Thunbergia - "Black-eyed Susanna": landing and care. Thunbergia

Thunbergia is widespread in the tropical regions of Asia and Africa in the amount of about 200 species. They are easily identified by their heart-shaped softly pubescent foliage and beautiful funnel-shaped flowers crowning long pedicels.

Varieties and types

The species of this plant cultivated in gardens are divided into shrub and climbing. The second group includes winged thunbergia (thunbergia black-eyed ) from South Africa, which is popularly called "black-eyed Suzanne."

This liana reaches a height of 2 meters, has ovoid (heart-shaped at the base) foliage up to 10 cm long with notches along the edges and bright yellow flowers 3 cm in diameter with a brownish speck in the center. Her long flowering begins in late summer or early autumn.

It is a variety series with flowers of various colors:

• Susie weib mit aug - with white flowers
• Variety Susie orange mit aug - bright orange
• Susie gelb mit aug - yellow.

(she is also thunbergia grandiflora ) is a powerful vine that grows in India, with a wide oval, serrated along the edges, pubescent foliage of bright green color up to 20 cm long. Its racemose little flowered inflorescences are characterized by a diameter of up to 8 cm, blue or purple color and White spot in the pharynx.

Shrub species include thunbergia erectus , whose unusual stem does not exceed 2 meters.

Variety thunbergia king robe stands out with pointed leaves and large dark purple flowers. Flowering continues throughout the year.

Thunbergia planting and care in the open field

Planting tunbergia in open ground is carried out after the last spring frosts at a mutual distance of 30-45 cm.

Before you start landing work, care should be taken to install a wire support or lattice for the plant - along them the liana tunbergia will crawl up or to the sides (with shrub species this procedure is not necessary). After planting, you need to water the site.

Ruellia or Dipteracanthus is also a member of the Acanthus family, grown mainly for home care. Recommendations for the maintenance and care of this plant can be found in this article.

Watering tunbergia

Watering the plant should be moderate, with an increase in abundance at the beginning of flowering. Otherwise, not only flowers, but also foliage can be dropped. In dry summers, it is recommended to carry out evening spraying with water.

The optimal degree of soil moisture for tunbergia is considered to be one at which the soil only dries out a little on the surface, remaining moist. If you overdo it with volumes of water, root rot is possible.

Soil for tunbergia

Soil requirements, in general, are enough. It should be fresh, no more than moderately dry, permeable, saturated with lime and nutrient compounds, well saturated with moisture and just as well give it away.

Optimally suitable qualities are endowed with a mixture consisting of equal parts of sand, peat, humus, turf and leaf lands. Sometimes pine bark or coconut substrate is also poured into the soil (no more than a handful for half a bucket of earth).

Tunbergia transplant

It is better to transplant tunbergia from the second half of May. This procedure is relevant mainly when forcing a house, since in the open field in our conditions the plant lives only one season. However, the instructions presented later in the article will allow you to save it in the winter, as a result of which the transplant will become far from a useless exercise.

The pot needs to be chosen quite spacious in depth and width. Suitable soil mixture, described a little earlier or ready from flower shop. At the bottom of the pot, it is necessary to equip drainage using expanded clay or natural stones. After planting, the plant must be watered.

Despite the fact that thunbergia can be grown as a perennial, many gardeners annually throw out faded tubers due to the fact that after winter and the previous abundant flowering, the plant loses its strength and next year will probably not please with such brightness and splendor. Be that as it may, tunbergia fits perfectly into the decor with hanging baskets, and overall specimens are quite widely used in vertical design greenhouses.

Fertilizers for tunbergia

The plant will not interfere with fertilizers. Mineral supplements for flowering plants, it is necessary to fertilize the soil 2 times in 30 days from the beginning of the formation of the first flowers to mid-October.

pruning thunbergia

The beauty and density of the crown are provided by pinching young stems. spring pruning oblong shoots are performed in order to prevent their exposure and, accordingly, damage to the overall appearance of the plant.

Thunbergia in winter

Thunbergia will not survive the winter in any way, therefore, grown in the open field, it is disposed of in the autumn.

