Kalanchoe is a beautiful perennial plant that's a must-have on the windowsill of any self-respecting indoor plant lover and devotee of traditional healing methods. Its admirers and followers have given this green plant a variety of names—it's called a family doctor, a surgeon without a knife, even a tree of life and indoor ginseng. Caring for it at home isn't particularly difficult.
In reference books on medicinal plants, this unpretentious flower is given considerable space. Enumerations of its medicinal properties, the ailments it helps against, and treatments with this perennial houseplant can fill entire pages. Judging by the many synonyms it has in English, houseplant ginseng is popular as an ornamental and medicinal plant in various latitudes of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Caring for Kalanchoe at Home
Proper care of Kalanchoe is a priority not only for amateur home gardeners. The plant's healing sap, which can fight influenza and polio viruses, is widely used by the pharmaceutical industry, for which domestic ginseng is grown on an industrial scale.
The Goethe flower, a native of Madagascar, received its unique name thanks to the well-known fact that Johann Goethe used it to cure a persistent, long-term ulcer.
Not all of the 200 known species of the Crassulaceae family possess healing powers or represent the rare flora of Madagascar. Some were brought from other parts of Gondwana—Australia, Africa, and Central America—and most are successfully used in classical landscape design and as ornamental plants. But a few species truly possess immense healing powers.
Location and lighting
Purchasing a Kalanchoe for your home collection is a significant step, requiring a clear understanding of the purpose of the purchase. If you intend to use the flower medicinally, it's best to choose the Degremona variety. For decorative purposes, such as creating a welcoming atmosphere and cozy ambiance, it's best to inquire about hybrids specifically bred for this purpose at a flower shop. These creations, the result of careful selection, care, and crossbreeding, produce larger and brighter blooms, and a highly valuable feature for an ornamental plant—the ability to thrive even in low artificial light.
After purchasing a plant (during which it's essential to decide on the plant species), the primary task of any gardener is to carefully study the care instructions. It's important to know what professional care is required, what steps should be taken to ensure flowering, and how and when best to repot.
Apart from succulents, this is almost the only houseplant that thrives in both direct sunlight and low light.
But its location relative to the light source plays a huge role in all other processes:
- in dim light there will be no flowering, because the flower’s genetic memory contains the ability to produce inflorescences only during the warm and bright time of year;
- If you buy a hybrid that is resistant to low light, you don’t need to look for a special place for it; in this case, other measures will be required to obtain flowers;
- in the summer it should not stand in a bright room for more than 10 hours (although summer days are longer), because otherwise the Kalanchoe will not form flower buds, and in the winter, at the right time, it will delight you with only healing leaves;
- When flowering in winter, the best place for the plant is on the south side, but if the owner wants a long celebration, she will have to provide additional lighting so that the daylight lasts 12 hours.
If the store is in a semi-dark area, after purchasing the Kalanchoe, you will need to gradually harden it off—place it on a windowsill with direct sunlight for short periods of time, and then for increasingly longer periods.
Post-purchase care doesn't necessarily require repotting. The plant experiences stress during transportation from its familiar location to its new one, and it's unclear when and under what circumstances the move from the nursery to the store took place. However, if the owner isn't satisfied with the soil condition or the pot size, it can be carefully moved to its new home after a few days.
In summer, daylight hours should be reduced to 9-10 hours, no more. To achieve this, experienced gardeners keep the plant on the east side of the house from spring to fall, or on the windowsill of a west-facing window.
Temperature
Temperature conditions are no less important for Kalanchoe than watering and lighting. Its origins might lead one to believe that it is a heat-loving plant, but this is not the case.
Some photos from summer cottages and gardens show owners fearlessly bringing out potted plants in the spring and fall to decorate paths, flowerbeds, balustrades, and balconies. In this case, the key is to prevent overheating—it's easier to shield the plant from direct sunlight than to let it perish in the heat.
You may be interested in:Growing in a greenhouse allows for the temperature to be raised or lowered as needed, but this is not possible outdoors. Furthermore, precipitation, sometimes toxic or harsh, can be a problem for the plant. Therefore, for ornamental growing, it's better to use adapted hybrids, which are much easier to care for.
Air humidity
This isn't a critical factor when growing Kalanchoe. The plant's native climate has made it resistant to dry conditions. It tolerates dryness well, provided the temperature is sufficient for its growth, and, unlike many other plants, thrives in dry air without requiring or succumbing to misting.
You may sometimes come across advice to use this method in extreme heat, but experts believe it is better to purchase a humidifier than to spray the plant's leaves.
