How to care for clerodendrum at home

Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/ru/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Houseplants Published: January 16, 2019Last edits: January 11, 2021

The plant clerodendrum (lat. Clerodendrum) , or clerodendron , is a deciduous or evergreen tree or shrub of the Verbenaceae family of the order Lamiaceae. In nature, clerodendrum flowers are found mostly in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America. In total, about 400 species of clerodendrum are known. The name of the plant is translated as “tree of fate”; it is sometimes called “volkameria” or “innocent love”. Although clerodendrum was introduced into culture several centuries ago, the clerodendrum flower has been grown as a house plant not so long ago, but its popularity in this role among flower growers and designers is growing very quickly.

Planting and caring for clerodendrum

• Flowering: from June to early autumn, fragrant clerodendrum blooms almost all year round.
• Lighting: bright diffused light (eastern and western window sills, shading required on the southern window).
• Temperature: 18-25 ˚C during the period of active growth and flowering, 13-15 ˚C during the dormant period.
• Watering: abundant, the top layer of the substrate should dry out between waterings.
• Air humidity: high, requiring nightly spraying in the warm season and keeping away from heating devices in winter.
• Feeding: from mid-spring to late summer, twice a month with complex mineral fertilizers for flowering plants.
• Dormant period: after flowering - in autumn and winter.
• Pruning: at the beginning of the growing season.
• Transplantation: at the beginning of active growth: young plants are replanted annually, adults - every 2-3 years.
• Reproduction: seeds and cuttings.
• Pests: aphids, whiteflies and spider mites.
• Diseases: chlorosis, rot.

Read more about growing clerodendrum below.

Landing

Soil requirements

The soil for growing Clerodendrum Prospero must be fertile . It is best to prepare the substrate yourself. It should include the following components:

1. sand – 20%;
2. peat – 30%;
3. leaf soil – 30%;
4. clay soil – 20%.

It is allowed to use soil purchased from a specialized store.

Attention! Before planting clerodendrum, it is recommended to disinfect the soil. This will reduce the risk of the plant being damaged by fungal diseases and pests. It is necessary to disinfect both self-prepared substrate and store-bought one.

Lighting and location

To successfully grow Clerodendrum Prospero, it is important to correctly determine its location and create a microclimate similar to its natural habitat. Clerodendrum needs good lighting, but it must be protected from direct sunlight. It can be placed on the windowsill of any side of the house, except the north side. Since the plant comes from the tropics, it needs moist air.

Features of cultivation

• The leaves of clerodendrum are bright green, simple, heart-shaped, with jagged or solid edges, a rough “quilted” surface, 20 to 30 cm long, arranged oppositely or whorled on the stem. Flexible shoots in the lower part become woody very quickly. The indoor clerodendrum flower is grown for its beautiful flowers with long stamens, collected in terminal corymbs or racemes.
• Clerodendrum flowers in most species have the shape of a butterfly, but in Clerodendrum philippines and Clerodendrum benguet the inflorescences resemble bouquets of unusual shapes.
• Both flowers and leaves of most clerodendrums emit a scent, and each species has its own.
• The indoor flower clerodendrum is represented mainly by two species - Thompson's clerodendrum and brilliant clerodendrum, although other representatives of the genus grow well at home.
• Clerodendrum can be given various forms (ampeloid, bush-like, standard) using pruning and pinching.
• Caring for clerodendrum flowers is not difficult - they are hardy, unpretentious and at the same time fabulously beautiful and also fragrant.

Trimming

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In young individuals, the tips of the tips are plucked off. Mature vines require firmer pinching. There is no need to feel sorry for the plant - it grows back easily after pruning and will send out many side shoots. All petals are pinched to a third of their length. Inflorescences are formed on lateral annual shoots.

The traditional form of clerodendrum is a liana. At home, it is usually grown as an ampel plant with freely hanging vines or attached to a support, setting the required direction of growth. The plant can be easily shaped - it can be cut out like a small bush or tree.

