Graceful Flowers Of Tibukhina

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

Not everyone can grow a tropical tree with velvet leaves and delicate bright flowers in their apartment. The exotic beauty is very picky about living conditions. But someone manages to do this, why not take the risk?

Tibukhin's family

More than three hundred species of evergreen shrubs belong to the genus

Tibukhina (Tibouchina).

Their native element is tropical forests, spread out under the hot rays of the sun, filled with warm and humid air. The same conditions await a plant grown as an indoor plant. However, in its youth, as well as in the winter periods of mature life, the plant loves a cool temperature, equal to about plus 10 degrees. The main thing is that the temperature does not drop below +7 on the thermometer.

Tibukhin is a very decorative and delicate creation of nature. In nature, shrubs can grow up to 3 meters in height. But, in indoor conditions, they are much smaller. They grow slowly, and therefore, pinching especially nimble shoots, you can form a relatively small bushy plant.

Of the many natural species, only one species has been honored to become a potted plant. The Latin name of this species is Tibouchina urvilleana, which is pronounced in Russian as “

Tibukhina Urvilla ».

Tibukhina Urvilla

In different countries, there are local names for the plant. For example,"

Purple splendor". Or another, very suitable for Tibukhina, is "Princess Flower", which I would translate as

Flower Princess

Indeed, looking at the pink flower buds, wrapped in white bristly protection, it seems that you have got to a fabulous ball, where elegant and chaste princesses are dancing to beautiful gentle music, demonstrating dresses decorated with valuable furs.

Time will pass, and the buds will turn into elegant ladies in noble blue-violet outfits and with curly stamens.

In nature, Tibukhina does not like to branch, but spends all her energy so that her stem with a square cross section rushes straight to the Sun. Therefore, in culture, nimble shoots are pinched so that there is enough strength not only for height, but also for latitude. When flowering is complete, all shoots of the plant are shortened to allow lateral shoots to be born, giving the shrub a splendor.

The stems are covered with simple oval leaves. Their velvety surface and veins, creating an amazingly delicate flowing pattern on this surface, turn simple leaves into a real work of miraculous art. Green in summer, leaves turn reddish in autumn.

Tibukhina Urvilla is distinguished by abundant flowering. Flowers can be single and large, or smaller, gathering in the apical inflorescences. The lilac-purple corolla of the flower has five petals and ten stamens, which have different lengths and sticky pollen.

Growing

Paradoxically, being a tropical plant, Tibukhina loves cool rooms. Coolness stimulates abundant flowering. Therefore, even in areas with a cold climate, the plant should be exposed to open spaces from late spring to autumn.

Another amazing moment in the plant's predilections is that while the base of the plant is in the shade, its crown needs good lighting.

The soil requires fertile, moisture-permeable, slightly acidic. During the active growing season, water is often watered. Watering is combined with fertilizing with complex fertilizer twice a month. In addition, to maintain air humidity, frequent spraying with warm soft water is carried out. During winter, the soil should be kept slightly moist.

Reproduction

The plant is propagated in spring-summer by semi-lignified cuttings, planting them in a mixture of peat and sand.

Enemies

With poor drainage, excess moisture provokes root rot.

The spider mite loves to feast on leaves.