Wintering in this case is possible only if all the stems are cut before winter to 4-5 buds, the cuts are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate and the plant is moved to a home environment (it should be placed in a cool place with a temperature of no more than 15 ℃ until spring). At home, you need to periodically irrigate the surface of the soil in a pot, preventing it from drying out, but nothing more.

Thunbergia growing from seeds

Propagation of tunbergia by seeds is carried out by sowing them in boxes in February and then diving before planting on a plot in open ground.

Seed germination lasts no more than 2 years. A plant planted in this way, as usual, enters flowering 100 days after pinching.

Propagation of tunbergia by cuttings

To propagate tunbergia with cuttings, you will need to cut green cuttings 8–10 cm long in mid-August. Each cut is then treated with phytohormones, helping black-eyed Suzanne adapt to environmental conditions.

After that, they are placed in pots with slightly damp soil (watered the day before planting) and covered plastic bags or bags. It is recommended to store the cuttings at a temperature of 20-22℃, and for the winter it is necessary to provide lower degrees - about 10-12℃.

Diseases and pests

The most annoying pests of tunbergia are ticks . Their presence is determined by the changed color of the foliage, which becomes silvery-transparent, as well as punctures in the lumen of the leaf and small white dust, similar to dandruff, for the most part appearing on the underside of the leaf.

The main cause of damage is excessively dry air. If the plant has been severely affected by the attack, it is necessary to treat it with acaricides such as Actellik and Fufan.

In addition to ticks, tunbergia are dangerous scale insects , aphid And whiteflies . effective measure prevention and control of them, treatment with soapy water or insecticides is recognized 4 times with an interval of 7-10 days. In general, tunbergia is a plant that is resistant to pests / diseases, provided that the rules of care, especially watering, are followed.

Thunbergia flower is used for landscaping and in landscape design. At home, it is grown using the seedling method of sowing in February-March. Growing a tunbergia flower must begin with a choice suitable soil. It should be sufficiently structured, lightweight and contain a large number of organic nutrients. For planting tunbergia and subsequent care, you need to know some rules of agricultural technology. This will avoid common mistakes and grow strong and beautiful plants at home.

See above how the cultivation of tunbergia from seeds is carried out in the photo, which shows sowing, caring for seedlings and the final result in the form of a strong flowering plant.

How to get a similar result, you can find on this page. It tells about all the rules of care, variety selection and many other aspects that relate to tunbergia flowers.

Description of the tunbergia plant and photo of flowers

The botanical description of the tunbergia plant should begin with the fact that it belongs to the Acanthus family.

The genus unites about 200 species of shrubs and herbaceous, often climbing, perennials growing in the tropical forests of Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Australia. There are hanging (ampel) and climbing ones among them, for which props are needed.

Most common in room culture received creepers with stems up to several meters long and bright leaves of various shapes.

Thunbergia is an evergreen vine with flowers of various colors, which, when good care appear almost all year round.

Turbergia is one of the fastest growing annual plants with a slightly ribbed stem and broadly - lanceolate bright - green leaves. The flowers are 2–5 cm in diameter, tubular, funnel-shaped, white or bright yellow with a black centre. The fruit is a box.

Look at the photo of tunbergia flowers, which shows the most diverse shades of petals:

Types of tunbergia for indoor floriculture

In indoor floriculture, the following types are most often found:

Thunbergia grandiflora is a plant with rounded triangular leaves with a pointed apex. The underside of the leaf is covered with fluff. Bright blue flowers with small white spots are collected in racemose inflorescences;

Thunbergia winged (T.alata) - beautifully flowering climbing plant with lignified ribbed branching stems 2–2.5 m long, slightly pubescent. Leaves up to 8 cm long, opposite, heart-shaped or arrow-shaped, serrated at the edges, pubescent, green. Flowers solitary, 3–5 cm in diameter, axillary, fragrant. The color of the corolla is varied: white, cream, orange-yellow, yellow, orange, light brown, always with a lilac, brown or black throat. Blooms in August-September.

Thunbergia erectus (T. erecta) - beautifully flowering shrub plant up to 1.8 m high, with a slightly ribbed stem. Leaves up to 6 cm long and 4 cm wide, opposite, sessile, lanceolate or ovate, wavy or indistinctly serrated along the edge. Flowers up to 1 cm long, axillary, solitary, with serrated calyx. The corolla is bright purple, the tube is white on the outside, yellow on the inside. The flowering period is from May to August. The fruit is a box.

