Milan is also known as rice orchid and tree orchid. Beautiful tree shape, dense branches and leaves, light green leaves and blue flowers are a popular potted flower and one of the flowers for scented tea.
[Morphological characteristics]
Evergreen shrubs or small trees can be as high as 5 meters in the origin, and the potted plants are shrub-like, but the height is only 1 meter. Many branches and neat crowns. Odd pinnate compound leaves, alternate, with extremely narrow wings on the petiole, each compound leaf has 3 ~ 7 obovate leaflets, and the surface of the whole leaf is dark green and shiny. Small panicles, inserted in axillary branches. The flowers are very small, about 2 mm in diameter, yellow and fragrant. The flowering period is very long, and it is the most prosperous in summer and autumn (see color map 75).
As an ornamental plant, Milan, Taiwan Province is also cultivated, with large leaves and slightly fewer flowers. Its flowers often bloom with the growth of new branches, mainly distributed in miscellaneous trees along the coast of Taiwan Province Province, so it is also called Milan, Taiwan Province Province.
[distribution]
Milan is native to South China and Southeast Asia.
[habit]
It likes warm, humid, semi-cloudy and semi-sunny environmental conditions, has strong shade tolerance, adapts to growing in the sunshine with high humidity in the south, is very sensitive to low temperature, and can die in a short time. When the temperature reaches about 16℃, the plant can grow new branches, but it grows slowly and cannot form spikes. When the temperature is above 25℃, the growth is vigorous, and the axillary buds at the top of the new branches are pregnant with flowers. Therefore, in addition to in-situ planting in South China, other areas can only be potted. Be sure to move indoors after winter to prevent freezing and keep warm, otherwise it will easily freeze to death. In an environment that does not tolerate drought and likes humidity, leaves will wither and fall off immediately after drought, and roots will die. Fertile and loose neutral or acidic soil is needed.
[Propagation, Cultivation and Maintenance]
Milan often uses cutting and high-altitude layering to breed.
Cuttings include old cuttings and tender cuttings. The former takes the old branches born last year as cuttings, which are carried out in April-May, while the latter takes the semi-lignified branches of that year as cuttings, which are carried out in June-August. The criteria for collecting shoots as cuttings are thick leaves, green leaves and full axillary buds. The cutting length is about 10 cm, and the top 2 ~ 3 leaves are reserved, and all the other leaves are removed to reduce water evaporation and nutrient consumption and smooth the incision. The cutting substrate can be river sand, expanded perlite, peat, vermiculite, etc. When cutting, you can first punch holes in the inserted soil with bamboo chopsticks at a spacing of about 5 cm, and then insert the cuttings into the holes with a depth of about 1/3 of the cuttings. After insertion, press the substrate with your fingers to make the substrate closely combined with the cuttings, and water it. Build a shade shed to keep it ventilated and humid. The rooting speed of cuttings is closely related to soil temperature. High temperature at the bottom leads to fast rooting. When the bottom temperature is 30 ~ 32℃, it can be 40 days after cutting, and it takes 50 ~ 60 days to take root at 25 ~ 28℃. However, when the bottom temperature is high, the leaves evaporate quickly and the cuttings metabolize actively. At this time, if the humidity is low, it is easy to cause the cuttings to fall leaves. Once the cuttings have fallen leaves, there is no hope of survival. Therefore, high temperature must also ensure high humidity, and usually the relative humidity must be above 85%. Before cutting, soak the cutting base 12 ~ 24h with 20 ~ 25mg/L indolebutyric acid. Or 50 mg of ground indoleacetic acid 15 hours, which can promote rooting.
You can do high-altitude layering from May to September, but the best time is rainy weather in June. At this time, the survival rate of high pressure is high and rooting is fast. Generally, Milan, which is under great pressure in early June, can gradually take root and sprout after 40 days. The specific method is: select 1 year-old lignified robust branches, the stem is 0.5 cm thick, and peel them into rings 20 cm away from the bifurcation, and the ring width is about 0.5 cm, and the depth depends on the xylem. Then apply moss or wet soil on the girdling position, and then wrap it with plastic film to keep the moss moist all the time. After taking root, cut it from the mother, slow the seedlings in the shade, and then plant it in a pot. This method has high survival rate and rapid flowering of seedlings.
Milan has strong shade tolerance, but it is not tolerant of long-term shade, especially when potted Milan is in full bloom, it can not be kept indoors for a long time. When flowering, it can be moved indoors before 9 am and outdoors after 4 pm to receive sunshine. Accumulate nutrition for sprouting new branches and new flower heads. When you are indoors in winter, you should also receive as much light as possible.