You may be interested in:Fans and adherents of the plant lovingly wipe its leaves with a damp cloth to remove dust, believing this opens the stomata of the cells, which are clogged with pollutants. This method is likely beneficial for the plant, as the Degremona's leaves shed their young during the process.
Watering
Kalanchoe, being a succulent, has the wonderful ability to store moisture in the fleshy part of its leaves. In summer, it can be watered generously, but not until the top layer of soil has dried out from the previous watering. In winter, it is recommended to water sparingly but more frequently, preventing the soil from drying out.
If this does happen, the unusual plant will gradually shed its leaves to conserve moisture during dry periods. There's no fundamental difference in watering methods—you can pour water into the pot or into the tray. The only requirement is good, soft, settled water that's not cold (not below room temperature).
Soil
You can buy a standard succulent soil mix at the same store where you bought the Kalanchoe. It's perfect for both hybrids and medicinal plants. Those who prefer to avoid buying such mixes and instead make their own soil usually recommend mixing leaf mold, turf, humus, and sand in a 1:1:1:1 ratio. A drainage layer is essential, but its presence is important; the composition isn't critical.
Top dressing and fertilizers
There's no real consensus on this issue, except perhaps when it comes to choosing fertilizer for cacti and succulents. Some recommend diluting the solution to a lower concentration and watering at least once every two weeks. However, others recommend using the recommended dosage and monitoring it about once a month.
Alternating mineral and organic fertilizers will create the necessary conditions for good growth. The proper frequency is maintained before flowering is expected. If the plant is flowering, it should be given a slightly higher dose than the recommended dosage. Non-flowering varieties can be fed additionally. fertilizer for cacti.
You may be interested in:Transfer
Until the plant is fully formed, it is repotted annually into a slightly larger pot than the previous one, being careful not to damage the root system. The old soil is left only on the roots, while the rest is renewed, as is the drainage layer. Mature Kalanchoes also need to be repotted, but only once every 2-3 years.
Pruning and pinching
The few tips on pruning Kalanchoe include a way to make it a trailing plant, but this method isn't suitable for every species. Some produce long shoots that can be pinched off and planted along the edge of the pot.
For medicinal Kalanchoes, a trunk with one or two shoots is formed, under which, if necessary, a ladder or decorative supports are created, pruning the necessary amount for medicinal purposes, propagation, or for neatness. Flowering Kalanchoes can be pruned only after the end of the season, removing flower stalks with dried inflorescences and trimming the stems.
Diseases and pests
Only mealybugs and aphids are interested in succulents, but this is rare and can be eradicated using standard methods. Diseases can be identified by the plant's appearance—visual signals begin immediately after the onset of the disease.
While this may not be a disease, but simply a lack of care—for example, leaf drop at the bottom and yellowing at the top indicate a lack of light, black spots on the leaf surface indicate a fungus. Powdery mildew can appear in excessively warm air, while gray mold can spread in cold rooms with high humidity.
Types of Kalanchoe
The plant grows beautifully in a pot on a windowsill or in a miniature winter garden on an insulated balcony. This exotic plant also thrives indoors, but for medicinal purposes, only three Kalanchoe species require care. The others can be grown as ornamentals; they are both picturesque and easy to maintain, and will present no particular challenge even for beginners.
To use the plant as a medicinal plant, in a pot in can be grown at home three types:
- Kalanchoe pinnates(a well-known medicinal plant with leaf buds and glossy, fleshy, round leaves). Proper care allows it to reach 2 meters in height, and following certain rules will induce flowering in the form of a large panicle.
- Degremona – a houseplant considered by many to be the only medicinal Kalanchoe. Any photo clearly shows the so-called "pups" – the small, mature plants that will eventually grow if they're lucky enough to be planted in soil. This is the most common species, growing normally indoors and reaching half a meter in height. However, there have been cases of Degremona growing so large that it required special supports. Proper care of indoor ginseng allows you to admire the small bell-shaped flowers in winter, usually a muted pink or dominant purple. Even in amateur photos, it looks magnificent.
- Kalanchoe Blossfeld Used only by professional herbalists and healers. With this plant, the question of why it doesn't bloom rarely arises, as it typically delights with abundant blooms throughout the winter, spring, and even part of the summer. It's easy to use directly in pots to create a flower border or decorate a balcony. Even without its multicolored burgundy, wine, orange, or deep pink flowers, the plant looks picturesque thanks to the red borders on the edges of its oval-shaped leaves. And when it's in bloom, it's simply hard to tear your eyes away.
Ornamental varieties offer an incredible diversity of species, with flowers of varying shapes, leaves of intricate colors, and upright and climbing stems. While there are original varieties, they are few and far between; hybrids for garden and park design are increasingly taking up the space under this name.
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