Several types of Crassula are grown in pots. In addition to the popular Ovata and Tree-like, there are creeping, moss-moss-like sedums. The plant is called decorative deciduous in reference books. Most flower lovers have only seen how Crassula blooms in photographs. In nature and countries with warm climates, where crops grow right on the street, this phenomenon can be observed every year.
Does Crassula bloom at home?
It is not difficult to achieve flowering of the money tree, you just need to ensure proper maintenance and care. And they are somewhat different from those to which both people who do not pay attention to the fat plant at all and who carefully form the crown are accustomed.
If the owners want to see a blooming money tree, they will have to postpone pruning the crown and straightening the trunk for some time. Or wait until the plant is fully formed.
Flowering of common Crassula species - Tree, Ovate - begins at the age of 5 years or more. Owners who do not care for the plant are unlikely to see the fat plant bloom.
Often the buds do not appear indoors, but when the pot with the money tree is taken outside, or planted in the ground for the summer. Often, owners living in apartment buildings take shoots and place the plant, which has lost its attractiveness, on a sunny window between floors. And after a while they are surprised to discover that it begins to bloom.
How to achieve flowering using special measures?
In order for Crassula to look truly beautiful and bloom, you need to know how to properly care for it and follow some additional measures:
- From March to September, you need to feed the plants once a month. It is better to use a complex fertilizer for cacti, but any universal fertilizer is also possible.
- During growth, it is necessary to shape the crown of the tree so that it does not stretch upward, but is round and fluffy. To do this, we pinch the growing points or trim the ends of the branches.
- During the flowering period, faded flowers and leaves must be removed.
- Replant plants using the transshipment method once a year.
When replanting, choose a pot larger than the previous one by 1-1.5 cm in diameter. If the flowerpot is much larger, you won’t be able to wait until the entire volume of soil is filled with roots.
Attention! Crassula leaves and flowers contain a small dose of arsenic. Do not taste the plant! And make sure children don't do this!
The money tree is a wonderful plant that will decorate any interior. And if you take care of it, it will thank you with a cloud of delicate fragrant flowers. Good luck and beauty to you!
Find out also why the leaves of the tree turn yellow and fall off, become soft and wrinkled, and the tree itself becomes covered with a white coating, grows poorly, withers, dries, bends or falls. Our experts will tell you in detail about all the diseases and pests of Crassula and give advice on how to revive this beautiful plant.
When and how does the money tree bloom?
It is difficult to name the exact time when the fat plant will form and open its buds. Some lovers claim that they appear in the autumn-winter period, while for others the crop blooms by the end of summer. The first usually occurs indoors, the second - outdoors, but not necessarily.
From a distance, a flowering money tree planted in the ground for the summer can be mistaken for a collapsed Vidny sedum bush. But upon closer examination, it turns out that the Crassula has looser inflorescences, and the color of the buds is much paler.
Crassula flowers are small, star-shaped, usually with five pointed petals. In Ovate and Tree-shaped, they are white with a slight pink or purple tint, collected in umbrellas, located at the ends of the shoots, where not a growth bud, but a flower bud is formed.
Other species can form yellowish, bluish, red buds, rarely solitary, more often grouped into racemes, panicles, umbrellas emerging from the axils of the leaves or the tip of the branch.
When the crassula begins to bloom, a sweet, not very pleasant aroma spreads. A pot of a budded money tree should not be kept in the bedroom.
Crown care
The money tree is a rare representative of domestic plants, the crown of which can be formed into various shapes.
Topping
Basically, the owners of the fat plant do not consider it necessary to pinch its shoots, because at home the plant does not branch very actively. Their branches are often long, thin and simply do not have time to become lignified. But that's the problem. Thinning branches are not able to carry the load of fairly heavy leaves, so they begin to bend downwards and possibly even break off. It happens that the crown turns over the entire pot with its weight, mercilessly breaking the already formed tree. Pinching can prevent unwanted excesses.
Pinching the money tree
Features of formation
The classic form of Crassula is considered to be the type of tree. To help the crown form in such an image, you need to follow several rules. First of all, the money tree should grow in a pot in a single copy. Planting several seedlings in one container will lead to the appearance of a jungle of weak shoots that will prevent each other from branching and getting stronger. In a single-growing tree, it is necessary to pinch the shoots in a timely manner, giving the crown the required shape.
