One of the most decorative garden and potted plants is the Chinese hibiscus, also called the indoor hibiscus or the Chinese rose.. It delights with impressive flowers with tubular stamens. Find out how to properly care for this specimen. Only then will it reward you with abundant flowering.
Ketmia belongs to the Mallow family. The same group also includes the popular mallow. It comes from China, but appeared in Europe in the 13th century.
As mentioned, this plant can be grown both in the garden and in the apartment. The bushes grow up to 2 m, and their flowers are impressive, with a diameter of about 15 cm. They come in different colors – purple, red, white. They can be single-colored or with decorative spots.
A characteristic feature of the flowers is the fused stamen and pistil. Thanks to this, they look even more decorative and are appreciated by plant lovers.
It is worth knowing that the Chinese rose is often confused with the Syrian rose, which is also called . These two plants have completely different growing conditions, so you need to be careful when purchasing specimens.
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Home hibiscus is quite a demanding plant. First of all, it should be provided with fertile soil with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction. This specimen prefers a sunny position with diffused light. That is why, when growing at home, it is best to place it on the windowsill of a western or south-western window. We can place the plant on a southern exposure, keeping at least 1 m from the window.
The soil of the Chinese hibiscus should be constantly moist, but it is worth ensuring drainage. It is best to choose small pebbles or coarse gravel for a potted specimen. From spring to summer, we water it quite abundantly, but from November we limit this treatment – watering once every two weeks is enough.
Fertilizing the Chinese rose is very important. Every week we use a multi-ingredient fertilizer for flowering plants, which we dissolve in water for watering. We use it from spring throughout the flowering period. We limit the supply of nutrients in autumn and completely stop it in winter.
It is worth humidifying the air for hibiscus grown at home. Then Sprinkle it with a stream of dispersed, preferably settled water. We can also use air humidifiers or place wet towels on the windowsill.
This plant requires pruning for branching and abundant flowering. This procedure is carried out in late winter, when the specimen is dormant. You need to shorten the shoots by half their length.
We replant indoor hibiscus once a year. In the case of the oldest seedlings, we can do this every 2 years. When it comes to reproduction, in spring we root semi-woody top cuttings with 2-3 leaves. We dip their ends in a rooting agent and only then transfer them to a light peat substrate. The ideal temperature for them is about 25 degrees Celsius. Rooting will occur within 3 weeks.
