Fragrant Dracaena growing in tropics of western Africa, where it reaches a six-meter height.
She has long, up to 80 cm leaves, which, as they grow, fall from the bottom of the trunk, so that the plant takes on the appearance of a typical palm tree: a tall trunk with a spreading bunch of greenery on its crown.
In the flowering season clusters of round, fluffy, rather large white, light green or yellow flowers exude a strong pleasant smell of freshly mown hay. This feature and determined the name of this type of dracaena.
There is also the assignment of dracaena fragrans to the category "trees of happiness": some people associate the flowering of this plant with growing in those houses where peace, harmony and joy reigns, others recall legends about the successful cultivation of this particular dragon tree for five days from a dry stick - as a result, such a wonderful phenomenon allowed the lovers to unite.
Anyway, in modern room culture, quite a lot of varieties of this "tree of happiness" are successfully grown - with monochromatic and variegated, striped leaves, with smooth or wavy edges, and in some lucky ones, fragrant dracaena flourishes and fully corresponds to its name.
This video tells about the advantages of fragrant dracaena.
Further in the article we will describe in more detail about the plant Dracaena fragrant: care at home, photos, reproduction and flowering.
Home care
Lighting
Light will need a lot and in large quantities, especially for variegated forms; it should be bright, but mostly scattered - as near windows facing south-west and south-east.
On the purely south side, on fine summer days, you need to take care that this dragon fruit did not burn direct sunlight.
The summer months are very helpful. outdoor "vacations", at the same time care should be taken to ensure that the plant is not in the sun and does not stand in a draft.
Temperature
Optimum temperature range ranges from 18 to 25 degrees in summer. It should remain the same throughout the whole year for variegated dracenin fragrant. Wintering varieties with green leaves is preferable cooler, but the temperature should not fall below 15 degrees.
Air humidity
Fragrant dragon flower throughout the year should be sprayed frequentlyUsing soft water, wipe its shiny leaves, arrange a warm shower from time to time.
The soil
Can be used ready soil for palm trees and dratsen, or prepare a mixture, which includes nutrient components - leaf soil, sod land, compost, baking powder - coarse sand and fibrous acidifier - peat. All ingredients are added in equal amounts.
Landing
Landing tank choose a ceramic, porous, with a hole in the bottom.
At the bottom should certainly be placed drainage (expanded clay, small pebbles, brick fights with pieces of charcoal), then pour a layer of perlite or coarse-grained sand, then, with a slide — prepared soil, “sit down” the straightened root system of the drayenes on this slide and fill the soil to the desired level, carefully compacting it.
Transfer
Young home plants transplanted every 2 years, in the spring, adult specimens - Once in 3-4 years, and in respectable age dratsen, you can simply replace the top, five-centimeter, layer of earth with fresh, nutritious soil every year.
After buying a new copy held in quarantine for about two weeks, and then decide on transplanting: a young plant, which is closely in its capacity, can immediately get a new "apartment", and a more adult can wait with the transfer to a new container until spring.
During transplants, it is better to keep the old earthen room in order not to injure the sensitive root system.
If imported dracaena is purchased in the transport substrate, it must be transplanted immediately, completely freeing from the soil.
Watering
When watering it is important to preserve the moisture content of the earthy coma, and, at the same time, prevent overflow or moisture stagnation. The usual frequency of summer watering - twice a week, and winter - once in 10 or 12 days. Use soft, well-settled water.
For evaporation of excess moisture once a month it is useful to loosen the surface of the soil.
Top dressing
In spring and summer The period is a special complex for palm trees and dratsen, or alternating mineral and organic supplements are applied twice a month.
In winter feeding is carried out once a month, at half the dosage.
Pruning
To limit growth and stimulate branching, pruning is used: during the period of active growthIn spring or summer, they cut off the top, leaving 4 to 5 leaves on the stem.
Cut point can be covered with polyethylene to form lateral shoots. They usually appear in about a month. Then the polyethylene is removed.
Bloom
In room culture dracaena frantrans blooms quite rarely - a large vertical cluster of greenish, white, yellow, shaggy "balls" with the very smell of the freshest hay, which gave reason to call it fragrant.
Breeding
You can multiply dracaena seeds and cuttings: apical and stem. The variegated forms reproduce only by cuttings, as in seed reproduction, the grade is not preserved.
Seed propagation
In the spring the seeds are soaked for 24 hours in a warm growth stimulant solution, and then sown in palm soil, covered with plastic film and kept warm, airing the greenhouse and moderately moistening the soil. Germination time - from a month to two.
Seedlings need to be maintained with sufficient, but not excessive moisture, feed once a month and protect from excess sun. When dracaena grow to a height of 4-5 cm, they can be seated in small pots.
Propagation by cuttings
There are two ways to prepare such cuttings: abstraction and direct trimming.
In the first method on the trunk below the top, a T-shaped incision is made into which wet peat or sphagnum moss is placed, and then wrapped in polyethylene. For a month, peat (sphagnum) and high humidity stimulate root growth. Then the stem is trimmed slightly below the formed roots and the tip is planted in a separate pot.
Second way consists in a decisive pruning of the trunk with the tip. The injured places are sprinkled with crushed charcoal, and a cut of the apical cutting is additionally treated with a root formation stimulator.
Reproduction stem cuttings
Healthy young stalk with a sharp instrument cut into pieces soso that each part has at least two growth buds. Usually the length of such segments is 5-7 cm.
These cuttings are planted in prepared lightweight soil, kept warm, protected from intense sunlight and often sprayed. As a rule, within a month young shoots appear on them.
This video tells about the care of fragrant dragonza.
Diseases and pests
If the right conditions are ensured, the dracaeni are practically not ill.
When care errors plant may cause rot. This happens when a combination of low temperature and waterlogging. In such cases, you need to put dracaena fratrans in a warmer place and eliminate excess moisture. If the processes of rotting have spread widely, you will have to cut off the healthy cuttings and root them, and get rid of the rest of the plant.
Of pests spider mites, mealy worms and scale insects settle on the fragrant dracaena. The first remedy against them is the removal of insects with the help of a soap solution, but only the use of appropriate insecticides will finally eliminate pests.
In bright and warm rooms, with sufficient, but not excessive moisture, dracaena fragrant (fragrance) successfully develops, and if mysterious, ephemeral and subtle happiness is added to this, the plant blooms, fragrant with the aromas of summer haymaking.
In addition, dracaena perfectly cleans the air from ammonia, formaldehyde and benzene in any season.
A photo
Dracaena Fragrance: photo of the tree of happiness.
Fragrant Dracaena: photo of a flowering plant.
