Beauty and the beast in one flower: Stapelia Motley. Features of proper care

Stapelia is a motley amazing plant. When it blooms, it gives off an awful smell of rot, but it has very beautiful flowers that make you forget about the smell. Therefore, I keep the monster on the windowsill. Although there is another reason, the flower is quite unpretentious.

Lighting, watering, fertilizing

When I have a plant, I always find out where it comes from, study its appearance, classification. This helps to provide the new pet with perfect care. Stapelia live in southern Africa on the rocky slopes of the mountains. They belong to succulents, that is, they are able to accumulate moisture in the stems or leaves, like cacti, although they belong to a different genus of plants.

Why know all this? It's pretty simple. As a resident of rocky mountain slopes, which often lack the upper tier of trees, my new green pets they love light, but they tolerate partial shade well, which means that it is better to put them on the windowsills of the eastern windows, which I and did.

Others canceled for various reasons:

· On the southern windows, you will need to worry about shading the pot and leaves in the summer, the sun can burn the leaves;

• insufficient lighting from the north, the plant will survive, but is unlikely to be satisfied;

Western windows would do, but I don't have them

Succulents do not need watering often. In winter, it is enough to moisten the ground once a month or less often, in summer every 7-14 days. In our case, it is better to underfill than overflow. Succulents retain moisture well in the leaves.

There is no need to fertilize the stocks in winter at all, but if you really want to, you can add a special fertilizing for succulents. In summer, fertilizers are used once a month or two. I make the soil myself.

I mix part of the sod soil and two of the sand. To check the acidity, I take a little ready-made soil and drip vinegar on it, if it does not hiss, you can plant monstrous beauties. You can buy succulent soil in the store.

The most common problems

Succulents are very tenacious, in my experience, such plants can be killed in only two ways: constantly waterlogging the soil and breaking the main stem, and then wait until rot appears on it.

Therefore, usually only two problems arise: yellowing of the stems and lack of flowering. Staple leaves are small plates, thorns or fluff. The green fleshy parts are the stems. If they turn yellow, the plant lacks light.

Flowering is absent for several reasons:

· Lack of light, nutrients;

Overflow;

· Excess nitrogen fertilizers;

· Lack of winter dormancy.

All of these problems can be easily solved by making adjustments to the care and rearranging the plant. By the way, it is better to keep the stocks on the balcony in summer. If they decide to blossom, then it will be impossible to live in a room.