Thunbergia fragrant (T. fragrans) is a flowering herbaceous liana-like plant. Stems up to 6 m long, lignified, ribbed, branching, pubescent. Leaves up to 7 cm long, opposite, triangular or arrow-shaped, with a sharp apex, dark green on the upper side, lighter on the lower side. Flowers up to 5 cm in diameter, solitary, axillary; corolla white; calyx small, with numerous whitish teeth.

How to grow tunbergia: sowing seeds

Propagated in March by seeds formed during artificial pollination, which are sown in spring, and cuttings.

Many types of tunbergia reproduce well with the help of seeds. At the end of winter, sow the seeds in moist soil and wait for the seeds to hatch in about a week. All this time the temperature should be at the level of 18-24 ° C and high humidity. The sprouts should grow to 10-12 cm so that they can be transplanted into normal soil and cared for as adults. Before you grow tunbergia, you need to choose the right variety for indoor floriculture. Sowing tunbergia seeds is best done in the spring, around the end of February or the beginning of March.

Thunbergia grandiflora propagates by cuttings. Cut cuttings about 10 cm long from the stem, cut off the foliage from below and process the cut with root. Cuttings are planted in ordinary seed soil, maintain a temperature of 24-27 ° C and sufficient soil moisture. The cuttings need shade. You will notice the rooting time of the cuttings by growth. Once this happens, transplant the plants into normal soil.

Growing and caring for tunbergia at home

The time for transplanting tunbergia is the beginning of spring. When growing and caring for tunbergia, make sure that the size of the roots and the diameter of the pot match, and also remember the pebbles on the bottom for drainage. If an ampelous plant is grown, then inner surface containers are first laid out with moss. At the same time, you can trim the tunbergia at home so that it grows better.

Thunbergia is photophilous.

The recommended temperature in spring summer period- 21-24 ° C, and when it increases, ventilate the room. With the onset of cold weather, it is optimal to keep tunbergia at 16 ° C. If the temperature drops below 10 ° C, then the foliage is likely to fall off. In this case, shorten the stems a lot. Continue to provide thunbergia with light, but not direct sunlight. Moderate watering.

Caring for tunbergia at home, water moderately throughout the year and spray once a week with soft, warm water.

In early spring, weak shoots must be pinched.

Fertilize every 2 weeks.

Transplanted in the spring in a light loose earth. soil mix are made up of turf, leaf and peat land and river sand. (1: 1: 0,5: 0,5).

Pests and diseases

Most often, whiteflies and scale insects settle on the plant. If the air in the room is too dry, then the edges of the leaves begin to dry out. When moisture gets on lower part leaves may develop rot spots.

Green aphids can attack tunbergia. The insect is destroyed with pyrethrum-based insecticides.

Application

Thunbergia is great for landscaping open balconies. She can easily climb up the support, but just as easily and beautifully, her shoots can go down.

This vine can be grown in hanging baskets or planters, allowing the shoots to hang down spectacularly. Like other climbing plants, Thunbergia needs support. thinking through overall design rooms, at the same time decide which suitable support (original lattice, for example) can beautifully support flexible shoots.

Thunbergia in the Asian and African tropics occupies a vast territory, covering tree trunks and rocky slopes with a continuous green carpet with many bright colors. The plant has the form of a liana or a small shrub. It adapts well to growing in the garden or indoors. Caring for tunbergia is not difficult at all. It grows fast and blooms beautifully. Thanks to this, it can be used for practical purposes, masking unsightly walls or decorating a balcony.

Botanical description

Thunbergia is a herbaceous flowering plant of the Acanthus family. The genus contains annual and perennial varieties. In our country, it is often grown outdoors as an annual. In just a year, the length of the whip can be 2-8 m. Thunbergia has a strong rhizome and several branched ground shoots.

Heart-shaped or oval leaves of bright green color are dotted with small relief veins. They are arranged oppositely on short petioles. The leaf blade may have a smooth or serrated edge and a short pubescence on the reverse side.

At home, flowering of tunbergia often continues all year round. In central Russia, it occurs from July to September. Axillary single flowers on flexible peduncles have a dark fluffy core and 5 wide petals. The diameter of the cup is about 4 cm. The color of the petals can be white, yellow, orange, pink, red.

