If you plan to breed in your home or on the site of various trees and other plants that would have an exotic and pleasant look, but at the same time would not require significant maintenance costs and would not take much time from you - turn your attention for dragon season. This bush tree, originally from Africa, will be able to surprise anyone, even the most spoiled guest, and a neat appearance will inspire you in the process of contemplating for new feats on the soil of gardening. This article focuses on the features of growing and caring for the dragon stage.
Legend
The dragon tree was called the “dragon tree” for a reason, not only because of a certain peculiarity of its structure, but also with the legend of ancient Indians, who, as you know, loved nature and sought to find the roots of all the phenomena around them.
Since ancient times, the Indians used the sap of this tree as a healing means and material for embalming, which allows a better understanding of the sources and main leitmotif of this legend.
According to this legend, once upon a time the earth was inhabited by countless powerful and no less intelligent than people, dragons, who were also immortal. 
People, wanting to get the secret of eternal life and great power, began to destroy the dragons in the hope that their blood will give them the desired power and allow them to forget about death. However, the blood extracted in this way lost any miraculous effect.
Did you know? Literally, the name of this tree from Latin is translated as "female dragon", which is probably associated with the general appearance of the shrub, resembling a bristling dragon with its wings raised and raised in the area of the back and head.
For many years the extermination of dragons by people continued, many generations of people changed in this pursuit of eternal life and power, until only one, the last dragon remained on earth.
People drove him for a long time, did not let him escape, overtook him at the farthest corners, and eventually the last dragon fell, but before his death he forgave the martyrs of his people and his murderers. In the same place where he was buried, a tree grew that could heal all sorts of wounds and bestows eternal life on everyone who tasted its sap. This tree was dracaena. 
According to another legend belonging to the Aztecs, this plant has already received a slightly different name: "the tree of happiness." She says that the young warrior, to whom the daughter of the high priest fell in love, received from her father a task - to water with the help of plain water the stick, which he handed to the soldier, for five days.
Exotic pot plants such as pandanus, strelitzia, alokaziya, pachypodium, drimiopsis, hymenocallis, chrysalidocarpus, shefflera, sinadenium, cicas, hovey and Forster will also beautifully decorate your home.
In the event that not a single leaf grows on a stick in the allotted period of time, the warrior will not only not get the hand of his bride, but he will be executed immediately.
However, to the great happiness of young people, at the end of the fifth day, leaves appeared on a stick - dracaena grew out of it. The daughter of a priest married a warrior, and the people have since believed that the branch of dracaena, which was cut at midnight at midnight, can bring happiness in love affairs. 
Description
Most species of dracaena can be found on the African continent, much less of them grow on the territory of South Asia, another one can be found in the tropical part of Central America.
The dracaenas belong to the Asparagaceae family and can grow in the form of trees or succulent shrubs. It is the last and gained enormous popularity as a home plant. Dracaena can produce as one powerful, woody stem with dark brown bark, as well as several (up to a dozen) smaller ones, on which the bark has a more delicate shade.
Succulents also include ripsalis, euphorbia, echinocactus Gruzoni, building berm, mammilaria, Echeveria, hatior, havortiya, agave, achirizone and nolin.
Most often, the bark is smooth, gradually thickens downwards. The stem passes at the top in a scattering of hard, elongated, narrow, green-tinged leaves, ranging from 30 to 100. The leaves do not form a pronounced alternation on the stem, are rather densely arranged in a chaotic manner.
Did you know? Dracaena is a long-lived plant, but due to the nature of its structure, it is quite difficult to accurately determine the age of a tree. Nevertheless, it is believed that the oldest dracaena on Earth is about 3 thousand years.
The presence of a secondary thickening meristem in the trunk is characteristic of dracenas. The roots are quite well developed, have a branchy structure, are located in the nature rather superficially, have orange coloring on the section.
