Anigosantos

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Anigozanthos (lat. Anigozanthos) - a flowering plant from the Hemodoracie family. People call this plant "kangaroo paws" because its inflorescences are really very similar to the paws of these cute animals.

Description

Anigosanthos is a colorful shrub or herbaceous plant, whose branched rhizomes are characterized by an exclusively horizontal arrangement. And the length of the pubescent stems of this plant is capable of reaching two meters in natural conditions.

The lanceolate basal leaves of anigosanthos fold into small spectacular rosettes, and on its rather long peduncles, luxurious velvety panicle inflorescences, which have a very unusual shape, are formed, which can be colored yellow, light green or pink. There are also bicolor varieties of this plant - those are especially appreciated by florists. The densely pubescent inflorescences of such plants can combine a wide variety of shades of green, as well as red and even black!

Currently, there are over twelve varieties of anigosantos, and some of them are successfully cultivated in indoor floriculture - as a rule, these are plants whose height does not exceed sixty centimeters.

Where grows

Anigosantos is native to Australia. As practice shows, this plant develops best in humid subtropics.

Usage

Freshly cut flowering shoots of anigosanthos stand perfectly in vases for up to three weeks, and sometimes even more, and dried plants can be stored for an unlimited period, so tourists who are lucky enough to visit Australia often enjoy buying ikebans and all kinds of flower souvenirs from this plant there.

Growing and caring

Anigosanthos grow extremely slowly, while they do not tolerate frequent transplants - the latter are allowed only as their root system grows. Excessive fertilizing is also undesirable for this plant: it is fertilized once a month only during active growing season (with combined or organic fertilizers), and with the onset of winter, fertilizing is completely stopped. By the way, top dressing can be replaced with no less useful mineral sticks.

To prolong the flowering of anigosanthos and give it a massive character, it is necessary to cut off the wilting inflorescences in a timely manner. Also, to increase the decorative effect of shrubs, it will not hurt to promptly remove all yellowed old leaves from it.

Lighting for anigosantos should be intense enough, but at the same time diffused - it is undesirable for the leaves to get direct sunlight. By the way, in the spring-summer season, the plant will feel best in open ground conditions, that is, it can be safely planted in flower beds or simply taken out to the balcony.

The soil in pots with anigosanthos should be systematically loosened. And it is also extremely important not to allow excess moisture - it can provoke a complete lack of flowering. However, in order to cope with this problem, it is enough just to return to competent care - the plant in this case will recover on its own. Ideally, watering anigosantos should be twice a week, however, on especially hot days, it is quite acceptable to slightly increase the frequency of watering. But to spraying, although they are not a vital condition, anigosantos reacts positively, so you should periodically pamper him with them as well.

Anigosantos propagates either by dividing the bushes or by seeds. As for pests, most often this plant suffers from attacks by spider mites and mealybugs.