If you want a real eye-catcher in your home, you should buy a porcelain flower. Here are 7 tips for caring for the flower.
The porcelain flower (Hoya) - often referred to as wax flower - is perfect for keeping in a warm conservatory. Regardless of whether they are cared for as a climbing plant or as a perennial, depending on the variety. And as its name suggests, the porcelain flower has extremely filigree-looking flower balls, whose small, densely packed flowers fascinate everyone who sees them.
Today, the botanist is familiar with numerous species of the porcelain flower whose flower colors vary greatly between white, pink and red tones - mostly in combination. A single umbel can consist of up to 30 individual flowers on average. And that looks really beautiful!
So that you can enjoy this sight for a long time, we would like to give you 7 tips on how best to care for this filigree plant.
Porcelain flower: 7 tips for care
Tip 1 - Support Porcelain Flower:
Climbing varieties urgently need a trellis or a climbing aid, because they can develop shoots several meters long. And the perennials often need small supports so that their lush flower umbels can come into their own.
Tip 2 - Location:
Porcelain flowers like a location that is as light-flooded as possible, but only minimally sunny, as a conservatory can usually offer optimally. It thrives perfectly at normal room temperatures of around 21 to 25 degrees. You can even keep the porcelain flower cooler during its dormant periods.
» Important:
Once a porcelain flower starts budding, you shouldn't move it - you shouldn't even twist the pot. Otherwise flowering will be extremely negatively affected.
Tip 3 - repot/take cuttings:
Every spring you can repot the wax flower into a particularly nutrient-rich potting soil if necessary. Then you can also take a few cuttings from the mother stock at the same time and thus propagate the plant.
Tip 4 - Watering:
During their growth and flowering (latespring to summer), the porcelain flower always needs sufficient watering. During their winter dormancy, however, you only need to water them minimally.
Tip 5 - Fertilize:
This evergreen plant also needs a potassium-rich, low-nitrogen liquid fertilizer during its annual growth phase from April to around August, which you can give it every two to three weeks. However, she can spend the rest of the year without further fertilizer applications.
Tip 6 - Cut back:
As soon as the first flowers wither, you can carefully pick them off by hand. If the entire umbel has faded, you should cut it off - however, the stem itself should remain on the stick. Because every year new umbels of flowers form on this stalk, with the flowers becoming more and more lush over the years.
Tip 7 - Pest Control:
Of course it can also happen that the porcelain flower is attacked by pests. First and foremost, spider mites or red spiders should be mentioned here, which can be washed off relatively easily with a warm shower. (Link tip: pest control in the conservatory - 5 tips)
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