After flowering, a rounded seed pod is set, which contains several oblong seeds with a rough brown skin. The diameter of the seed is 4 mm.

Types of tunbergia

About a hundred species of plants have been registered in the genus tunbergia. However, only some of the most interesting of them are used in culture.

Flexible shoots up to 2 m long easily cling to any support. Paired leaves are painted in green or bluish color. They are ovoid or triangular in shape with serrated edges. Length sheet plate is 2.5-10 cm. Flowers with a diameter of about 3 cm in our latitudes bloom at the end of June. They have a dark core, for which the tunbergia is called "black-eyed Susanna." Popular varieties:

• Blushing Sussie - petals are painted in pastel shades peach and cream flowers;
• Sussie Orange - bright orange petals are located around the dark center;
• African Sunset - a dark eye is surrounded by bright terracotta petals;
• Sussie Weib is a creeper with white flowers.

The plant tolerates shade well and forms long, curly shoots. During the flowering period, large flowers bloom on them with thin petals of blue or purple.

A climbing variety from light tropical forests has triangular leaves. white flowers up to 5 cm in diameter exude an intense sweet aroma. The buds close at night and open again in the morning.

This form is a branched bush up to 120 cm high. Thin shoots can lie down over time, therefore they require support. The ovate leaves with smooth edges are bright green. The flower consists of petals of a rich purple color and has a small yellow spot at the base.

This evergreen climbing plant can reach a height of 5 m. Large oval leaves are arranged in pairs in rare internodes. Along the entire length of the shoot, long red-brown inflorescences of small tubular flowers are formed. Flowering plant exudes a pleasant aroma and is often used to decorate arbors.

Growing and planting

Thunbergia prefers growing from seeds. They are pre-planted for seedlings at the end of winter. Before sowing, it is recommended to soak the seeds in a solution of growth stimulants. In a shallow box with sandy-peat soil, seeds are sown to a depth of 5-7 mm. It is better to moisten the soil with a spray gun, as water from a watering can can wash out the holes.

Landing in open ground

Greenhouses are covered with a film and kept in a bright place at a temperature of + 22 ... + 24 ° C. Seedlings appear after 3-7 days, after which the cover is removed and the temperature is lowered to +18°C. With the advent of 3-4 leaves, the seedlings are thinned out. The distance between them should be 15 cm.

Thunbergia is transplanted into open ground in mid-May, when the danger of night frosts has passed. The place must have good lighting or a very small shadow. Also needed reliable protection from drafts. Optimal Distance between vines is 40-45 cm.

The soil for the plant should be light, fertile and slightly acidic. The soil mixture can be made up of the following components:

• soddy soil;
• sheet soil;
• sand;
• peat.

Before planting, a small amount of lime should be applied to the ground.

When grown at home, tunbergia looks great in hanging planters. You need a wide and not very deep pot. There should be a drainage layer at the bottom to drain excess water. Indoors, tunbergia is able to please the owner for several years. Transplantation is carried out annually in early spring.

Plant care rules

Caring for tunbergia is quite simple. Even a novice florist can cope with the plant.

Lighting. For normal development and abundant flowering, it is necessary to provide tunbergia with bright lighting. However, from the scorching summer sun, it is better to provide a little shading from 12 to 15 hours.

Temperature. Optimum temperature air in summer is +21…+25°C. In winter, it should be lowered to + 12 ... + 14 ° C. For the summer, it is recommended to take the indoor tunbergia to the garden or balcony, picking up a calm place.

Humidity. Liana adapts well to the dry air in the house. To make the leaves look more beautiful, it is recommended to periodically spray the plant and bathe in the shower.

Watering. Thunbergia needs frequent and abundant watering. The soil should be slightly damp all the time. However, if the water stagnates, root rot cannot be avoided.

Fertilizer. The plant responds well to feeding. Mineral compositions for flowering, they are applied to the soil twice a month from the moment the first buds are formed until mid-October.

Pruning. To make the crown look like a beautiful thick shock, you should pinch the young shoots. In the spring, pruning of long stems is carried out, as over the years they can become bare. If the thunbergia is grown in a pot, you can take care of the support in advance, along which the lashes can climb as they grow.

