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In Today’s short post, let’s look into some important care tips on growing sanchezia plant and also how to easily propagate it from cuttings.
Sanchezia is an evergreen perennial plant in most zones. It’s a beautiful ornamental indoor or shade loving plant that flowers once in a year.
Its botanical name is Sanchezia speciosa. It’s also known by various names like Golden Vein Plant, Zebra Plant and so on.
Now let’s look into the care tips on sanchezia and some Do’s and Don’t’s while growing the plant.
- Plant Growth and Size: This plant can grow upto 10 feet tall if grown on ground. But if you grow in containers, you need to repot this plant once in a year in a larger container or trim the plant regularly to contain its growth.
- Flowering: Sanchezia plant produces flowers once in a year during spring to summer season. The flowers are beautiful spikes of bright yellow to orange colored tubular flowers.
- Sunlight: Sanchezia is mainly grown as an indoor plant. It should be placed in a spot which receives indirect or filtered sunlight – like near entrances or near bright windows. Do not keep it in direct sunlight, it will burn it’s foliage. But it can be kept in early morning direct sunlight like in your east facing balcony or stuff like that.
- Humidity: Sanchezia loves humid conditions and cannot tolerate very cold conditions. When the humidity level is low, place the pot at the centre of a humidity tray – where you place some pebbles in a large tray and pour water over the pebbles. Or alternately you can frequently mist or spray the plant with water.
- Watering: Sanchezia loves moisture for its growth. It needs to be watered regularly if the top soil dries out quickly especially in summer. The watering frequency depends on where you have placed the plant. For indoors, generally watering on alternate days is sufficient in summer. Usually the plant wilts when its thirsty and this is an indication for watering it. You can also use the finger dip method to check the soil moisture before watering.
- Potting Soil and PH: It grows well in a well draining potting mix with some compost in it. Also it loves a neutral PH or slightly acidic PH of around 6 to 7 which is good for most plants.
- Fertilizers: It requires once in a while feeding with any type of fertilizer like a handful of decomposed cowdung or vermicompost like once in a month or so. You should always try to rake or loosen the soil before applying fertilizer.
- Pest Control: Ocassionaly its attacked by scale insects and mites, especially during its flowering season. You can use neem oil spray just before the onset of spring to combat this problem.
- Propagation: They can be easily multiplied from their stem cuttings. Top 8 inches of Terminal end cuttings give good results. You can apply some rooting hormone if you have and just insert the cuttings in a well draining soil. Remember humidity factor is important even for successful propagation from cuttings. You can cover these cuttings with a polythene cover to maintain humidity levels and also keep the soil moist.
