An amazingly beautiful plant from South America - an epic. Home care

Episia is a perennial herbaceous tropical plant native to Mexico, Brazil, Guinea, and Colombia. It can be distinguished by beautiful variegated leaves, which can be any shade, and bright red, pink, orange, white, blue or yellow, slightly reminiscent of the shape of the bells. Episia is the representative of the family of Gesneria. She is considered a relative of the senpolia - African violets. In this article, we would like to tell you how the episise is grown. Care at home with her, carried out correctly, will get a long and abundant flowering. Now several hundred varieties of these fine perennials are known. Usually, as a room culture, they are grown such as the nail-colored and copper epics. The ampel forms of the plant are especially beautiful, they can revitalize and decorate any room.

Episode: care at home. Humidity, lighting and temperature conditions

This tropical plant needs a high enough humidity. Therefore, frequent and regular spraying is vital for him. But from this rule there is an exception: varieties with velvet leaves are not sprayed, but put on a pallet with expanded clay or wet moss. It is also possible to maintain the required humidity with a household humidifier. It is desirable to place the flowerpot on the east or west window, shading the flower from the direct rays of the sun with a curtain or blinds. The plant prefers diffuse bright light or, in extreme cases, penumbra. If the shading is excessive, it will not bloom, and if direct rays hit, its leaves can dry out, curl and fall off. Episia loves heat, so the most appropriate temperature for its cultivation is the range 25-28 ° C. At night, it is possible to lower to 18 ° C. The main thing is not to allow strong temperature drops and drafts in the room.

Episode. Home care: pick up the soil and set the watering regime

Plant transplants are produced in early spring. It will feel fine in a quality earth mix, which is good for air and water. For these perennials, a substrate for violets, consisting of leafy earth, peat, sand, is suitable. When planting a plant in a new container, a drainage (claydite, pebble, foam) is necessarily placed on the bottom. The soil in the pot should always be moderately moist, but remember that the stagnation of water in the pan is not tolerated by the epicure. Caring for the plant and correct moderate watering using clean, room-temperature water at room temperature will enable the plant to grow and blossom abundantly. In winter, the amount of irrigation is somewhat reduced in such a way that the upper layer of the earth has time to dry up by the time of the next moistening.

Episode. Home care: fertilizing and reproduction

Episode perfectly responds to top dressing with complex mineral fertilizers during the growing season. Additives are added every 14 days, making their concentration two times smaller than indicated on the package. Stop the application of fertilizers in the fall, the whole winter the plant "rests" from them. As to reproduction, at home, rooting of daughter sockets, cuttings of the apical or leaf parts of the plant, and also the seed method are practiced. In order for the cuttings to settle down, the room temperature is maintained within 23 ° C, as well as high humidity. The biomaterial is watered, regularly sprayed and covered with a polyethylene liner or glass. It is quite easy and, as a rule, successful to take daughter sockets, which are planted in the soil mixture from sand and peat. The seed method is laborious: the material is placed in the soil, moistened, covered with glass and waiting for germination, and then move the seedlings into separate containers. So, in order to beautifully feel and blossom the epic, care (the photo of the plant is presented in the article), it should be literate. All that is required for this decorative indoor perennial is regular humidification of the air, moderate watering, protection from drafts and a sharp cooling and diffuse light. If these principles are observed, the plant will delight the surrounding with its healthy appearance and abundantly blossom with vivid, cheerful colors.