Dracaena blooms infrequently and for a very short period, at the time of flowering white, purple or yellow flowers form at the tops of the stems, in each of the nests of the three-nest ovary of which a seed is placed.
Features
In the process of its growth, this plant does not form annual rings at all, which is connected with the growth of wood pulp in the trunk not according to the ring type, but primarily through horizontal growth; moreover, the structure of the dragon wood itself contributes to this phenomenon.
In the wild, these trees can reach a height of 15-20 meters, and with proper growing conditions even significantly exceed this mark. 
If you make a cut on the stem of a dracaena, you can see the release of a colorless, thick juice resin, which, upon contact with air, quickly becomes red.
For the peoples of Central America, this substance is called "the blood of two brothers," or "vermilion." Many tend to endow this substance with special mystical properties.
You can see that the branches of this tree almost always look vertically upwards, which adds beauty to it and explains why this tree is so popular among modern gardeners: this branch structure almost completely eliminates the need for additional pruning of branches and crown formation.
Dracet very often can be found in mountainous terrain or on rocky slopes. Its root system is perfectly adapted to keep the tree under the influence of almost any, even the strongest winds and is able to provide the upper part of the plant with all the necessary substances, extracting them only from the upper soil layers. 
Application of properties
The Aztecs, as well as, probably, the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands, the Guanchi people, used the juice obtained from dracaena in order to embalm the dead leaders and high priests. The embalming properties of the juice of this plant are truthful, but against the background of many modern substances, such as formalin, they are no longer of significant value.
Fibers from the leaves of some species of this plant are used in the process of obtaining ropes and coarse fabric. The wood of this tree burns badly enough, gives little light, however, it has a rather high heat capacity, which makes it a good heating material.
The use of dracaena wood as a carpentry material is difficult due to the natural features of its structure. The most valuable is the varnish extracted from the juice of a given plant, which is subsequently applied to metal, fabrics and joinery. 
In addition, on the basis of this substance, a hair dye is also produced, which is capable of imparting a rather lasting golden tint to them. Residents of places where dracaena grows in the wild, often use its juice as a paint for alcoholic beverages.
Traditional medicine recommends using a mixture of grape alcohol and draceni juice as a prescription for stomach ulcers. Alcoholic infusions of dracaena juice can also be used for the speedy healing of wounds and bruises, as well as a remedy for acne and purulent rashes on the skin.
Types of dragon draca
- Marginata The most popular type of dracaena. Reaches up to 3 meters in height, has rather narrow and curved leaves, the edges of which are painted in different colors, often red or pink. Sometimes there is a third band between the green stripe of the sheet and the outer stripe - the yellow one, which creates an additional aesthetic effect.
- Scented. It has wider leaves, sometimes up to 10 cm. The length of a leaf can reach 70 cm, and its height is about 2 meters. It owes its name to a very nice and strongly smelling white flowers.
We recommend that you read about how to choose and grow room dracaena.
- Derimskaya. It grows extremely slowly, but at a mature age it reaches rather large sizes - not less than 1.4 m. The length of leaves is from 50 cm. Special decorative value is attached to them by the presence of longitudinal strips on sheets, the location of which varies, other than the main color.
- Recurve dracaena (Reflex). This type almost does not occur in home gardening due to the need for constant support of an excessively high level of humidity for its normal existence. There are many different forms of this shrub, but the most famous is having leaves with yellow edges.
- Golden A fairly low shrub, very picky about environmental conditions. Leaf length - 20 cm, width - about 15 cm. The leaves are very aesthetic, pointed to the edge, cream-colored, with several transverse stripes of green shade.
Growing indoor plants
If you bought a young dracaena in a pot, then, most likely, you will not need to perform the transplant process in the first year of its presence in you. Young dracaena requires transplantation at least once a year, during which you will have to not only change the pot, but also completely change the soil mix.