Tree shape

Tree shape. In young clerodendrum, only the strongest shoot is left, tied to a vertical beam, and the rest is completely cut off. When the plant grows to half a meter, its crown is cut off. The growth areas of the following side shoots must be pinched off for more active branching. All stems below the recommended top level are pruned from time to time.

To give the required shape, every year during pinching, all the stems of the plant are cut to the preferred height. Side branches are plucked off to make the bush thick and lush.

Caring for clerodendrum at home

Rules of care

For healthy growth and full flowering, tropical forest plants need conditions that are as close to natural as possible. Clerodendrum at home prefers window sills facing south, west or east - it needs bright light, but with protection from direct sunlight. The optimal temperature in summer is between 18-25 ºC; during the dormant period, which occurs in the winter months, the plant needs coolness - no higher than 15 ºC.

The air humidity in the room with clerodendrum should be high, so you will have to spray the plant with soft, settled water every night in the warm season, and in winter, remove the flower pot away from heating appliances.

Clerodendrum should be watered abundantly with soft water, but the top layer of soil should dry out between waterings. During the dormant period, soil moistening is carried out according to the following principle: the cooler it is in the room, the less often we water it, but the earth ball should not dry out completely. From mid-spring to the end of summer, clerodendrum is fertilized twice a month with complex fertilizers for flowering indoor plants; no fertilizing is needed in autumn and winter.

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Clerodendrum flowering

Depending on the species, clerodendrum begins to bloom in June, and these plants fade in September. It is interesting to observe how white bracts appear on the still bare shoots of Thompson's clerodendrum in early spring, from which crimson corollas up to 2.5 cm in diameter are formed. The beautiful clerodendrum blooms from June to September with panicles of purple flowers, and the fragrant clerodendrum blooms almost all year round. Anyone who has seen clerodendrum bloom will definitely want to see this magic again.

Trimming

Caring for clerodendrum involves mandatory annual pruning of the plant at the beginning of the period of active growth. Caring for Thompson's clerodendrum, for example, in addition to removing dried or weak branches, requires shortening all shoots by a third of the length, which should stimulate abundant flowering, as well as intensive growth and branching of young side shoots, on which inflorescences are formed. Clerodendrum is also pruned in order to form a crown - if you want the clerodendrum to grow as a bush, you need to greatly shorten the shoots when pruning in spring, otherwise you will have to install support for them later.

How to prune clerodendrum to make a tree? The standard form is created as follows: all shoots are removed, except for one, the strongest, which is cut off at a height of 50-70 cm, and then all shoots that appear in the apex area are pinched in order to create a crown due to their branching. If sprouts appear on the stem below the crown, they are removed.

Transfer

Growing clerodendrum requires replacing old soil with new soil from time to time; in addition, an overgrown plant may require a larger pot. Plants are replanted at the beginning of active growth after pruning. Young plants need annual replanting, but older plants need to change the soil and pot once every two to three years. The soil for clerodendrum should be nutritious and slightly acidic (pH 5-6). You can use store-bought soil, adding sand to it, or make your own from peat, coarse sand, leaf and clay soil in equal parts.

Before replanting the plant, the new soil must be disinfected by steaming, oven or microwave. How to transplant clerodendrum? Take a pot 2 cm in height and 2 cm in diameter larger than the old one, place a layer of drainage three centimeters high in it and transfer the plant from the old pot to the new one, being careful not to damage the root ball. Add the required amount of new substrate to fill the voids in the pot and water the plant. If your clerodendrum needs support in the future, dig it in when replanting so that you don’t have to stick it into the pot later, damaging the roots of the plant.

How to replant?

Experts recommend regularly replacing the old substrate in the container with a new soil mixture. That is why clerodendrum is transplanted. It is recommended to carry out this procedure at the moment when the plant becomes cramped in the pot. This fact can be determined by examining the bush.

How to prepare the substrate? To do this you will need slightly acidic and fertile peat. Its pH should not be higher than 4-6. Experts recommend purchasing clerodendrum filler at a flower shop.

