Violet Bohemia
Content:
Introduction
Violet Bohemia: photo
In many specialty gardening stores, you can come across attractive plants that have dark green foliage, villi and beautiful flowers. They are often mistaken for a violet, but in fact this plant is Saintpaulia. Those who are engaged in plant breeding call it the Usambara violet. In fact, the Saintpaulias do not belong to the violet family in any way. Its discovery happened purely by chance in the 90s of the 19th century. Saintpaulia opened by the military commander of the Uzambar district of the German colony in East Africa - Walter von Senpole. For this reason, the plant became the owner of its name - saintpaulia. He sent seeds to Germany, which after a while showed the first shoots. Of course, whoever saw this plant, immediately note its similarity with violets, but this is only an external similarity. But many growers do not like to go into details, to which classification this or that plant belongs, therefore this variety is called violets.
Violet Bohemia: description of the variety and characteristics
Violet Bohemia: video
The wild form of Saintpaulia is an inhabitant of East Africa, it is possible to find it in the woodlands of Tanzania and Rwanda. Violet Bohemia is considered an evergreen, herbaceous, perennial plant with short stems. The foliage is hard, pubescent, capable of forming basal rosettes. The shape and color of foliage can be different. The flowers are large in size and are collected in cluster inflorescences. In the capsule fruits, a large number of small seeds ripen. Taking wild forms as a basis, it turned out to deduce a number of varieties that have different shapes of flowers and inflorescences, differ in flowering time, different shapes, sizes and color of foliage. Those varieties that have been bred by breeders are often called hybrid Saintpaulias. Due to the fact that the varieties differ in color, shape of flowers and foliage, it became possible to breed and then cross a large number of different varieties, so you can find a large number of plants that can be grown at home. Also, quite often, when breeding violets, you can encounter sporting - manifestations of signs that are not characteristic of a particular variety. The form that has been obtained in this way is called sports. For this reason, sport often becomes an impetus for the implementation of work related to the development of a new variety. such a phenomenon is not often found among varieties with a monochromatic color. It is most often found among varieties in which complex selection is characterized by a combination of the properties of a number of original forms. The sporting process is obtained through the inheritance of both dominant and recessive characteristics. The latter can happen quite rarely, acts as a surprise for flower growers. Russian breeders were able to breed a large number of resistant varieties. It is this variety that is the Bohemian variety. The breeder Pikalova bred an original plant variety (PIK-Bohemia) with white-pink flowers, on which rare lilac specks and a brown-green intermittent border on fringed foliage. The foliage of the violet PIK-Bohemia is dense, there are practically no villi. The AB-Bohemian variety was bred by A.V. Tarasov became famous among flower growers in the second decade of the 21st century.Violet AB - Bohemia is distinguished by slightly pointed tips at the foliage and double corrugated flowers, which gather in dense inflorescences, form a cap during flowering. The petals have an unusual color - black and burgundy. There are varieties of sports AV-Bohemia, which differ from each other in the original color of the petals and in the shape of the inflorescences. On sale they can be found under the name AV-Bohemia Sport.
Violet Bohemia cultivation and care
Violet Bohemia: photo
In the wild, Bohemia violets are well suited to tropical rainforests. The soil there is quite light soil, rich in humus, but it should not be too wet. The violet prefers an elevated and relatively dry area for its development. If you make a purchase of a ready-made soil mixture, then this will not be a 100% guarantee that your plant will like it. But growers have developed a universal recipe for soil mixtures that absolutely all varieties like: Preparation of ingredients is best done in summer. for the preparation of the soil mixture, the use of river sand, peat and humus-rich garden soil is suitable (the ideal option would be to use black soil). After the ingredients are well steamed, they are thoroughly mixed - 1: 3: 5. The bottom part of the growing container must be filled with expanded clay ...
For the top layer, you can use brick chips. Planting violets AB-Bohemia must be done in moderately moist crumbly soil.
It is necessary to place the container with the plant where there is no direct sunlight. In the wild, the plant grows under the canopy of multi-tiered tropical forests; the sun's rays reach the leaves of the plant in a multiple scattered state. As for the temperature regime, then the plant is not whimsical, the standard temperature of +19 +22 degrees is suitable. The humidity level should be more than 50%, which will be quite difficult to achieve when growing a plant in an apartment. This will be especially difficult to achieve when the heating season begins. For this reason, the container with the plant must be placed on a pallet with moisture-retaining materials: sphagnum moss or expanded clay. A healthy plant needs watering 1-2 times every 7 days, which is best done in the morning. Waterlogging of the soil should not be allowed - this can have a detrimental effect on the plant. If the plant starts to rot, it will be very difficult to stop it. Frequent watering is a common cause of plant death. He is also capricious about fertilization. They must be applied as soon as flowering begins, reducing the dosage by half that indicated in the instructions. In order to grow a plant, it is better to opt for plastic containers, since they have better moisture retention, which means that watering will no longer be so frequent. The size of the growing container also affects the development of the plant. It happens that the development of a plant is affected by a large amount of land in a container with a plant. A violet begins to bloom when its root system begins to fill the entire volume of the growing container. Transplanting is also an important and necessary element in growing violets. It is best to leave it for the fall or spring. If you are going to transplant the plant into the same container, then you will need to reduce the number of roots. To preserve the root system of the plant, transplanting is best done in a larger container, and also be prepared for the plant to refuse flowering for a certain period of time. the drainage of the container also needs to be replaced - the old one may contain harmful microelements. If you transplant the plant into a smaller container, then you can stimulate the flowering process. For reproduction of modern plant varieties, leaves are most often used.Violet Bohemia has a unique feature: it is able to carry out the formation of young plants on leaf cuts. If you very carefully cut a healthy Bohemian violet, place it on properly prepared soil, it will be able to give a certain amount of rooting young plants.
