Cineraria with unusual leaves, decoratively sets off the greenery of garden beds familiar to the eye. She emphasizes the delicate beauty of blooming roses, goes well with all colors. There is another variety of cineraria, which is most often grown in a room, blooming very luxuriantly and beautifully. How to grow these plants will be useful to know for beginner gardeners.

Species and varieties

There are different types of plant described, which are completely dissimilar to each other. For example, bloody cineraria is grown for plentiful flowering. It is thermophilic, has a long growing season. Bright inflorescences bloom on the plant only 40 weeks after planting. Most often, this variety is grown in greenhouses or apartments, on its basis numerous hybrids are bred.

Varieties and types of cineraria differ in height:

  • the smallest, curb, with a height of 20 - 25 cm;
  • srednerosly - up to 40 cm;
  • high - more than half a meter.

There are plants with dissected silver leaves, similar to openwork lace, and with solid, slightly wavy at the edges, leaf plates.

Types of cineraria:

  1. Cineraria is seaside. The most popular cultivar “Cirus” is whole, silver leaves with a stem height of up to 45 cm. Also, Silver Dust, a variety with carved silver-white foliage, is also common. These plants are small, up to 25 cm, look very decorative on the flower beds and in flower pots on the windowsill.
  2. Hybrid cineraria. Heat-loving, it can be grown in a cold climate only in a greenhouse or in a room, on a windowsill.
  3. The cineraria is bloody.It is represented by the variety Nana, whose thick and low bushes are covered with bright flowers of various colors. The Stellata variety is also popular - the flowers are small, star-shaped, located on a high stem. The Grandiflora variety is distinguished by large and bright corollas of flowers, the stem height is about 50 cm.

Elegant cineraria is the most unpretentious species, the seeds of which can be sown in open ground. It blooms from June to autumn.

You can’t taste the leaves of cineraria; they contain a poisonous alkaloid.

Growing cineraria from seeds

Plant seedlings develop for a long time, so the right time for sowing is the first decade of March.

Sowing order:

  1. The soil is light and fertile, poured into a planting tank and moistened with a spray bottle.
  2. The seeds are very small, so they are planted with toothpicks, sealed to a depth of 0.5 cm.
  3. A container with sown seeds is placed in a bag and placed for germination in a bright, warm place at an air temperature of 22 - 25 ° C.
  4. Shoots appear after 2 weeks. The package that created the greenhouse conditions for the seedlings is removed, a container with seedlings is placed on a light window sill, or it is finished.

The optimum temperature for the development of cineraria is 18 - 20 ° C, the earth should always be slightly moist.

Pickling seedlings in separate containers is done approximately 3 weeks after emergence.

For further growing seedlings, plastic glasses or cassettes with cells with a volume of at least 250 ml are suitable.

The soil for transplantation is used with the addition of vermicompost. Seedlings in a common container moisturize and transplant in separate glasses, prying a small spatula or a teaspoon. Dose when necessary (daylight hours should be at least 12 hours), watered regularly.

Planting seedlings on the site

The silvery leaves of the seaside cineraria on the flower bed are beautifully combined with many flowers - bright red begonias, delicate roses, bright blue lobelia.

For a permanent place in the open ground, cineraria is planted in mid-May.

It is advisable to prepare the soil on the site in the fall by adding organic and mineral fertilizers. Small holes are made for each seedling, watered and transplanted.

It is advisable to mulch the flowerbed with cineraria so that it retains moisture better and is not covered with a crust. Further care includes loosening, weeding and watering as the soil dries.

Features of growing indoor cineraria

In the house you can grow seaside cineraria, undersized hybrid or bloody, with beautiful flowers. Caring for these varieties has some differences.

  • The seaside cineraria is unpretentious, tolerates rare watering and shading.
  • A hybrid needs bright diffused light and regular watering, otherwise it will not bloom. Plant the plant in a flower pot with drainage so that moisture does not stagnate at the roots. The limited volume of the pot makes mineral fertilizing mandatory. Fertilizers are applied once every 2 weeks, using drugs with a predominance of potassium and phosphorus.

Home Care

The potted culture is watered with water at room temperature, avoiding droplets falling on the leaf plates. To maintain humidity, the flower pot is placed in a sphagnum tray.

The room in which indoor cineraria grows needs to be ventilated to prevent fungal diseases.

It is advisable that the air temperature be no more than 18 ° C. Propagate indoor cineraria seeds. If you sow them in June, the plant will bloom in winter, when sown in October, flowering begins in spring.

How to care for cineraria in open ground

On a flower bed, a plant can survive in mild winters, if it is covered with roses. In spring, the lifeless ground part can be cut off, and new leaves will grow from the root.

Cineraria flower does not tolerate frost. If you dig a plant for the winter, it will winter well in the room, and in the spring it can again be planted in the garden.

  • In winter, he needs to ensure a low air temperature, about 12-15 ° C, creating a period of rest.
  • Watering is very rare.
  • In the second year, you can see the flowering of cineraria. Flowers do not have great decorative value, so they are cut so that beautiful, delicate leaves grow larger.
  • For the good development of cineraria, at least 2 top dressings are done during the summer. Then the leaves will be large and velvety, very decorative.

Reproduction of cineraria

Propagate cineraria seeds and seedlings. They also use the division of the bush during the spring transplant of overwintered bushes to a new place. The seaside variety is successfully propagated by cuttings.

In the south, it is possible to grow from seeds of all types immediately in the open ground. In the middle lane, only elegant cineraria is sown on the flowerbed.

Possible problems with growing flowers

Yellowing leaves may be caused by inaccuracies in care. It is enough to eliminate them, and the cineraria will again acquire its decorative appearance. But the plant also has diseases, and sometimes pests attack it.

Pest insects like cineraria:

  • whitefly;
  • spider mite;
  • aphid;
  • scale insects.

The flower is unstable to diseases such as gray rot, mycosis and late blight. Treatment with insecticides and fungicides helps preserve the plant until flowering.

After flowering, indoor cineraria is difficult to make bloom repeatedly.

Therefore, it is grown most often as an annual plant both in open ground and in indoor conditions.

A beautiful bouquet on the windowsill can be grown from hybrid cineraria seeds, and the flower bed is decorated with silver leaves of the coastal variety. This plant tolerates adverse weather conditions, does not deteriorate from rain and the first frosts. In autumn, on empty flower beds, it looks very decorative.

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