Saintpaulia (Usambara violet)

Saintpaulia, or the Usambar violet, is one of the many representatives of the Gesneriev family. They began to cultivate Saintpaulia from the end of the 19th century. Its flowers came to European countries from the east of Africa. When the compact bushes were presented at the Belgian flower show, they instantly won the hearts of florists.

Today the Saintpaulia flower is a very common house plant and is also known as the Usambara violet. This name is associated with the habitat of most of these flowers - the Usambara Mountains. The word "Saintpaulia" comes from the surname of Baron Saint-Paul, the German commandant, who was the first to notice a beautiful flower in the African expanses and collect seeds from it.

Saintpaulia is considered a very unpretentious home flower and should not cause problems even for inexperienced growers. The main thing is to remember the basic conditions for growing a compact flower.

Description of Saintpaulia

Saintpaulias are small herbaceous perennial plants. In height, their bushes are no more than 20 cm, and the diameter of the rosette reaches 40 cm.The foliage has a leathery surface and fine pubescence. The shape of the plates at the base is slightly asymmetrical and resembles a beveled heart. The color of the leaf can be either monochromatic (usually dark green) or supplemented with specks.

The Saintpaulia bush retains its decorative effect for about 3-4 years. After that, the violet needs to be rejuvenated by re-rooting its upper part. Bushes are distinguished by fast growth rates and are able to delight with their delicate flowers throughout the year. Caring for Saintpaulia is not particularly difficult, but it still has some subtleties.

Substances that make up violets are often included in cosmetic preparations to relieve skin irritation and heal small cracks. The foliage of the flower is used to combat acne. Decoctions based on the plant can help with throat diseases - sore throat and colds, and are also considered a cure for atherosclerosis. Essential oils are widely used in perfumery.

Brief rules for growing Saintpaulia

The table shows brief rules for caring for senpolia at home.

Saintpaulia care at home

A wide range of colors and shapes of Saintpaulias flowers allows you to create an extensive collection of similar plants. In order for violets to remain healthy and beautiful, as well as bloom regularly, they need appropriate care. Unlike succulents and other plants that do not require constant care, Saintpaulias should not be left unattended for more than a couple of days. If the owner of the violets needs to leave for a longer period, you need to ask someone to look after the flowers during the absence, or take care of automatic watering.

Lighting

Unlike many home flowers, saintpaulia should not be kept on southerly windows. The plant will be too light and hot on them. Violet leaves in such conditions can bend or curl. For Saintpaulias, moderately light western or eastern windows are preferred, where it is light for about 12 hours a day. Due to their relative shade tolerance, violets can be kept even on the north side. If too few buds are formed on the bushes there, additional lighting can be used. Under the lamps, Saintpaulia will be able to develop normally in any corner of the apartment.

You can judge whether a bush has enough light by the position of its foliage. If the petioles become too elongated, and the leaves rise upward, then the violet lacks sunlight.

Temperature

Saintpaulia is a thermophilic flower. In the summer, the room where the plant stands can be about 23-25 ​​degrees, and in the winter - about 19-20 degrees. But the violet does not like too high a temperature - in extreme heat it stops blooming. The flower tolerates coolness better, but does not like strong contrasts. In winter, they try to arrange the Saintpaulias standing on the windows so that the direct heat from the batteries does not get on the flowers, and the foliage does not touch the cold glass.

The delicate violet should be protected from drafts, for this reason it should not be transferred to the open air in the summer. You can only put flower pots on the glassed-in balcony.

Watering schedule

Watering saintpaulias is carried out with soft and settled water for several days. It should be at room temperature. You can also use melted or filtered water. In summer, watering is carried out almost every day, in winter - a couple of times a week.

The need for watering should be judged by the degree of drying of the top layer of the soil. To prevent water droplets from falling on the leaves, a watering can with a narrow spout or bottom watering is used for watering - the pot is placed in a container of water for about 20 minutes. Stagnation of water in the ground can lead to the development of diseases.

Humidity level

The Uzambara violet prefers high humidity, but its pubescent leaves cannot be irrigated - water that gets on them can lead to the development of rot.

To prevent the humidity level from falling below 55%, pots with Saintpaulias are placed on pallets filled with wet pebbles or moss. The bottom of the containers must not touch the water. For humidification, you can use special devices or carry out misty spraying of moisture. Dust from fluffy leaves can be removed with a soft brush.

