Vriezia

Vriezia is an amazing indoor flower of unusual beauty. It is a very bright and attractive plant. Its distinctive feature is a colorful "feather", a bright peduncle with multi-colored bracts - yellow, orange or scarlet. Decorative dark green leaves look no less beautiful. Vriezia is a capricious plant. In order for it to please with its bright flowering, it is necessary to adhere to certain recommendations for caring for the plant.

Caring for vriezia at home

Bloom

During flowering, tiny white or yellow flowers appear on the bracts of the vriese. They fade quickly. Orange and bright red bracts do not fade for several months. The dried bracts are cut off. After flowering, the exotic flower has children.

The flowering period of Vriezia in most cases falls on the summer. You should also consider the planting time of the houseplant. If Vriezia does not bloom, you should not despair. Flowering can be stimulated. This is not difficult. The plant blooms when ethylene gas is released. Near the tropical beauty, you need to put several apples and bananas, covering them with a plastic bag or a cap so that the gas does not escape. But if you take proper care of the plant, you won't have to do anything.

Most often, Vriezia does not bloom if it is in a cool place. When keeping a houseplant in the cold, flowering will be delayed or absent altogether. But at the same time, children will develop well, thanks to which the exotic beauty can be propagated.

Temperature

Vriese is a thermophilic plant. A warm room with a constant air temperature suits her best. The plant will feel most comfortable in spring and summer at a temperature of 22-26 ° С. In autumn and winter, a tropical beauty will do temperature 18-20 ° C. Summer heat has a detrimental effect on Vriese. At high air temperatures, the plant may die.

Lighting

Vriezia needs a lot of light throughout the year. In winter, it is better to put the plant on the south window.When summer comes, it is better to rearrange it to the east (in extreme cases, west) window. Vriezia should be protected from direct sunlight. Otherwise, the leaves will lose their decorative effect, the pattern may disappear.

Vriezia is a shade-tolerant plant. If it is located on the south side, it is better to place it in the back of the apartment to provide the flower with diffused light.

Watering, air humidity

Vriezia should not only be watered regularly, but also maintain a constant water level in the outlet. In summer, the soil in the pot should be constantly moist. In this case, do not forget to fill the outlet with water. If the inflorescence is just starting to grow, there should be no water in the outlet so that it does not rot. A tropical flower in the summer is watered 3-4 times a week. Every three days, you need to change the water in the outlet, removing the old one with a napkin. In winter, watering should be reduced. The plant can be watered only when the top layer of the earth dries up, about 1-2 times a week. In low room temperatures, the socket must be dry. If the room is warm, you can leave the water in the outlet for several hours a day.

Water for irrigation should be soft, at room temperature. Rain or settled water is suitable for Vriese. There should be no lime impurities in it so that no limescale remains on the leaves. If water remains in the pan after watering, it must be discarded.

Constant humidity is very important for vriezia. To maintain the necessary moisture, the pot is covered with pieces of moss or pebbles or wet expanded clay are poured into the pallet. It is equally important to regularly spray the tropical flower with warm water. When spraying, moisture should not get on the bracts. In winter, keep the plant pot away from hot radiators. It is necessary to use artificial humidification indoors.

Top dressing

Vriezia is not a plant that needs constant fertilization. Before it starts to bloom, it is advisable to feed it with orchid fertilizer. Fertilizer cannot be applied to the soil, since the roots do not take an active part in plant nutrition. The flower is fed in a leaf or rosette way. After diluting the fertilizer in water, vriezia is sprayed or poured into a socket.

Transfer

After purchase, the flowering plant is not transplanted. Young specimens should be replanted every 2 years before flowering. An adult plant is transplanted every 3-5 years, after it has faded. The soil for vriezia must be loose, breathable. The optimal composition of the soil substrate is one part of peat, sand and sod land and two parts of leaf land. Chopped sphagnum moss will help improve the quality of the potting mix. Wide, shallow pots are suitable for Vriezias. A third of the pot should be filled with expanded clay or brick chips to ensure good drainage for the plant.

Reproduction

There are two ways to reproduce Vriezia - seed and with the help of children. The seed method is very troublesome, requires special efforts, and does not always justify the result. Growing a plant indoors, it is quite difficult to obtain seeds. There is no guarantee that you will come across good planting material when you buy at a flower shop. When propagated by seeds, the plant will begin to bloom in 5-10 years.

A more acceptable way of breeding Vriezia is by children or offshoots. It is also suitable for novice growers. As a rule, shoots appear after the flowering of the plant. Young children lack their own root system. In order for them to fully grow and develop, you should not immediately separate them. If you hold them for 1-2 years, they will take root better. The optimal size of the separated babies is at least a third of the height of the mother plant. These kids already have their own roots. For transplanting children, it is necessary to prepare a special earthen mixture, consisting of three parts of leafy earth, one part of pine bark and sand.Young plants need to maintain a constant temperature (23-24 ° C) and high humidity. Such rooting conditions can be created by placing the young Vriezia in a greenhouse. You can also cover the plant with a plastic bag. In such conditions, it must be kept for 3-4 weeks. With this method of reproduction, the tropical beauty will bloom in 5 years.