River sand will help make the soil airy. Before replanting, it is necessary to thoroughly disinfect the purchased soil mixture.

To do this, it is calcined for 5 minutes in the oven. This manipulation will destroy up to 85% of harmful microorganisms. Thanks to this, the plant is quickly rehabilitated after transplantation.

The new pot should be 3 cm larger in diameter. The lower part of the container is decorated with drainage made of large pebbles. Next, the container is filled with nutrient substrate. Some gardeners recommend adding complex fertilizers to the soil mixture, which will dissolve on their own as the soil is moistened.

The plant is carefully removed from the old pot and placed in a new container. It is not recommended to disturb the root system. Any manipulation can provoke a stressful situation, during which the clerodendrum may die.

The final stage will be abundant watering of the tropical crop. To improve its decorative qualities, the liquid is slightly acidified with citric acid or vinegar.

Clerodendrum propagation

Reproduction of clerodendrum at home is carried out both by generative (seed) and vegetative (cuttings) methods.

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Growing from seeds

Clerodendrum seeds are sown at the end of February or early March in a mixture of turf soil, sand and peat, placed in a greenhouse and kept in good light, ventilating and maintaining moderate soil moisture. You will have to wait a long time for germination - one and a half to two months. When the seedlings have four true leaves, they are planted in separate small containers with a diameter of 6 cm, one seedling at a time or three in a container with a diameter of 11 cm, and as soon as the seedlings have become accustomed and begin to grow, they begin to accustom them to the conditions for adult clerodendrums.

Cuttings

If you already have clerodendrum, you will not need the seed propagation method, because you can always get cuttings for rooting when pruning in spring. Clerodendrum cuttings root easily in water, especially in spring and summer. Once the cuttings have taken root, they are planted in pots approximately 7 cm in diameter and grown under a glass cover, keeping the substrate moist.

As soon as the root system develops and shoots and leaves appear on the cutting, the cutting with the root ball is transferred to a pot with a large (9 cm) diameter, in which it will grow until spring without a cap. A year from the beginning of rooting, transfer the plant to a pot with a diameter of 11 cm in soil for an adult clerodendrum. During this time, be sure to pinch the shoots at least twice to stimulate the growth of side branches.

Description of clerodendrum Schmidt with photo

The peculiarity of this interesting plant is its beautiful, fragrant white flowers in the shape of a butterfly. They appear in large numbers on spectacular red flower stalks. From a distance, Schmidt's clerodendrum flowers even resemble a wedding veil - they are just as delicate and weightless.

The inflorescences are racemose, placed on branched shoots up to 40-50 cm long. The flowers themselves cascade down, they look especially beautiful against the background of dark green foliage. They emit a pleasant “sweet” aroma that is easily felt at a short distance.

Beautiful snow-white butterfly-shaped flowers appear during spring and summer

Pests and diseases

Of all the harmful insects, clerodendrum can be affected by spider mites and whiteflies. Whiteflies hide on the underside of the leaves, and on the top there is a shiny coating from whitefly excrement - honeydew, or honeydew. Spider mites are too small for you to see, but they make their presence known by white dots on the underside of leaf blades and subtle webs on the leaves. You can fight these pests with the same insecticide: dilute one ampoule of Actellik in a liter of water and spray the plant. The treatment can be repeated four times at an interval of three days.

Clerodendrum does not bloom

Very often, on flower forums, beginners try to find out from experienced flower growers why their clerodendrum does not bloom, and each time they are amazed at how simple the reason for their sadness is. Moreover, when they are convinced that everything depends only on them and get down to business, then problems with other colors are solved by themselves. And the reason is always the same: the rules for growing the plant were violated. In the case of clerodendrum, flowering most often does not occur due to improper wintering of the plant.

