Ardisia - home care for Christmas berries

I bought a bush called ardisia, what should be the care at home for it? The store said that the plant even bears fruit, but often drops the leaves if it doesn't like something. What conditions need to be created to wait for flowering, and how does it overwinter?

Its neat scarlet clusters resemble viburnum berries, and the leathery leaves and dense flowers seem to be cut out of colored cardboard. This is a unique ardisia tropicana, home care for which has its own characteristics. The plant is famous for its gorgeous decorative appearance, and it is beautiful throughout the growing season. But only among the most caring flower growers, indoor ardisia blooms and pleases with a harvest. What is needed for this and how to please a capricious beauty with a proud appearance, but a gentle soul?

Lighting and temperature

Ardisia belongs to the primroses family and grows in the wild in the hot and humid tropics. Such conditions taught the culture to get food for itself in all possible ways. She receives part of the nutrients from the soil with the help of the root system, which is in symbiosis with endomycorrhiza. And the leaves provide the bushes with nitrogen and other substances in the air. Along the edges of the plates are special bacteria in the form of tubercles.

Ardisia grows in the form of a bush or tree, its leaves are similar to tangerine, also dense and shiny. At the end of spring, umbrella inflorescences of small white flowers bloom among them. And by the beginning of winter, red drupes are already flaunting in their place. They can hang for up to 3 months.

The Christmas berry, as the plant is also called for the fruits that appear just in time for this holiday, loves light. The pot with it must be placed on the east window. Although the leaves are dense in structure, they react painfully to direct rays and do not recover from burns.

A feature of growing ardisia is to provide it with a period of relative dormancy. It is interesting that it falls just at the time when the berries ripen. In winter, the temperature in the room should not exceed 15 ° C heat. This is also necessary for laying the buds for the next flowering, and so that the berries do not crumble and stay on the branches longer.

Ardisia - home care

When growing Christmas berries, you need to consider their love of moisture. Caring for them consists of the following procedures:

1. Frequent and abundant watering in the summer and rare - during the dormant period.
2. Spraying the plant before flowering. After it, to increase the air humidity, you need to install a humidifier. Or place the pot on a tray with damp pebbles. The ovary crumbles from dry air.
3. Top dressing twice a month with a mineral complex from spring to autumn.
4. Pruning in early spring to form a lush bush. Without a haircut, it will stretch upward.
5. Transplant as needed, only when the flower grows out of its flowerpot. Moreover, it is carried out by the transshipment method.

Ardisia is propagated by cuttings or seeds. Sowing seeds is carried out in the middle of winter, when they are fully ripe. And cuttings can be rooted from spring and all summer.

Christmas tree care tips