When does Catharanthus roseus bloom?
If you want to know when Catharanthus roseus blooms and the related knowledge of its cultivation methods and precautions, let's learn about it together next.
As the name implies, Catharanthus roseus has a long blooming period, and indeed it does. With proper care, it can bloom from April to October. Here, the blooming period does not refer to an individual flower lasting that long, but rather to Catharanthus roseus's sequential blooming nature. When the lower flowers fade, new flowers on the nodes grow again, allowing continuous blooming. Catharanthus roseus also has several aliases: Pot Marigold, Four Seasons Plant, Daily New, Goosehead Red, Thirty Thousand Flowers, and Evergreen梅花.
Song Dynasty poet Dong Siyue wrote in his poem "Catharanthus roseus": "One stem fades while another thrives, always busy with spring work. Even if peonies are considered extremely beautiful, their glory is fleeting." This is a true depiction of Catharanthus roseus.
Lovers of flowers can plant a pot, but Catharanthus roseus is not fragrant. As an ornamental plant, it still has very high ornamental value. Catharanthus roseus comes in many colors and is also a medicinal herb that can be refined into drugs for treating cancer. However, it contains certain toxins. Ingesting it can cause symptoms such as a decrease in white blood cells, platelets, muscle weakness, and limb numbness, so it should be used under the guidance of a doctor!
Is Catharanthus roseus easy to cultivate?
In fact, Catharanthus roseus is an easy-to-grow flower. However, if you want to grow it well, you still need to do some research on Catharanthus roseus! Let's learn about it together today.
Catharanthus roseus belongs to the Catharanthus genus of the Apocynaceae family. Its plant shape is relatively taller because it is a type of sub-shrub that can grow up to about 60cm in height.
Catharanthus roseus prefers neutral to slightly acidic soil and grows poorly in saline-alkaline soil. Therefore, it is important to prevent soil salinization during soil preparation and maintenance. You can mix some decomposed leaf soil or directly dig some forest soil. This is usually difficult in cities, so you can also use sandy soil. Catharanthus roseus is not very picky about soil as long as it is not saline-alkaline or clayey soil (which is difficult to ventilate and has poor water permeability, easily causing root rot), allowing Catharanthus roseus to grow. The plant has a very strong vitality.
When does Catharanthus roseus bloom?
Catharanthus roseus is drought-tolerant and can endure cold to some extent. In Shangqiu, Henan, it can survive indoors without air conditioning and not freeze to death. Although Catharanthus roseus is drought-tolerant, it prefers to grow in warm and humid environments. If it grows in a dry environment for a long time, its leaves will turn yellow and lack vitality. Therefore, watering is important during its growing period to keep the soil moist, allowing the soil to dry once a month to prevent bacterial growth and plant infection.
Catharanthus roseus is also tolerant of poor soil, but it requires a long blooming period of up to six months, which is quite demanding on nutrients. Poor soil may lead to deformed flowers or branches. Therefore, Catharanthus roseus should be fertilized with a thin layer of fertilizer every 10 days during spring, summer, and autumn to ensure sufficient nutrients for the leaves and flowers. Fertilizers should be mainly nitrogen and phosphorus (not too much nitrogen and phosphorus at once, as too much can burn the roots). If seeds are not needed, remove them after the flowers fall, apply less potassium fertilizer, and use organic fertilizer preferably. Organic fertilizer does not cause soil compaction and has a long-lasting effect. Organic fertilizers are mostly made from soybean cakes, and a few drops of milk can also be added to the water. The milk ferments in the soil, providing calcium and rich nutrition. However, it is important to control the concentration, as too high a concentration can cause plant death, so fertilize frequently with thin layers.
Catharanthus roseus is a plant that loves light, and during maintenance, it should be ensured that Catharanthus roseus gets enough light to grow more vigorously and bloom more brightly. However, during summer, it is important to water it to prevent excessive evaporation and leaf wilting due to sun exposure.
As long as water and fertilizer are sufficient, Catharanthus roseus grows well. After some branches finish flowering, pruning is necessary to promote the formation of new flower buds and the growth of more lateral buds. Overly dense branches should be thinned to allow the plant to grow better. Since Catharanthus roseus has a larger plant size, a strong pruning can be done in autumn after flowering ceases.
Catharanthus roseus can be propagated by seeds or cuttings (propagation techniques are not explained here; those who follow Lao Li's gardening know that there are detailed explanations in previous chapters. All propagation methods are similar, and Catharanthus roseus cuttings are even simpler, similar to Panax notoginseng cuttings, just cut the leafy branches and plant them directly).
The root system of Catharanthus roseus is also well-developed, and the roots should be pruned every 2-3 years. Weak and diseased roots can be cut off, and the amount of roots to keep should depend on the size of the plant. For larger plants, more roots should be kept, and for smaller ones, fewer.
The above sharing on when Catharanthus roseus blooms and the introduction of its cultivation methods and precautions is for everyone's reference and operation.