How to make clerodendrum bloom

So, what to do if clerodendrum does not bloom? In order for your clerodendrum to bloom in the spring, it needs to have a cool winter. As soon as flowering comes to an end, gradually reduce watering the plant and move the flower to a cool room - no warmer than 15 ºC. Optimal conditions for wintering are a temperature of 12 ºC and purely conditional watering only to prevent the plant from drying out. With this maintenance, for one and a half to two months, the clerodendrum will rest and gain strength for a new season of active growth.

As soon as you notice that the clerodendrum has begun to produce new shoots, gradually increase watering, prune and, if necessary, replant the plant, move it to its usual place and resume feeding. Make sure that the soil of the clerodendrum is nutritious - sometimes the plant does not bloom due to the fact that it has not been replanted for a long time. Another reason for delayed flowering and even falling buds may be insufficient lighting.

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Clerodendrum turns yellow

If clerodendrum leaves turn yellow in spring or summer, the reason may be a lack of moisture in the soil - water the plant more often or more abundantly so that there is always water in the pan. Sometimes the cause of yellow spots on clerodendrum leaves is the disease chlorosis, which can be cured by feeding the plant with iron-containing preparations.

Clerodendrum leaves are falling off

If leaf fall begins after flowering, then most likely this is a natural autumn process for deciduous plants - the leaves turn yellow and fall off throughout the fall and winter, leaving bare shoots. But in spring and summer, the leaves should not fall, so re-read the rules for caring for the plant and correct your mistakes or change the location of the clerodendrum.

Varieties of varieties and their characteristics

Clenodendrum prospero is a popular cultivar of Clerodendrum wallichiana, named after Nathaniel Wallich. The flower is shaped like a butterfly, with five petals, a swollen calyx, and long protruding stamens. At the end of summer, inflorescences appear on hanging shoots . Flowers, up to 3 cm in diameter, bloom gradually over one and a half or two months.

Popularly, Clerodendrum Prospero is often called the “bridal veil.” This is due to the presence of snow-white flowing inflorescences that resemble a veil. You can also find names such as “Clerodendrum Wallis”, “Wallichi”. And for its pleasant, intense aroma, the flower was called “nodding jasmine.”

Clerodendrum is distinguished by its durability and unpretentiousness, but, like everyone else, it needs proper care. Read our materials about the features of growing other types of this flower, namely: Inerma, Speciosuma, Bunge, Most Beautiful, Brilliant, Philippine, Thompson, Ugandan.

Kinds

Thomson's clerodendrum (Clerodendrum thomsoniae)

The most common species in indoor floriculture, it is a woody deciduous vine with smooth thin shoots. Dark green large dense leaves with clearly visible veins and solid edges have an oblong-ovate pointed shape and reach a length of 12 cm. On the upper side of the leaf plate there are irregularly shaped spots of more or less light shades. White swollen flowers with a red corolla are collected in loose racemes growing from the axils. Thompson's clerodendrum is propagated at home using cuttings, grows very quickly, blooms from March to June.

Clerodendrum splendens

It belongs to evergreen shrubs with climbing shoots, almost round leaves up to 8 cm long and 6 cm wide, having a heart-shaped base, a pointed oblong apex and wavy edges. Scarlet-red flowers are collected in short axillary racemes or corymbose inflorescences. Clerodendrum brilliant blooms almost all year round.

Philippine clerodendrum (Clerodendrum philippinum)

A species with a strong, pleasant jasmine-vanilla aroma that intensifies in the evening. This wonderful representative of the genus, unfortunately, is an infrequent guest in our apartments, although it is not capricious in care and blooms already in the second year of life with pinkish-white inflorescences up to 20 cm in diameter from pinkish flowers with a diameter of 2-3 cm, the beauty and tenderness of which is emphasized by wide dark green leaves.

Ugandan clerodendrum (Clerodendrum ugandense)

A fast-growing evergreen vine that can reach two meters in length. The leaves are dark green, broadly lanceolate, the flowers are collected in loose terminal inflorescences with few flowers and their blue thread-like stamens resemble butterflies with antennae. The upper and side petals of the flowers are blue, and the lower, barely noticeable petal is lilac-blue or violet. This clerodendrum can be given both the shape of a bush and the shape of a tree.