However, if for one reason or another you are not satisfied with the pot in which you brought it, or the quality of the soil, or you simply prefer to know the exact time when the next time your plant needs to be transplanted, you can begin the transplant process using the following algorithm:
- Take a pot, the dimensions of which must correspond to the size of a flower transplanted into it (for the first-year dragon 3 liter pot is enough). The pot should be shallow and as wide as possible.
- Lay a small layer of sand or any soil, 3-4 centimeters thick. Top with a small layer of porous stones or rubble. Next, lay a layer (3-4 cm) purchased in the garden store ground for succulents.
- Extracted from the previous pot drazenu, preferably with an earthy clod, but you can without it, move to a new pot. Straighten all the roots so that they lie flat and do not bend anywhere.
- Next, fill the roots of the plant with a ground for succulents in such a way as to completely cover the entire root system, and fill the rest of the pot with earth, not reaching the edge with 2-3 fingers.
- Next, carefully water the transplanted shrub, wipe the leaves with a damp cloth and put the pot in a pre-thoughtful place.
Important! For older plants, which are no longer actively growing up, it makes no sense to carry out the entire process each year using the same algorithm. It will be enough to replace the topsoil with a new one, rich in various nutrients.
It is best to put the dracaena somewhere in the depths of the room, preferably directly in front of the window opening, because although it does not like bright light, it is extremely unwise to deprive the plant of a natural source of energy. The optimum temperature for the maintenance of this flower throughout the year is the interval from +20 to +45 ° C.
During the entire hot period, the dracaena must be watered daily and it is advisable to wipe its sheets with a damp rag. With the onset of cold weather, it is appropriate to reduce watering, and if the temperature in the room where the dracaena stands, drops to +15 ° C, then it will almost completely nullify it. 
Familiarize yourself with the main diseases and pests of dracaena, as well as the causes of yellowing and falling off of the leaves of this houseplant.
For fertilizing these flowers use mineral and organic fertilizers, which in the summer period is appropriate to take turns to make once every two weeks. Of organic fertilizers, wood ash, mullein or bird droppings are the best fit.
Among mineral fertilizers, nitrophosphate or nitroammophosphate is the best. With the onset of cold weather, fertilization is stopped, and in spring, when the average daily temperature begins to exceed +10 ° C, they are resumed again.
Important! Organic fertilizers are quite active in nature substances, so they can not be used in pure form. Mullear and bird droppings must be bred in a ratio of 1:10 with water, and wood ash must be mixed with peat.
How to multiply
The best period to start breeding this plant is the warm half of the year. The most effective home breeding method of dracaena is reproduction using cuttings. 
Further we will step by step describe this process:
- First, take a knife treated with alcohol and carefully cut off the tip from the parent stem. The incision should be at a height of 6-7 cm from its base. It will be better to make an incision at an angle of 45 degrees.
- Then we can do in two ways: put the cutting in the water and wait for the roots to appear or start rooting immediately. Practice shows that the second method gives a faster and more reliable result.
- The length of the cutting must be at least 5 cm, otherwise there is a chance that it will not be accepted. To achieve the required length, you can remove a few lower leaves. Dip the tip of the plant in a solution of "root" or other growth stimulant and cook a pot.
- In a small pot, it is worth adding ground with a high content of peat; land for succulents bought in a flower shop will work well. In the ground it is necessary to form a small depression.
- Insert the cutting into the groove and press it a little into the ground. For best results, the cutting can be placed under the hood or in the greenhouse.
- Maintain a cutting at a temperature of 22 to 26 ° C. Do not forget to water the plant in time and wipe its leaves with warm water. The pot is best kept on the windowsill. Do not worry if a few lower sheets disappear - for dracaena it is within the normal range.
In about a month you will receive a completely independent plant, ready for transplanting to a permanent place of growth. Such a small dragon flower will need some time after transplantation to be brought to the sunlight, so that it can synthesize all the substances necessary for its normal vital activity.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult in growing dracaena. Be attentive to your home colors, and they will delight your eyes for a long time with their well-groomed look.