The soil

To grow Saintpaulias, an appropriate soil is required - universal mixtures in this case may not work, so you should choose a composition specifically designed for violets. A suitable mixture should be loose and breathable, moderately nutritious and slightly acidic.

For self-preparation of the substrate, sand, peat and leaf humus are mixed (1: 3: 5). Drainage must be laid at the bottom of the pot. It is important to disinfect any soil before use by steaming it or spilling it with boiling water. This will help prevent the development of diseases. You can add sphagnum to the soil, which can produce a disinfecting effect, as well as charcoal - it will help protect the plant from rot.

Top dressing

In nature, violets grow on rather poor soils, so an excess of nutrients can harm the plant. Feeding Saintpaulia is carried out only in warm weather, from mid-April to autumn, choosing compositions with a low nitrogen content or special mixtures for violets. It is recommended to reduce the dose indicated on the pack by half, so as not to overfeed the flower. Top dressing is carried out about twice a month. In winter, you do not need to fertilize Saintpaulia. An exception is also made for recently transplanted or weakened plants.

It is important to refrain from using "folk" fertilizers and not to water the violet with organic matter, for example, tea leaves. Such feeding often leads to the appearance of pests.

Transfer

The root system of Saintpaulias is small. Young violets are kept in pots up to 7 cm in diameter, adults and large ones - in containers whose diameter is 12 cm. In too bulky containers, the bushes will begin to grow roots, which may cause a noticeable deterioration in flowering. It is believed that the size of the pot should be one third of the diameter of the rosette.

It is recommended to transplant Saintpaulia once every 1 or 2 years, in the spring - at this time, the depleted and caked soil in the pot should be renewed. The bushes are pulled out along with the soil clod and carefully remove some of the old soil. Roots affected by rot should be cut off. It is recommended to hold such a violet in a solution of potassium permanganate for about 7 minutes, and only then plant it in fresh soil. Too much deepen the bush and compact the ground should not be. The lower leaves should be just above the ground. The health and decorativeness of the plant depend on the correct deepening. A violet that is in the ground can rot, and one that is planted too high will develop less well and look less attractive.

Pruning

Usually, Saintpaulia is cut only for sanitary purposes or for plant propagation. Diseased or broken leaves of the flower are subject to removal - they are cut off with a clean and sharp instrument. In rare cases, flower growers remove plates that break the symmetry of the bush.

Bloom

Saintpaulia blooms can last all year long with short interruptions. During this period, peduncles with racemose inflorescences appear from the center of the bush, which include several flowers ranging in size from 3 to 8 cm.Due to the huge number of varieties, Saintpaulia flowers are difficult to describe. They can have a simple structure (5 petals) or varying degrees of terry. The color of flowers can be both monochromatic and multi-colored, with shades transitions. But beginner lovers of violets are advised first of all to acquire simpler and unpretentious varieties.

The abundance of flowering depends on the illumination of the corner in which the Saintpaulia bush stands. In the sun, the number of buds will be greater, and they will form almost without interruption. But such a flowering wave will require a lot of energy from the bush and can significantly deplete the plant. To avoid this, the flower should be given a rest period. Once a year, for about a couple of months, the pot of senpolia should be moved to a shady place.

Dormant period

Saintpaulia does not have a pronounced dormant period - it is an evergreen plant, but between the waves of flowering, the bushes still rest.At this time, it is advisable to move the pot to a semi-shady place, and also reduce watering. Such conditions will contribute to the establishment of new flower buds.

Breeding methods of Saintpaulia

The flower multiplies quickly vegetatively, and also allows you to create new hybrids by pollination of different varieties. For reproduction of Saintpaulia, you can use both vegetative methods and plant seeds.

Propagation by leaf cuttings

The simplest method. The lower leaf blade of the violet is cut with a stalk about 4 cm long using a sharp instrument. The cuts are made diagonally, and then sprinkled with crushed coal. It is also poured into a glass of water, where the leaf will stand (1 crushed coal tablet per glass). The water should be changed periodically. If the leaf begins to rot, the affected area is cut off and the cutting is placed back in the water. In 2-3 weeks, the leaf will give roots. When their length reaches 2 cm, the resulting cuttings are planted in small pots and kept in greenhouse conditions for a couple of weeks - under a bag or a transparent bottle. You can try to root the leaf without water, immediately planting it in a peat-sand mixture.

Growing from seeds

Several healthy flowering Saintpaulias are chosen for seed propagation. Using a soft brush, the pollen from the flower of one plant is transferred to another. It is advisable to do this in the spring - this way the seed will be obtained faster. It takes about six months to ripen the bolls. To prevent the ripened seeds from spilling out into the pot, you need to remove the brown box from the dry peduncle, without waiting for it to open. After that, it is dried in a warm place for up to 3 weeks.