To form a tree-like form, one plant is planted in a pot.
How to properly pinch
The time for pinching comes when at least four pairs of leaves appear on the branch, and a new bud has already appeared between the last ones. It is this that needs to be plucked. This is done with tweezers or nails, by pulling or twisting. It's convenient for anyone. The main task is not to damage nearby leaves. A little time will pass and several new ones will appear in place of the removed kidney. This will indicate that your money tree has begun to branch. In the case where a single bud appears, the pinching procedure is repeated.
Diagram of the formation of the crown of a money tree
It is very important to carry out the pinching procedure exactly at the specified level. By doing this lower, you will force the branches to grow cramped, while letting the branches grow higher will allow them to become thin and overloaded with foliage. In the latter case, the shoot will need to be shortened by breaking off or cutting off the upper part. The cut site is sprinkled with an antiseptic, which can be crushed activated carbon or powdered cinnamon. You cannot use wire in caring for the money tree at the stage of crown formation.
Bud to pinch off on a money tree
You need to start giving the plant the intended configuration from the first months of life. You can also form a crown on a fully grown plant. However, in this case you will have to remove pieces of branches. After such procedures, not very attractive stumps will remain, so it is better to work on the crown of the plant while it is still young.
Is it necessary to form a trunk?
This part of the money tree does not need your care. The leaves on the woody trunk will be needed by the fat plant until a certain time, so do not rush to remove them. Subsequently, she will shed them on her own, and the trunk will take on a magnificent appearance.
Why doesn't Crassula bloom?
Often care at home is correct, the plant feels good, the trunk is straight, the internodes are short, the leaves are beautiful, thick, but there are no buds. There are several reasons why the money tree does not bloom.
Insufficient lighting
In countries with a warm climate, the Crassula grows outdoors or in nature under the bright sun and produces buds every year. Indoor Crassulas have adapted to home conditions after repeated cloning; they can grow in partial shade, but still love good light.
For the money tree to bloom, you need several hours of direct sun a day; shade should only be applied during intense heat at midday. But you need to gradually accustom the plant to light, otherwise, instead of blooming, the fat plant will get burned.
In winter it is cloudy, even the money tree standing on the south window does not have enough sun. Need artificial lighting.
Warm content during the dormant period
Crassula can be made to bloom only if in winter the temperature is between 10-14° C. As some sources advise, it cannot be lowered to 5° C - perhaps the authors confused Crassula with another succulent.
In an ordinary apartment it is not easy to maintain such a temperature regime. The plant can be placed on an insulated balcony, but it is necessary to provide lighting.
Trimming
Photos showing how Crassula blooms at home usually depict varieties of the most popular Ovata in culture. There you can clearly see that the peduncle comes out from the top of the shoot, as if it were its continuation.
When the owners carefully shape the plant, constantly plucking out the growth point on the branches, at some point the planted flower buds will be removed.
In good light, they can survive on the lower shoots, left to expand (thicken) the trunk. But if the crassula blooms, the plant becomes exhausted, and the central stem stops rapidly increasing in diameter.
Incorrectly selected fertilizers, pot and soil
These reasons are best considered together. If Crassula is planted in a peat or soil-containing substrate, the pot should be tight.
The root system of the crop is small, it cannot master the earthen lump; if there is any mistake in watering, it will turn sour and the sucking shoots will rot. The plant will not bloom.
An excess of nutrients is more dangerous for a fat woman than a deficiency. Many owners who annually replant Crassula in soil for succulents, containing macro- and microelements in a balanced form, do not fertilize it at all. Excess nitrogen causes the internodes to stretch out, makes the vegetative organs loose, and prevents them from blooming. You can only use fertilizers for cacti.
The soil should be slightly acidic, poor in nutrients, permeable, with a stable structure. It’s better not to prepare it yourself, but to use a store-bought cactus mixture diluted with perlite, brick chips or other leavening agents.
Professional cactus growers grow crassula in a substrate of pure gravel. It allows water and air to pass through without problems and does not sour. A pot can be of any shape and volume; a large one, for example, makes it easier to disperse the trunk. The main thing is that there are several drainage holes in the bottom.