Although Milan's requirements for soil are not strict, sandy loam rich in humus, fertile and slightly acidic is suitable. When potting soil is prepared, it is prepared by mixing 2 parts of peat soil, 1 part of Gaza, or 2 parts of fertile garden soil and 2 parts of compost soil and 1 part of Gaza.
When the seedlings grow to a height of 20 ~ 25 cm after being potted, they should be pulled out to promote their lateral branches to form a crown as soon as possible, and at the same time, the height of the plants should be controlled to increase the amount of flowers.
Potted plants in Milan should be well drained, watered according to the climate and drought conditions, and the soil should be kept moist, not too wet for a long time. Maintaining a high air humidity is conducive to the growth of Milan. In the drought and vigorous growth period, it is best to spray water on the leaves 1 ~ 2 times a day.
Milan is lush with branches and leaves, and new branches sprout constantly during the growing period to form spikes, which need sufficient fertilizer. Insufficient fertility will obviously reduce the amount of flowers. Therefore, topdressing should be done in time after the growth starts in spring, and the top dressing should use decomposed cake fertilizer. Milan can't stand thick fertilizer, so it is necessary to master the principle of applying thin fertilizer frequently, especially in spring, when topdressing is started, thick fertilizer is not suitable. Topdressing should be applied in 7 ~ 10 days 1 time, and an appropriate amount of calcium superphosphate should be added to the fertilizer water.
When it is hot in summer, Milan should be placed in a cool place, which can be placed on the edge of the shade shed, so that it will not be exposed to strong light and get more sunshine. Because too strong direct light will inhibit the growth and development of Milan, while too shady will easily cause Milan to grow white, grow weak and reduce the amount of flowers.
According to Milan's temperature requirements, potted Milan can't be moved outdoors until after Grain Rain, and moved indoors for the winter before the first frost in autumn. During overwintering, the room temperature should be kept at 10 ~ 12℃. If the room temperature is too high, it will easily lead to continuous growth, which is not conducive to the growth and development of the next year. However, if the temperature is too low, it will easily cause freezing damage if it drops below 5℃. Milan overwinters indoors, and the leaves are easily contaminated with dust, which affects its normal photosynthesis, so it needs to be washed 1 time every once in a while.
In the process of potted Milan, there are sometimes many flower buds, but they will wither and fall off before flowering, which is often caused by dry air, insufficient humidity, no ventilation, insufficient light and too much fertilizer and water. In this case, you can refer to the above management requirements for maintenance, which is not difficult to solve.
There are also some people who love flowers, and Milan, which has been cultivated for several years, does not bloom. One of the main reasons is that the pH value of the culture medium can not meet its needs and is alkaline; Second, the temperature in winter is too high, which affects dormancy and excessive nutrient consumption, which affects flowering in the following year; Third, excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer makes the branches and leaves too lush, inhibits reproductive growth and affects flowering; Fourth, insufficient light, hindered photosynthesis, less nutrient accumulation, thin branches and poor growth.
Milan should carry out plastic surgery from the beginning of seedlings, keep a section of trunk 15 ~ 20 cm high, and don't let the main branches cluster out from the ground. Because Milan draws flowers in the axils of new leaves, it is generally not trimmed. However, Milan often has a small number of dead branches after being cultivated indoors or outdoors for the winter, so it is necessary to prune these dead branches at any time to keep them beautiful and conducive to growth. When it grows too densely, it can also prune some non-flowering internal branches and horizontal branches appropriately to facilitate lighting and ventilation and make it grow better. If the potted plant grows tall and big after a few years, and it is difficult to put it indoors, it can be propagated under high pressure or trimmed off too dense parts, so that it can have more lateral branches and flowers. You can also improve its appreciation value by bending and shaping. At the same time, the trimmed materials can also be used for cutting propagation.
The main pests and diseases in Milan are anthracnose in Milan, sooty blotch, Hyphantria cunea, Bai Dun scale insects and coccidia. Prevention and treatment methods: ① Spray Bordeaux mixture, chlorothalonil, carbendazim, zineb and other drugs at the early stage of onset. (2) Spraying omethoate, cartap and iminophosphate. In the nymph stage.
[Appreciation and Application]
The trees in Milan are beautiful, with dense branches and leaves, and the flowers are like blue flowers. Suitable for living room porch potted display, can be planted in the south courtyard, is an excellent green ornamental flower.