Fragrant clerodendrum (Clerodendrum fragrans)

Evergreen shrub up to two meters high. On the pubescent shoots grow broadly ovate, with deep teeth along the edges, the same pubescent leaves up to 20 cm long. White with a pink tint on the outside, simple or double flowers, exuding an aroma with notes of violet and citrus, collected in dense apical shields up to 8 cm in diameter . This species blooms almost non-stop.

Clerodendrum Wallich, or Clerodendrum Prospero

And also “Cleopatra’s tears”, “bride’s veil” or “bridal veil”, as this species is popularly called, is distinguished by the abundant flowering of snow-white inflorescences, composed of exquisitely shaped flowers. The plant itself is a small graceful bush with tetrahedral shoots and dark green lanceolate leaves 5-8 cm long with a wavy edge that fits on the narrowest windowsill. This is the most difficult species to grow indoors, requiring special daylight hours and high air humidity.

Clerodendrum beautiful, or most beautiful (Clerodendrum speciosum)

An evergreen shrub with tetrahedral shoots reaching three meters in height. Shiny, large heart-shaped leaves on long dull red petioles, covered with hairs. Purple flowers with a dark red corolla are collected in apical panicles. Blooms profusely from June to September.

How does Schmidt's clerodendrum differ from Wallich's (Prospero) clerodendrum

Along with Schmidt's clerodendrum, such a houseplant as Wallich's clerodendrum (aka Prospero) is also very popular. The flower is usually called Cleopatra's tears: delicate white flowers grow in bulk on large inflorescences with a diameter of up to 25-30 cm.

This plant differs from the Schmidt variety in appearance:

1. The flowers consist of large white and miniature bright red petals.
2. The leaves are glossy, bright green in color.
3. Clerodendrum Wallich has a more intense aroma, which is why it is also called “nodding jasmine”.

A characteristic difference is miniature red petals against a background of rich greenery

Use in design

Clerodendrum is perfect for decorating offices, apartments and public institutions. An unpretentious and brightly blooming exotic beauty that can decorate any, even the most boring, corner in the house.

Some gardeners plant different varieties to create unusual flower arrangements. The plant looks good in single pots on window sills and hanging plant pots.

Abundant and colorful flowering will delight owners throughout the warm season, and some varieties can bloom continuously throughout the year.

What you can't do without

One of the needs is full lighting, but direct exposure to rays is undesirable. Experts advise placing it near windows facing west or east. If there is not enough light, the long-awaited flowering may not occur.

Description

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Clerodendrum (Clerodendrum) is an original indoor flower from the Verbenovaceae family, the order Clear-flowered. Among the variety of species there are both evergreen and deciduous varieties. Depending on the variety, the plant may look like a shrub, vine or small tree.

In its natural environment, the exotic plant can be found in the tropical forests of the African continent, South America and in the warm climatic zones of Asia.

All species are characterized by bright green leaves, slightly elongated heart-shaped or lanceolate in shape with a rough surface. The length of the leaf blade is from 15 to 32 cm, width from 10 to 22 cm. The edge of the leaves is serrated or entire. The leaves are arranged oppositely on the stems or collected in whorls.

An unusual characteristic feature of the plant is that the leaf blades, like the buds, have their own unique aroma. The intensity of the smell depends on the plant variety and quality care.

At the beginning of development, the shoots and main trunk are tender and flexible, but as they grow, they quickly become woody. The woody parts of the plant are covered with thin but durable bark, light brown or greenish in color.

Inflorescences form between April and May and are located on the edges of the shoots. The shape of the inflorescences is corymbose or racemose. Opened buds resemble butterflies or small bouquets. The color of the petals can be red, blue, snow-white, lilac, greenish, or a combination of two contrasting colors.

With good care, clerodendrum blooms from early spring until late autumn.

Plants tolerate pruning well, thanks to this, gardeners can give the crown the most unusual shape. The most popular forms are ampelous, bushy or standard.