But the gravel substrate contains no nutrients at all. The fat plant will have to be fertilized regularly, and not once a month, but as recommended by a recognized authority in the field of floriculture, breeder Jan Van der Neer, every 2 weeks. Only during the transition period (March and September) is it enough to feed the money tree once.
You may not expect rapid flowering if the roots were stripped or severely damaged during replanting. The fat woman will require a recovery period.
Other reasons
The money tree does not bloom when the owners make mistakes when leaving:
- If the root rots due to frequent watering, or the leaves shrink due to infrequent watering, Crassula spends all its energy on survival and restoration. It won't bloom.
- The fat woman responds well to an influx of fresh air, but does not like drafts. When ventilating, the tree should be covered with newspaper and not placed under air conditioning.
- The plant does not produce buds if it is sick or damaged by pests. How long it will not bloom depends on how early the problem is detected and the effectiveness of the measures taken. Folk remedies do not always help; it is better to immediately use fungicides or insecticides.
Transshipment
For full development and flowering, the fat plant is replanted at least once every one to two years. This is especially important if the crown of the plant has become wider than the diameter of the pot.
To avoid damaging the roots, the plant is removed from the container by carefully pulling it by the trunk along with the soil. To stabilize the new pot, place several heavy stones at the bottom and add a layer of drainage, which you can buy in a store or use pebbles, pieces of foam or cork, or fragments of ceramics or glass.
It is necessary to ensure that there are no large or sharp objects in the pot. They can scratch the plant's delicate roots.
The old soil is lightly shaken off, but not completely removed. The plant is placed in the center of the pot, and soil is added to the sides, which is thoroughly compacted.
A new substrate must be chosen that is suitable for the flowers of this variety. It should not retain moisture so that the roots do not rot, and the leaves and trunk of the plant do not absorb excess liquid.
You can buy soil in a store or prepare it yourself by mixing the components in the following proportions:
- two parts of garden soil (with turf and leaves);
- two parts of sand (it is better to take large river sand);
- one part peat.
Recommendations
When growing a money tree, you must follow the following rules:
- The flower likes constancy, so it is not advisable to move the pot.
- Lack of light causes the trunk to lengthen and leaves to fall off massively.
- The money tree is peaceful in winter. During this period, it is advisable to place the plant in a room where the temperature is about 5 degrees. Watering should be done no more than once every 20 days.
- If the flower is placed on the windowsill, the leaves should not touch the glass.
Reproduction
There are 2 methods of propagation: cuttings and seeds. Each of them has its own subtleties. Cuttings are the most convenient propagation method. This is done with stem segments and leaves. A large leaf or shoot must be cut with a sharp knife. The cuttings should be placed in a container of water until roots appear. To quickly form the root system and protect the stem from rot in the water, charcoal is added.
Cuttings can be planted directly into the ground. But in order for the tree to grow well, it is advisable to germinate the cuttings. They are planted in a pot with a diameter of 5-7 cm. A soil substrate is required, which includes the same amount of turf and leaf soil, and sand.
The flower can be propagated by seeds. They need to be sown in wide containers containing leaf soil (2 parts) and sand (1 part), covered with glass. Every day the crops must be ventilated and condensation must be wiped off the glass. After 2 weeks, seed germination is required.
The seedlings must be planted in soil, which includes leaf soil (1 part), turf soil and sand (½ part each). The container with seedlings should be placed under bright, diffused lighting. Grown Crassulas should be transplanted into pots with a diameter of 5-7 cm in soil, which includes leaf and turf soil, sand (identical parts). While the sprouts are taking root, they must be kept at 16-18 degrees. Then the flower is moved to a permanent place.
Lighting
The money tree is an indoor plant that should be placed in areas with sufficient lighting. It is best to choose the southeast side. This is a recommendation not only from flower growers, but also from Feng Shui specialists.
It is necessary to control that direct sunlight does not fall on the plant, as this causes the flower to turn red, wither, and the foliage to fall. In the summer, it is advisable to take the tree out onto the balcony, and in the cold, move it to windows facing south.
