| Life form | Shrub, grassy |
| Family | Acanthaceae |
| Origin | Southeast Asia, India |
| Ease of cultivation | Easy to grow with little difficulty. |
| The size | It can reach large sizes (shoots extend to 1 m with weak branching), but it is better to form regular plants 40-50 cm tall and wide. Small plants look more attractive. |
| Growth rate | High, for one season shoots are extended by 10-15 cm. |
| Lifespan | They live a long time, but it is desirable to rejuvenate the plant from the cuttings. |
| Temperature | In summer: preferably not higher than 75,2 ° F; In winter, the minimum is +64,4 ° F. A cooler content will prolong flowering. |
| Humidity | Not less than 50%, the plant adapts to the relatively dry air, but it is better to place the plant in a pallet with wet gravel or sprinkle every day, and use all methods of increasing humidity. |
| Lighting | Loves bright ambient light, it is required to make shade from direct sunlight. Suited east and west window. |
| The soil | An easy fertile soil is suitable. 1 part of humus, 1 part of leaf, 1 part of coarse sand or perlite and 1 part humus or peat ground (pH 5,6-6,5). Always use a pot with a hole, there must be good drainage. |
| Watering | Requires abundant watering, between watering the soil should dry out a bit, it does not matter if the plant slightly podvyanet. In winter, watered moderately – 1 time a week.The soil should be moderately moist. |
| Fertilizer | Once every 3-4 weeks, a liquid fertilizer with an increased content of potassium and a low nitrogen fertilizer. Positively responds to organic fertilizers. Too frequent feeding can damage the plant. |
| Reproduction | In spring cut cuttings 5-8 cm long with two knots and put them in moist sand with peat under a polyethylene film. It is desirable to treat pre-cut cuttings kornevinom. At a temperature of 77-82,4 ° F, soon the roots will appear. Plant several rooted cuttings in a small pot and, as it grows, pinch the top twice for better branching. |
| Bloom | Flowers are blue five-petalled (2.5 cm) in spicate inflorescences. Blooms in December – March. |
| Transfer | Transplant each year in spring in a pot 2 sizes larger than the previous one. It is preferable to use clay pots. Erantemuma roots when transplanting can be lightly trimmed. |
| Features of care | The main difficulty is the formation of an attractive appearance of the plant. The plant should be subjected to severe pruning after flowering in late spring for branching. Erantemum refers to the short-day plants, reducing the length of the lighting in the fall is his incentive to bloom. Therefore it is necessary to make sure that the plants at this time do not receive additional artificial supplementary lighting. |
| Difficulties | Infestation of aphids, spider mites, mealybugs and whiteflies. The plant is strongly stretched and weakly blooms in low light. The ends of leaves dry up, on the leaves appear areas of dry brown tissue in bright light and dry air. If the lower leaves turn yellow and fall off with a damp and viscous soil, the plant is waterlogged, it should be transplanted into new soil, removing rotten roots. On the leaves may appear stains when watering with cold water. Sometimes excess humidity on leaves erantemuma surfacemay appear very small droplets of moisture, which presents no danger. |
| Air cleaning | – |
| Toxicity | – |
