| Life form | Bush |
| Family | Rubiaceae |
| Origin | Tropical, subtropical Africa, o.Madagaskar |
| Ease of cultivation | A plant that is difficult to grow |
| The size | 50-70 cm in height, can reach a height of up to 80 cm. |
| Growth rate | Average |
| Lifespan | Perennial plant, but after 2-3 years pentas should be renewed with the help of cuttings. |
| Temperature | In summer: moderate temperature – 68-77 ° F, in winter about 60,8 ° F, not lower than 50 ° F. With a warm winter, the pentas dry leaves, the shoots are bare and stretched. |
| Humidity | Not lower than 60%, regular spraying with soft water is required so that it does not fall on the flowers. You can put the pot in a tray with a wet kermasite, pebbles or peat so that the bottom of the pot does not touch the water. |
| Lighting | A sunny place, no less than 4 hours a day of direct light, is suitable for the southern window. However, in the hot midday hours the pentas need to be shaded. Light is a prerequisite for flowering and forming a compact plant shape |
| The soil | Suitable well permeable soils rich in humus with pH 5.5-6.5. For a soil of own preparation to take: 2 parts of leaf 2 parts turf soil and 1 part of coarse sand. Very good drainage is required, because the pentas poorly tolerates soil silt. |
| Watering | Water abundantly with well-kept water, so that the soil seeps from the pot into the pan. However, the soil must dry before irrigation. During the rest period, water is not applied more often than every 6-8 days, approximately 1-2 days after the top layer of the soil has dried. |
| Fertilizer | From spring to autumn liquid fertilizer every two weeks is fertilized with an increased nitrogen content. Pentas does not like the high content of salts in the soil. |
| Reproduction | Stem cuttings 5-8 cm long in spring at a soil temperature of 60,8-64,4 ° F in a mini-greenhouse. Rooted for 8-10 days, rooted cuttings planted in 7-cm pots. Water abundantly.When the roots occupy the entire earth clod, they pass into 9-cm pots. Later they make another transhipment. Seeds can propagate pentas throughout the year. Seeds are sown on the surface of a moist substrate, not buried, and germinated in the light at a temperature of 73,4-78,8 ° F.Sprout for 2-3 weeks. After 4-6 weeks, picking is carried out and transplanted into pots 9-11 cm. Pentas can be grown as an annual crop by sowing seeds in January. The plant blossoms to May. |
| Bloom | At the end of the summer – in autumn, pink, purple, red inflorescences with a narrow corolla and a five-bladed arch |
| Transfer | Up to the age of two years, transplant annually into a larger pot. Adult plants are transplanted every 2 years. After the plant takes a pot 20 cm in diameter, you can only change the top layer of the soil. |
| Features of care | For the summer, it is good to take the plant in the garden or on the balcony to a sunny place (to the sun accustom the plant gradually). With maintenance in the house requires ventilation, the plant is resistant to drafts. In the spring, it needs radical cutting (by 1/3), because shoots tend to stretch. It is advisable not to let the pentas grow above 45 cm. Until the end of summer, the plant needs to pinch the tops to strengthen the bushiness. To ensure flowering in August-September, it is necessary to remove prematurely appearing kidneys. |
| Difficulties | It is affected by spider mites, whiteflies, aphids. Roots can rot in winter. Pentas stretch in low light. The leaves turn yellow with insufficient watering, lack of nitrogen or iron.Pentas may rot, or the leaves may become yellow with excessive moisture during the winter. |
| Air cleaning | – |
| Toxicity | – |
