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sum-up : EPISCIA – A genus of tag nursery works from Tropical America . Small , showy , often haired leaf with small ashen , blood-red , or majestic flowers . A favourite for wall hanging - basketball hoop . Propagation by division and cuttings . Related to the African reddish blue plant family – Gesneriaceae .
The Episcia plant life belongs to the African Violet plant fellowship – Gesneriaceae . It is easy to grow . The attractive leafage and colorful trumpet - mold flowers tot up brightness to any room .
Photo Credit: Instagram @episcia_mamiku_plant
The name Episcia , enounce e - piss’-i - ah , comes from the Grecian word episkios . Its meaning , “ fishy , ” provides a hint to their cultural demand .
Episcias , sometimes called theflame violet , trailing reddish blue , or cocoa soldier works , hasa glorious range of foliage and flower color .
Flame violets have leaf of shiny green , bronze and ash grey and tubular flowers of clean , yellow , lavender , pink or blood-red .
Added to these attractions is their magical manner of ontogenesis . Each plant sends out strawberry mark - like runner ( runner ) which go after over the edge of the container .
There are about ten Episcia metal money and many more variety .
Bronze - leaved , crimson - floweredEpiscia cupreatais apt to be a unsure bloomer . However , many episcia varieties bring on an abundance of flowers with glisten light-green leaves and orangish - red flower . Established plants display flowers throughout the entire year .
Then there is “ Acajou ” with a silvern - greenish form on a dark brown background . Silver Sheen displays red flowers above its frozen gray and brownish leave of absence . Another cupreata variety is called“Tropical Topaz”with green leaves and buttercup yellow flowers .
Episcia “ Chocolate Soldier”is a favorite of many houseplant growers . Chocolate Soldier has been an impressive plant life for decades . It is one of the better foliage in Episcias , and it has a fairly easy culture .
Let ’s look at some utile information about Episcia works care and culture .
Planting The Flame Plant
turn espiscias in a spongy , well - drained grease , like those for African violet .
If you make your soil utilize two parts peat moss , 1/2 part perlite or vermiculite and 1/2 part guts .
One - half inch of pot chard and an equal amount of fusain can be used for drainage for each four - column inch pot .
Keep the bulk of the runners pinched off to ensure a safe floral crop .
Many favor episcia containers , which are longsighted ceramic planters , soup tureens , or aluminum cake tins with drainage holes punch in them .
As the runners appear , they tighten themselves to the soil . have a few runner dangle over the edge when the container is full .
Since this container is fill with plants of varied ages , it blooms every month of the year . These make wonderful hanging baskets !
Episcias or flame reddish blue go into semi - sleeping in the pin of the twelvemonth , and they normally begin to cull up in December , and by February they are in voluptuous growth .
Lighting and Temperature Requirements
Episcias expand in an east , southeast or part shadow south windowpane . If you need them for foliage effect only , you’re able to grow them to perfection in a north window or under smart lights . Window nurseryman in area with many hopeful winter mean solar day can grow episcias theyear round in north window .
One of my friends in Oklahoma grows brilliant specimen in the unshadedeast and west windowsof her home .
Related interpretation :
Growing Episcias Under Artificial Lighting
If you are growing floweringplants indoors under grow light bulbs , fluorescent ignition , or indirect lighting , Episcias are just the thing to tote up to the garden .
Under this non - ever-changing light volume , these low - light plants grow gorgeous leaf and blossom profusely .
Space them so the pot rim is about 14 inch from the light thermionic vacuum tube , and leave the lights on for 12 to 14 hours each day .
The mediocre household temperature , 72 ° to 75 ° degree Fahrenheit during the twenty-four hours with the usual five to 10 ° degree pearl at Nox , seems to fit them .
All episcias take more tearing than African violet and grow best under in high spirits humidity conditions . Episcia grows well with bottom watering .
If the air circulation in your nursing home is too ironic ( under 40 percent humidity ) episcia and all of your houseplant will do good when set on a pebble tray of water kept just below the pot business line .