Possible difficulties

Thunbergia is disease resistant. Only for long improper care she loses her charm. For example, due to stagnant water, rot develops, and the lack of sunlight negatively affects flowering and growth.

Black-eyed Susanna blossomed. Do you know what this plant is? Such a romantic name is called thunbergia, it seems, in Germany. Indeed, the bright yellow flowers of this creeper have a clearly defined black eye in the center, which makes them very spectacular.
I want to tell you how I raised this beauty. I grew Thunbergia a long time ago, then I forgot about it, but now I saw seeds in the store - and I wanted to decorate my garden again with this wonderful flower. Moreover, I love different climbing plants.

Who are you - tunbergia?

First, I’ll tell you a little about what kind of plant it is. The correct name is winged tunbergia, it comes from South Africa. We are growing like annual plant. This liana does not grow very long - in total it is 2-2.5 m tall. But, nevertheless, it requires support. She climbs it with the help of her flexible grassy stems that wrap around ropes or twigs. Her leaves are simple, slightly lobed, shiny,
Or you can plant a tunbergia in a flowerpot and hang it - then its numerous stems will go down, like an ampelous plant.

How do I grow thunbergia

Growing tunbergia from seeds is not difficult at all. Her seeds are large - such round peas. I sowed it immediately in separate small cups in March. Although for the future it is better to sow in early April, because my thunbergia has outgrown. Again, it all depends on where you live. I live in Siberia, we plant heat-loving plants in the ground in early June - when there are no more frosts. Because the seedlings have outgrown a little.

But back to our seeds. Seedlings appeared about two weeks later, almost all sprouted, together. At first they stood on the window along with the rest of the seedlings, and already in April they migrated to the glazed loggia - I have it on the south side, and on warm sunny spring days it’s already just summer here.

Thunbergia seedlings grew well, and soon the main stem began to curl around itself. Here is the problem with early landing tunbergia. I moved some of the fastest growing plants into more spacious pots, began to attach supports to them - I just stuck straight branches from maple into the pot - and shoots of tunbergia began to quickly wrap around them.

Relocation to the garden

I transported the tunbergia seedlings to the dacha somewhere in the middle of May - and since I had already lived there almost all the time at that time, I took the seedlings out into the street during the day and brought them into the house at night. Still, I was afraid that it would freeze.
In the ground finally landed in early June. I was looking for a place for a long time - where to attach it, because it was necessary to place it near the support. Finally, in several places she built such low arches from flexible rods of irgi. And near them she planted seedlings of tunbergia. I have already sent long shoots along the rods, tied them up in some places so that they grow in the right direction.

The main thing in caring for tunbergia is to direct all shoots along the supports. The fact is that it forms a lot of stems, they grow quickly, begin to spread along the ground and braid everything around - so you need to have time to direct them in the right "channel". And no more worries. If it is very dry - you can water, do not forget to weed. True, I have a little tension with this matter in the country - I always drive off somewhere and. I didn’t give any top dressing - I just had no time to do it. But I think you can feed them.

My thunbergias started blooming quite early. While still in seedling pots, they began to pick up the first buds. And once they moved to permanent place in the garden, took root a little, let out many shoots and began to open their amazing flowers one by one.
When the tunbergia grows properly, it is all covered with flowers - there are many of them blooming at the same time, and the plant looks very beautiful.

Grow tunbergia

You can plant a tunbergia near the fence and let it twist along the tied ropes. And you can make something like a wigwam out of long sticks - and the thunbergia will braid it all. In general, it all depends on the possibilities and your imagination.
The tunbergia that once grew in me gave ripened seeds, and I sowed them the next year. But this year I did not have time to collect the seeds, or rather, I simply did not do this, there was no time. So I will have to buy seeds again for the next season, which I will definitely do - I really like this black-eyed beauty.
In addition to plants with yellow flowers, varieties of tunbergia with pale yellow, white or pinkish flowers are bred - and they are all equally beautiful.
Yes, by the way - tunbergia can be planted in a planter on the balcony. But there is one danger here - in such conditions, it may appear on it spider mite(once I had such a trouble), and it is very difficult to get rid of it.
So it’s better to grow tunbergia in your garden - it will become its wonderful decoration.
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