes the plant denser and helps it bloom heavier. The plumbago mostly blooms from the tips of its branches.

This plant has gorgeous sky blue flowers and small light green leaves, making it look angelic. It’s also very easy to grow!Plumbago flower close up

Requirements:

Watering needs:

The Plumbago can tolerate some drought. It does like to have its soil dry out between watering, especially in the winter months.

You can read more about watering here.

Light:

IMG_1415
Plumbago flowers during the winter months

The higher the better, though this plant will still grow and flower at a part shade location. East/west/south windows will do best for this plant. I would recommend taking it outside at full sun during the warmer months. Remember to do that gradually. Taking your plant from the windowsill directly to full sun will burn the leaves.  Flowers are a bit paler in color when the light levels are lower. They do tend to get darker as the flowers age.

 

Humidity:

20150906_171040This plant can tolerate lower humidity levels, but seems to do better at higher humidity level, so occasional spraying will help out. In fact spraying the plant, especially during the winter months, seems to really help with flower production!

You can read more about humidity and tips on how to maintain it here.

Soil Type and Fertilizer:

Neutral to slightly acidic pH soil will do best for this plant. If the leaves start turning yellow, perhaps the pH of the soil is too high  or your plant doesn’t have enough manganese. I use generic fertilizer from spring to fall at a lower than the recommended concentration.

Propagation:

I haven’t been successful at rooting cuttings, though I have seen people mentioning it as a way to propagate this plant. Luckily it grows offshoots that can just be split of during re-potting. I will be trying out air-layering as I think it will definitely work out with this plant and I will let you know how it goes.

Other Care Tips and Personal Observations: 20150909_181646

Pruning and shaping the plant is needed as it tends to grow long leggy stems that start hanging low. This can definitely be trained to grow more upright or even grown in a hanging basket. It’s a wonderful plant and I highly recommend it. As the flowers age they tend to turn a bit darker shade of blue which is quite beautiful. Another thing about this plant is that it will require a bit of clean up. Dried and old leaves around the stem and old flowers can make a bit of a mess, so regularly picking those off will help out.

Calliandra emarginata (Pink Powder Puff)

Calliandra emarginata is a gorgeous ever blooming plant. It’s a dwarf shrub and can be shaped, pruned and maintained at a smaller size. It can grow up to 3-4′.

This is one of my favorite plants! It’s always covered with beautiful and dainty powder-puff flowers. The color is deep pink, almost red, and it seems to depend on the amount of light the plant is getting.

calliandra-emarginata-powder-puff-plant

Winter time the flowers are lighter pink in color, but nevertheless there is an abundance of them. This plant will flower even at low light levels. The best results however come from high light conditions.
Calliandra emarginata originates from the region of southern Mexico, Panama and Bolivia (Zone 10+) . It belongs to the mimosa family. When the sun goes down in the evening, or if there isn’t enough light, the leaves of the plant will fold in. Do not mistake that for a sign of your plant being under-watered.

Requirements:

Watering needs:

This plant has medium watering requirements and seems to like drying out slightly between watering. I do have a  hygrolon strip though the soil and a reservoir of water for it, and it seems to do really well with that watering set up as well (I will post more about hygrolon soon).  Let the soil dry out more between watering it in the winter, to keep a healthier root system, though in the summer you can virtually have the soil moist all the time.

You can read more about watering here.

Light:

High light will do best for this plant. I grow this outside in full sun in the summer, and on a western/eastern windowsill during the colder months. It could be grown year round on an east/west/south windowsill. Keep in mind that the size of your windows and weather there are any obstructions matters. So a very large eastern window with plenty of light and no obstructions casting shadows on your plants will be better than a small southern window facing a building.

Winter flowers under daylight LED Calliandra emarginata

I have also used daylight LED during the winter months and this plant grows really well under that type of light. Granted, there are more efficient systems which only use red and blue spectrum light, however I am really happy with the daylight LEDs as well. They are close enough spectrum-wise, the prices are going down, very easy to find in any store, and there are plenty of lumens/ Watts. I can also tell the plant is liking it, since it is growing and blooming towards the daylight lamps, and its leaves remain open if I leave the lights on (the leaves fold down when it’s dark).

Humidity:

This plants enjoys humidity, so spraying it regularly (especially in the winter when it’s dryer) will help the foliage look its best, and reduce the risk of getting spider mites and mealy bugs. Humidity of 50% and up is ideal, though as long as you are not at risk of getting bugs on your plant, lower humidity levels won’t harm it.

You can read more about humidity and tips on how to maintain it here.

Soil Type and Fertilizer:

I use a mix of regular gardening soil and cactus/citrus soil. I also like to add bark/perlite or sand for better drainage of the soil. I have not noticed anything specific when it comes to soil requirement for this plant. I use a regular fertilizer during the spring and fall. This plant has low to moderate fertilizer requirements. It’s always better to fertilize at a lower than the recommended concentration,  then to use a high concentration of fertilizer. High amounts of fertilizer can burn the root system.  A generic balanced fertilizer will do just fine for this plant.

Propagation:

calliandra-emarginata-powder-puff-plant-seed-pot

I have successfully managed to propagate this plant through cuttings, though that was a bit harder than for other species that can be propagated this way. I recommend planting the cuttings in moist soil, and keeping the humidity high. For some reason the newly formed roots are very fragile, compared to other plants, and are easily broken off, so you should be very careful when re-potting the newly rooted cuttings.

This plant also makes seeds pods, I have just planed a few and will see how much time it takes for them to sprout and reach a blooming size. Based on what I’ve read, propagating this plant through seeds should be very easy.

Other Care Tips and Personal Observations:

calliandra-emarginata-powder-puff-plant-habitus

This plant is surprisingly easy to grow, and
extremely rewarding to have. Pruning will help keep the growth dense and you can shape your plant however you like. Re-potting should be done when the plant gets root-bound.  I highly recommend this plant! It can be trained into a bonsai, or grown as a shrub on a windowsill, or trained as a small tree.

Besides the beautiful never ending array of flowers, the leaves of this plant are quite attractive. The new growth is orange in color, adding to the beauty of this plant.