Episcias are beautiful no matter whether they are in bloom or not .
To keep the foliage in top showoff condition , give them water as often as needed to keep them spare of dust . Use way - temperature urine and keep them out of direct sunshine until the leaves are dry .
Fertilizing Episcia Plants
Give houseplant food to Episcias twice a calendar month with any good pee - soluble liquid fertilizer , remembering , of course , to fertilize only on well - moistened grease . This safeguards tiny roots from fertilizer burn .
Keep episcias pest - free by give them a exhaustive review for plague .
How To Propagate Episcia
If senior episcia plants have shed folio and take care straggly , trim runners off the mother plant and repot the old plant . you may start up raw plant life From the slice .
disperse episcias from leafage , ball carrier , or seeds . rootage leaves and runners in piss , vermiculite , sphagnum moss , or sand . track them with a low trash or cleared plastic loving cup to increase humidness , speeding up root formation .
you could get infinite foliage and flower smorgasbord by maturate episcia from seed .
Sprinkle the seed on moistened peat moss moss or vermiculite . They germinate in ten daytime to three week and as presently as the footling plants have four good leaf goad them out and plant them in a good deal or mat .
Given good growing conditions , the potted plants will flower from come in eight to 12 months .
Episcias can also be propagated from foliage cuttings take in the same way as when starting gloxinias and African violets . Episcias are , however , rather slow from leaf , and offset are produced in such abundance that it is rarely advantageous to apply a folio cutting .
Where To Find Episcia Plants?
Episcias can easy be find as ring mail - order houseplants at some local greenhouses and occasionally garden midpoint .
Growing Episcia As Conversation Pieces
If you want to wrench some of your episcia plants into conversation piece , essay some of these idea .
1 . Use any of the episcias as trailer in the foreground of container gardens using taller upright plants in the backcloth .
2 . Grow two or more kinds of Episcias in a large pot with the backcloth flora trained up a moss - filled “ totem ” celestial pole or a holey piece of a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ambo or root . As a starter , fasten the episcia runners to the pole with fleeceable wire Twist - ems . Keep the musical accompaniment moist and the episcia roots will spring up into it .
3 . Plant episcias in moss - satiate bent baskets and hang them in your window garden or glasshouse or summer them on ashaded covered patio .
4 . Try a plant in a rose stadium or small-scale aquarium . Here , with the added high humidness they receive , they grow as luxuriant as they would in their homeland .
5 . Grow some episcias in an attractive container filled with H2O . deepen the water once a week , give them bright collateral light , and sum a teensy-weensy hint of industrial plant intellectual nourishment , and you ’ll enjoy them on an occasional table or the mantel . You may even discover yourself using them as a rush - up centrepiece .
Episcia Questions and Answers
interrogation : Please tell me something about the Episcia cuperata red violets ( a metal money of episcia ) , how to water them , how to pop slips , and what weather condition they need .
resolve : The word episcia mean shade - know . The plant is tight related to the African violet and gloxinia and responds to the same cultivation .
The episcia needs no quietus menses and prefers a warm , humid atmosphere . It produce stolons like a strawberry . These may be inserted into a neighboring crapper of damp soil while they are still confiscate to the parent plant life .
After a few workweek , the stolon will have formed its own roots and may then be clipped from the parent . Plant episcias in poriferous , light , rich soil and water them regularly .
interrogation : Why do the flower bud of my flaming violets dry up and fall off ?
resolution : Episcia reptans ( formerly called Episcia coccinea and fulgida ) , sometimes “ flame violet , ” likes to develop in a strong , humid seat . Indoors we have flowered episcias in windows face all steering with a humidness kitchen stove of 40 to 60 percentage . Temperatures below 60 ° degrees Fahrenheit are uncomfortable for episcias .
seek to render more humidity by group several plants together , rather on a tray of dampish moxie or pebbles . The teetotal estrus of many rooms is the hard indoor horticulture problem to solve .
Most dwellings have two windows that are probable to be more humid than others : the window above the kitchen sink and the one above the bathtub .
prototype : acer hwang|dick culbert
