This herbaceous flower is even easier to care for than pothos, with brilliant colors and blooms all year round

Introduction

Potted greenery is already an essential decorative element of home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it beautifies the home and also lifts the spirit and nurtures the character. "Flower Sound Potted Diary, Issue 1070" introduces you to a beautiful and easy-to-grow herbaceous flower.

Today's star

In the scorching summer, flowering plants are scarce, and in street green belts basically only woody plants such as bougainvillea and blue plumbago are still blooming. Herbaceous flowers grown outdoors have a hard time getting through summer. This issue introduces a herbaceous flower that is very suitable for home potted display. Here we call this flower "Zhuangyu Zhaoyan"; it is beautiful and easy to grow, and can be cultivated either as a hanging plant or as a vine.

Zhuangyu Zhaoyan

Zhuangyu Zhaoyan, whose Chinese scientific name is Bidongqie and which flower enthusiasts generally call petunia, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Petunia in the Solanaceae family. It was originally a wild weed in Argentina, South America. Because of its brilliant flower colors and high ornamental value, it was developed into an ornamental plant and widely introduced around the world. It is cultivated in both southern and northern China, and is an excellent plant for beautifying parks and flowerbeds, with many also grown as home potted plants.

Blooms all year

Zhuangyu Zhaoyan blooms very readily and is one of the plants with the longest flowering period on Earth. As long as there is enough light and proper care, it can bloom continuously all year round, and the flower quantity is very large, with flowers covering the branches and the pot bursting into bloom being very common. Its flowers are trumpet-shaped, with brilliant and colorful blooms, including purple-red, bright red, peach red, pure white, and many striped varieties, with relatively high ornamental value.

Easy care

Zhuangyu Zhaoyan has strong adaptability to the environment and extremely strong reproductive capacity; in some places in the south it has already escaped into the wild. It is generally propagated by sowing or cuttings, with a very high survival rate, and can be planted in all four seasons. In summer it cannot be exposed to blazing sun and needs to be cared for in a cool, ventilated place; only after summer passes can it be grown outdoors. Daily care is very simple: water when the potting soil is dry, and leave it alone when it is not dry. It has low fertilizer requirements and is even easier to look after than pothos.

Hanging potted plant

Zhuangyu Zhaoyan has beautiful flower colors and an ultra-long flowering period, and is deeply loved by flower enthusiasts. It is one of the most commonly cultivated plants in Chinese households. Of course, it is not without flaws. Its shortcoming is that it is not cold-tolerant. In the northern regions of China, if grown outdoors it cannot survive the winter and can only be grown as an annual or biennial, so in winter flower enthusiasts in the north must move it back indoors and then move it out again in spring to bask in the sun. In South China it can be planted in the open air.