Actually, the Christmas rose reproduces itself through its seeds. However, if you prefer to plant in containers, you have another option.
Not only in summer do some indoor or outdoor plants convince with an opulent bloom - some plant species also like to bloom in winter, for example to brighten up the Christmas season. In addition to the Christmas cactus, this includes, for example, the popular Christmas rose, which is often also referred to as the snow rose or Christmas rose. The evergreen plant is not only characterized by its flowers, but also by its low maintenance requirements. You can also decide for yourself whether you want to keep the attractive plant outdoors or use it as a slightly larger houseplant in a container. What you should know about the care and propagation of the beautiful Christmas rose is covered below.Christmas rose - little botany
The Christmas rose, also known as Helleborgus niger, is an evergreen plant that easily survives the winter outdoors. The robust plant is considered poisonous, so care should be taken when planting. Other plants can be damaged if the Christmas rose grows too close to them or reaches their roots. The plant can be planted outdoors, but can also be placed in the bucket, provided that it offers sufficient depth. If you want to keep the Christmas rose as a houseplant, you should offer it real conditions - such as cold temperatures - in winter, otherwise the flower will not develop. Although the Christmas rose only grows up to 30cm high, it needs too much light, sufficient space and depth in its container because of its roots and affinity. Incidentally, the Christmas or snow rose gets a good place among other evergreen plants or deciduous trees.
What care does the Christmas rose need?
Anyone who is interested in propagating the Christmas rose must have certain reasons for doing so - after all, nobody would want to have several offshoots of the plant if they were a lot of work or if there were no advantages to be found. Not only the beautiful flowers of the Christmas rose speak in favor of propagation, but also their easy-care and robust nature. They make very few demands on the soil and substrateand location, making it very easy to keep. You need to know these things about caring for the Christmas rose if you want to properly raise the propagated offshoots:
✓ Christmas roses prefer locations under deciduous trees or shrubs, as they offer light shade and warming foliage in winter
✓ Christmas roses drive out their roots deep, which is why a lot of space is needed in the bucket and the location is profound soil
✓ also needs a lot of light in winter, but no direct glaring sun - a light shade is better
✓ permeable substrate with lime content is ideal for Christmas Roses
✓ is mostly grown in Planted in autumn
✓ Water only necessary when necessary and during drier periods
✓ Plant does not need any fertilizer
✓ No pruning necessary
✓ Overwinters on its own if it has enough foliage around you
✓ moving is not so well tolerated by Christmas roses
Benefits of the Christmas rose
Attractive appearance in winter
+ Evergreen plant that keeps the garden looking neat all year round
+ hibernates on its own provided the location is ideal
+ hardly any care required, so the gardener has little work
+ can be planted in tubs, as a houseplant or outdoors
Disadvantages of the Christmas rose
- Plant is poisonous, the secretion can irritate the skin and mucous membranes, for example
- Needs a deep bucket or deep soil
- dislikes being moved or transplanted
- prefers locations under deciduous plants or shrubs
Multiply the Christmas rose - this is how success is guaranteed
Because the Christmas rose develops flowers in winter, which fall off after withering and spread their seeds in the garden, propagation of the Christmas rose outdoors is actually not necessary - it almost takes care of this on its own. As a result, however, the plant can spread uncontrollably and quickly in areas that you actually do not want to cover with Christmas roses. It can therefore make sense to prevent this uncontrolled multiplication by separating the flowers from the plant in good time after they have withered. These can then be saved for your own propagation attempts in order to continue using the seeds. You can either use the sowing of the seeds for yourself, or multiply the Christmas rose with the help of division as desired.
Propagating the Christmas rose with the help of sowing
If you want to propagate the Christmas rose in the garden with the help of collected or purchased seeds, you should have a lot of patience, time and a knack for itBring growing seedlings. The seeds can be sown directly outdoors in autumn. The soil should be loosened as much as possible beforehand in order to be permeable enough and to prevent waterlogging. Rearing indoors is not recommended, as the seeds germinate best in the cold and need them to absorb the Christmas rose's typical rhythm.
If the seeds are scattered, they can be covered very thinly with soil - conventional planting substrate is very suitable for this. Watering should be very light so that the seeds don't have to stand in water - this could damage them and destroy the planting success. Incidentally, if you want to propagate the plant in spring by sowing seeds, you can only count on seedlings and young plants in the following year.
If you want to get the seeds out of collected flowers, you can put them in a jute bag and then shake them vigorously or rub two sides of the bag together. The slightly dried seeds detach from the flower and fall off so that they remain on the bottom of the bag and can be easily collected without having to pick them out by hand.
Propagating Christmas roses by plant division
One thing should be clear: Propagation by division requires significantly less patience and time, since the plant does not have to grow to the size it needs for sufficient robustness via seedlings. To make the division, the Christmas rose only has to be carefully dug up in order to be able to divide it in half. At best, this should be done after the plant has bloomed - both parts can then be planted directly back into the ground.