Pittosporum is an attractive and unpretentious home plant. It is valued for a number of advantages, thanks to which the flower feels good even in winter time.
Description
Pittosporum or Smolosemanik - a diverse plant, applies to evergreen shrubs and trees, reaching a height of several tens of meters. The foliage is simple, green in color, leathery, up to 150 mm long, arranged in a spiral.
For a beautiful appearance and flowering you need to know about the intricacies of caring for eucalyptus, lemon, tillandia, Japanese euonymus, cypress Elwoodi, olive tree, cicasso, coffee tree, hyacinths, amorphofullus at home.
The flowers are small, consisting of five petals of white, yellow or red, single or in the form of inflorescences, umbrellas. Have a bright sugary smell. Fruits are in the form of boxes with many seeds in a sticky, resin-like substance.
Did you know? The name pittosporum is translated from Greek as "resinous seed" and is derived from the fact that the seeds are slightly covered with resin. But this quality applies only to wild varieties. Homemade varieties do not possess this property.
Care
Pittosporum has established itself as a very unpretentious plant to care at home.
Lighting
The most comfortable under ambient light without direct rays the sun. The best place to put it is a windowsill with a westerly or an easterly direction. On the north side or in the dark, it also feels good, but it does not bloom anymore. On the south side, pittosporum is placed away from the window or scattered using translucent cloth or paper. 
In the summer, you can put on the balcony or in the garden, pre-protected from the sun or rain. If in the summer you cannot take the plant to the open air, then periodic airing of the room is necessary. In winter, the flower needs good illumination more and more, therefore it is necessary during this period to locate smolosemniki in places with good diffused illumination.
Temperature
In summer, the best temperature conditions will be room conditions (19-22 ° C).
Important! Heat pittosporum not tolerate.
In winter, that is, in a period of calm, this flower needs 11-12 ° C and not higher. The surface of the plant can withstand frosts down to -12 ° C, but the root system dies instantly at temperatures below zero. Therefore, the place for the plant should be cool, but don't let the pot super cool.
Watering
Pittosporum should be watered with soft separated water. In warm weather, the plant must be watered well, observing the drying of the soil surface. In cold weather, the application of liquid should be restrained, watering only after a good drying of the soil, so as not to provoke a souring of the substrate.
Pittosporum is suitable for bonsai cultivation. Besides him, ficuses, willow, maple, oak, birch are suitable for this purpose. But the traditional Japanese style limits the choice of pine, spruce, juniper, maple, azalea, rhododendron.
Air humidity
The dragon slayer can tolerate dry room air, but high humidity is more preferable to it. It is advisable to periodically spray the plants, and with very dry air, then daily. For this purpose, separated or filtered water is used.
In order to increase the humidity, you can place a pallet containing wet moss, expanded clay or pebbles under the flower, but keeping the distance between the bottom and the water. From time to time, you can wipe the foliage of the flower with a sponge, wetting it in warm water in order to clean the plant from dust.
Pruning
In the spring, you can trim the crown of the flower to form the desired aesthetic appearance. Trimming a smokomanika is not difficult and is very useful in a massive discharge of foliage and outcrop of the trunk in the lower parts.
Did you know? Due to the plasticity of the young shoots of the Smolosemannik, they can be guided and bent in the necessary forms.
The soil
Pittosporum not very picky in relation to the ground. For the preparation of the substrate is to take the peat, garden soil and coarse sand in equal proportions, to carry out high-quality drainage.
Top dressing
Fertilize the flower is necessary only in a period of rapid growth. The bait will consist of organic and mineral fertilizers, which should be applied twice a month alternately.
Transfer
Due to the strong growth of the root system, young plants need to repot annually in larger pots. Pittosporum tolerates transplants very poorly, so it should be done carefully without damaging the soil sbivka. When the growth of a flower slows down, it is transplanted once every 2-3 years, replacing the upper layers of the soil.
Breeding
There are two types of breeding Smolosemyannikov: cuttings and seeds.
Cuttings
The cuttings are produced in the summer. To do this, select young side shoots with a length of 8-10 cm with odresnevevshem basis. For better rooting, you can process the root stimulator.
After that, the cuttings are planted in the soil to a depth of 1-2 cm. It is very easy to care for them - to water and hide from direct sunlight. Cuttings that have taken root, land in 10-centimeter pots. Flowering occurs 2-3 years after planting.
Seeds
Seeds are sown any convenient for this capacity. The substrate consists of a third of sod, a third of leaves and a third of sand. Saplings are planted in 8-centimeter pots one by one in the ground with the same composition. Plants bloom after transplanting for three years.
Diseases and pests
The main pests affecting pittosporum are spider mites, mealy worm and false guard. To combat them, it is necessary to wash the leaves of the flower in warm water and treat it with appropriate insecticides. Of the fungi they can affect fusarium or other spots.
Important! If there is a shortage of light or too much nitrogen in the soil on the foliage, the white spots of variegated varieties may disappear.
Lower leaves fall for quite natural reasons for flower growth. If the edges of the leaves dry up, the leaves become yellow and slightly curled, then the plant should be removed away from the source of bright light. When there is insufficient light, the foliage becomes smaller, lighter, and the stem is thinner.
Growing pittosporum is an excellent solution for beginning flower growers, it is much easier to care for it than for a lot of ornamental and flowering plants. At the same time, the Smileman will be a great aesthetic addition to your interior.