After harvesting, the ripe seeds are sown on the surface of the moist earth. For convenience, the fine seed can be mixed with sand. The container is covered with foil or glass, and then put in a warm place. At a temperature of +25, the sprouts should appear within a couple of weeks. You can dive seedlings when they are strong enough and form the first true leaves. The distance between them should be about 2 cm. When the sprouts become cramped, they are distributed in separate cups with a volume of 0.1 l. In general, the period of growing seedlings takes about a year. In the second year, the plants bloom.

Stealing

In order for the saintpaulia to form a daughter shoot, you can pinch its growth point. The emerging shoots with several pairs of leaves can be separated and rooted. The resulting sockets are seated in different pots. A bush grown from a daughter outlet can bloom in about six months.

Possible growing difficulties

The Uzambara violet cannot boast of good immunity, but best of all, the flower will be able to protect against diseases with appropriate care.

Pests

The presence of harmful insects on a plant can be determined by symptoms:

• A bloom resembling cotton wool appeared on the cuttings - a sign of mealybugs;
• Young foliage curls, and the villi on the foliage become longer - cyclamen mite;
• The flowers dry out quickly, and the leaves contain yellow pollen - traces of thrips.

Such pests should be dealt with with insecticides or acaricides.

Diseases

Most of Saintpaulia's diseases are associated with mistakes in flower care. Among them:

• Lack of flowering - an excess of nitrogen supplements or a lack of light.
• Unbroken buds wither - insufficiently high humidity.
• Spots on the leaves - may appear due to watering with ice water, sunburn or after exposure to drafts.
• Leaves in the center of the rosette become smaller - the violet is in a too bright place or the air around it is too dry.
• Drying the edges of the foliage - lack of nutrients.
• The foliage starts to wither - due to overdrying or waterlogging of the soil in the pot.
• Leaves turn red or yellow - the violet needs to be fed with complex formulations.
• The foliage and stems are covered with a light bloom - a sign of powdery mildew, fungal disease. The bush must be treated with a suitable fungicide.
• The foliage starts to rot - late blight (usually caused by contaminated soil) or gray rot. The violet is taken out of the pot, its roots are examined, treated with a copper-containing preparation, and then planted in fresh soil sterilized and spilled with phytosporin. In advanced cases, you can try to re-root a healthy aerial part of the bush.

To avoid the development of diseases, it is necessary to inspect the flowers daily. This will allow you to timely notice the problem and quickly fix it.

Saintpaulia varieties with photos and names

In culture, there are several thousand varietal varieties of Saintpaulia. Most of the modern varieties are of hybrid origin. Some of the most popular houseplants include:

Blue Dragon

A hybrid variety with a large leaf rosette. Blue Dragon has a solid, deep green foliage, complemented by denticles at the edges. From the inside out, the leaves are reddish. The flowers have a semi-double structure and lilac-blue petals with a wavy border.

Midnight Frolic

A variety with variegated leaves: there are light blotches on the edges of a green background. Midnight Frolik forms a lush rosette up to 40 cm in diameter. The leaves are arranged on long petioles. Flowering occurs only 2 or 3 years of the life of the bush. The petals with a ruffled edge are painted in lilac-purple color.

Midnight Twist

The rosette of this variety is small, with densely arranged monochromatic foliage. Midnight Twist has white semi-double flowers decorated with a wavy purple border. Flowering is distinguished by its abundance and duration.

Kissing Bandit

Terry-flowered hybrid. Kissing Bandit has large flowers - up to 6 cm wide. They have a bright blue color and a lilac border. The foliage is colored dark green. The sockets are also large in size.

Harry Potter

The cultivar has leathery green leaves forming a small rosette. Harry Potter Saintpaulia features purple petals with a thin light border. Each flower stays on the plant for a long time - about a couple of months.

Cupid

This early flowering variety is notable for its unusual shape and color of flowers. The numerous petals of Cupidon have wavy, foaming edges and a white (or pale pink) color with a yellow-green border. The outlet is large, but compact enough. The shiny foliage also has a wavy edge.

Breath Thunderstorms

Large-flowered variety. Breath Thunderstorms have a transitional burgundy-purple color with a white border. The flowering of this Saintpaulia is very lush, but not too long. The edges of the foliage are slightly wavy.