Pests and diseases

The main enemy of vriezia is bromelium shield... You can get rid of a harmful insect by removing it with a soft cloth from the inside of the leaves. To do this, you need to prepare a soapy solution.

In some cases, the leaves are affected by fungus and turn black. To avoid a problem, the plant is moved to a well-ventilated room. Brown spots on a tropical flower indicate sunburn. In this case it is necessary to move the pot away from the window. Dry, dark tips appear with dry indoor air. And if the plant has pale leaves and inflorescences, it does not have enough light.

Types of vriezia with photo

Vriesea perforated (Vriesea fenestralis)

Rosette leaves up to 40 cm long and 6-6.5 cm wide, light green, with a large number of dark green veins, transverse and longitudinal stripes, smooth above, finely scaly below, brown-red at the top. Inflorescence up to 50 cm high and 9 cm wide. The flowers are light yellow; bracts with green and dark brown spots.
Brazil. Decorative look. Cultivated in warm greenhouses.

Chess Vriesea (Vriesea gigantea)

The leaves are in a rosette (rising goblet above the soil surface), short-serrated, strong, dark green, with light yellow spots on top, reddish-lilac below. Inflorescence - weakly branched panicle, up to 2 m long (panicle 1-1.2 m long.). Petals are wide, bell-shaped, yellow. Grows in tropical rainforests in Brazil. Ornamental type. Cultivated in warm greenhouses.

Vriesea large (Vriesea imperialis)

Rosette leaves, large, up to 1.5 m long, wide, 10-12 cm wide, green, curled at the top. The peduncle is very strong, densely covered with leaves. Inflorescence is a branched panicle; all branches in dense flowers (35-40 in number). The flowers are large, 15-17 cm long, yellowish-white; bracts are red or green. Found in tropical rainforests in Brazil.

Vriesea hieroglyphica

South America. Perennial up to 1m tall. Short, hollow stem. Shiny, bright green leaves up to 75cm long and 8cm wide, with black strokes and collected in a basal rosette. Yellow, tubular flowers.

Vriesea psittacina

Leaves are oblong linear, shortly pointed, widened at the base, whole-edged green. The peduncle is bright red. Flowers in inflorescence are not densely located; calyx yellow, corolla green, narrow petals; bracts the same length as the calyx, red below, orange-yellow above. Found in tropical rainforests in Brazil.

Vriesea regina

Plants are large. The rosette leaves are long and wide, 1-1.2 m long and 15-18 cm wide, grayish-green, glossy, with a slightly curled top. Peduncle 1.7-2 m tall. Inflorescence - a branched panicle (drooping branches). Flowers are initially white, later yellowing, with a pleasant aroma; bracts boat-like widened, pink.
It grows in tropical rainforests in Brazil.

Vriesea saundersii

South America. Perennial up to 40cm tall. Short, hollow stem. Leathery, shiny, greyish-green, hard leaves, with a purpleish underside and collected in a basal rosette. Yellow, tubular flowers surrounded by bright yellow bracts.

Vriesea splendens major

Leaves in a large rosette, 60-80 cm in diameter, wide, 8-10 cm wide, light green, with brownish-red stripes. The inflorescence is large, 70-80 cm tall; bracts are light red.

Beautiful Vriesea (Vriesea splendens var.splendens)

Terrestrial or epiphytic plants. Leaves broadly lanceolate, dark green, with transverse dark purple stripes and spots, with tops bent downwards. The inflorescence is an xiphoidly flattened ear. The flowers are arranged in two rows, yellow; bracts are scarlet-red, glossy. Grows in tropical rainforests in Guiana.

Vriesea carinata Wawra

It grows in the forests of Eastern Brazil. Epiphytic or terrestrial plant. Leaves about 20 cm long and 2.5 cm wide form a funnel-shaped rosette, covered with barely noticeable scales on both sides, broad-linear, soft, pale green, without a pattern. Peduncle up to 30 cm high, straight or drooping, very thin; short and wide, with a triangular notch at the apex, few-flowered with a geniculate axis. The inflorescences are erect, tightly covering the axis, narrow, thin with a sharp keel, pinkish with a yellow or yellowish-green top and edge. The flowers are compressed, on short pedicels, yellow, green at the top, up to 6 cm long. Blooms in June-July, again in November-December.
Many hybrids are known. Most of them are characterized by long flowering.

Vriesia brilliant (Vriesia splendens)

An epiphytic or terrestrial plant with a few tongue-shaped (belt-like, wide, with curved edges, pointed or rounded at the apex; slightly covered with scales on both sides;) leaves 20-40 cm long, green, decorated with transverse (horizontal) purple stripes. The stem of Vriezia is shortened, from 30 to 60 cm in height, the leaves form a dense wide funnel-shaped rosette. Flowers 2.5-5 cm, yellow, collected in simple spike-shaped, multicolored inflorescences, appear at any time of the year on a flat, xiphoid red bracts. Most species of Vriezia have long flowering periods (up to several months).

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