The flowering succulent plant Kalanchoe blossfeldiana has been bred into the calandiva plant. Calandivas are perennial plants that blossom year after year. The succulent kalanchoe calandiva has leathery, dark-green leaves and a profusion of stunning double blooms that resemble roses. The calandiva plant is a popular flowering houseplant because it is easy to care for.
How to care for Kalanchoe blossfeldiana ‘Calandiva’: The calandiva plant thrives in full sunlight, although it is shielded from direct rays. Well-draining soil, low humidity, and temperatures ranging from 60°F to 85°F (15°C to 30°C) are required for Calandiva kalanchoes. Only water the plant when the soil is dry, and fertilize it twice a month throughout the growing season.
The cultivar calandiva is a double-flowered Kalanchoe blossfeldiana. Native to Madagascar, kalanchoe flowering plants thrive in partial shade and subtropical temperatures outdoors. Because of its lustrous, bushy green leaves and clusters of double blooms, Calandiva kalanchoe plants are easy to identify.
These rose-like blooms come in a variety of hues, including pink, orange, yellow, creamy-white, and red tones that may last for up to six weeks. Calandiva plants may reach a height of 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) and a width of 4 to 20 inches (10 to 50 cm) when grown in pots.
Flower shops, garden businesses, grocery businesses, and nurseries all sell calandiva plants. Calandiva kalanchoe is a flowering evergreen houseplant that people purchase in temperate countries. Calandiva cultivars grow as stunning border plants in sunny yards in tropical areas.
The care of kalanchoe calandiva is detailed in this article. You’ll learn how to cope with several growing concerns that may arise with this potted succulent, in addition to advice on caring for it.
Calandiva Flowers
Calandiva houseplant has a variety of colors and is a succulent with lovely double blooms that resemble small roses. A calandiva plant resembles a little rose bush with miniature roses when it is in full bloom. Pink, red, white, orange, yellow, and lavender are just a few of the hues available in Calandiva blooms.
Late in the autumn and winter, Calandiva plants produce flower buds. Late winter or early spring is when Calandiva normally blooms. The blooms are around for approximately 6-8 weeks. The beautiful blooms are showy and colorful, with clusters of blooms at the tips of their stems. You should pinch off the calandiva blossoms to encourage additional blossoms to develop once they start to wane. For flowers to return year after year, killing a calandiva is helpful.
How do I get my Calandiva to bloom?
You should reduce watering and brighten for calandiva kalanchoes to create blossoms. Stop watering the calandiva pot and place it in complete darkness for 14 hours a day. To encourage your plant to bloom, repeat this process for six weeks.
Transport the pot to a bright area when buds develop, and treat it as you would any succulent. Give it plenty of bright indirect light to encourage a calandiva to continue blooming as long as possible. It’s ideal to put a kalanchoe on an east- or west-facing windowsill.
Placing the pot on a south-facing windowsill during the winter, when the calandiva blooms, should help keep it flowering for a long time. It’s critical to keep the flowering succulent away from direct sunlight in the spring and summer to avoid sun scorching when it comes to stimulating a calandiva to bloom.
Why My Calandiva Isn’t Flowering?
If it doesn’t get a break, a calandiva plant won’t bloom. The calandiva kalanchoe fails to rebloom and produce flowers if there is continuous bright light throughout the year. Make sure your calandiva gets plenty of darkness and little water for a few weeks to ensure that it blooms.
Your calandiva kalanchoe should start producing flowering buds after about six weeks of rest. The plant pot’s gorgeous pink, red, yellow, white, and orange hues will be visible in a bright location.
How to Care for Kalanchoe Calandiva
To ensure your calandiva kalanchoe plant blooms on a regular basis and is free from disease or pests, let’s take a closer look at the care tips. The following are the three main calandiva kalanchoe care guidelines:
- There is a lot of indirect light in this room.
- Well-draining soil
- When the soil dries out, there is a lot of deep watering.
Calandiva Plant Light Requirements
Calandiva plants thrive in bright, indirect light and should be grown in a protected area. A sunny window with plenty of natural light is the best environment for cultivating a calandiva kalanchoe. Keep the succulent foliage out of the sun during hot summers. Aim for a minimum of six hours of daylight each day.
Calandiva plants, like most succulents and cacti, need a lot of sunlight to survive. Long-lasting blooms and preventing leggy development are both aided by adequate light. Calandivas have a bushy, rounded growth with multitudes of colorful flower clusters when grown in ideal conditions.
Low light is usually indicated by a calandiva kalanchoe that has become leggy. Pinching off twiggy branches may help the plant resemble its former self. To avoid legginess and weak growth, move the calandiva pot to a brighter place.
The calandiva houseplant must be allowed to rest when getting lighting right for growing it. The calandiva goes into a dormant state as the days get shorter in the fall. Put the plant in a dark place for 14 hours each day and refrain from watering to encourage blooms. The calandiva should be ready to create beautiful blooms after six weeks.
Best Soil for Growing Calandiva Indoors
Calandiva kalanchoes thrive in a cactus potting mix with excellent drainage, which is the optimum soil for growing them. Combine potting soil, cactus mix, and perlite to make the perfect potting medium for these blooming succulents. The soil’s organic matter helps to supply nutrients.
Perlite adds to the quick drainage of water. Succulents and cacti, including calandiva plants, can flourish in poor soil. A light-aerated, sandy soil that doesn’t retain much moisture is therefore the most important soil requirement.
Root rot caused by too much moisture in the soil is one of the most frequent reasons why calandiva plants die. The green, leathery calandiva leaves become mushy, shriveled, and discolored as a result of waterlogged, soggy soil. The following are some excellent soil amendments for calandiva to improve drainage:
- Perlite
- Bark chips
- Charcoal pieces
- Pea gravel
- Coarse horticultural sand
- Pumice
How Often to Water a Calandiva
Only when the soil is dry should you water your calandiva plant. During warm periods, a kalanchoe may need watering as often as once a week. A calandiva plant in the winter may only need to be watered every six to eight weeks or so.
When it comes to watering a calandiva, the following is a good rule: water only when the top soil is dry. Irrigating the soil thoroughly is critical when watering a calandiva. Drenching the soil until the water drips out the bottom is a form of watering like this. This method of watering houseplants ensures that their roots are properly hydrated and stay healthy.
Push your finger into the potting soil to see if it’s time to water your succulent houseplant. You may thoroughly water the plant if the soil is dry. When the soil dries out, you should water the plant again. The drought-tolerant houseplants list includes Calandiva kalanchoe plants. As a result, it is preferable to under-water rather than over-water your succulent.
Temperature Requirements for Growing Calandiva Plant Indoors
Keep Calandiva plants in an average room temperature to properly care for them. Kalanchoes plants can grow in a temperature range of 60°F to 85°F (15°C – 30°C) as long as the room temperature remains even. Just keep cold drafts and hot radiators away from these tropical plants.
In USDA zones 10 and 11, Calandiva kalanchoe plants are best grown outdoors. Average temperatures should not fall below 60°F (15°C) during the day. These tropical plants can endure temperatures as low as 50°F (10°ׄC) for a short time. Calandiva plants should not be outdoors below 40°F (4°C) due to the risk of frost killing them.
In warm zones, the colorful blooming succulent makes for excellent low-growing or border plants. The calandiva plants like to grow in the yard, where they get most of their sunlight.
You may bring potted calandiva plants outside in the summer if you reside in temperate zones. Place the pot in a well-lit area with partial shade. Bring the calandiva back inside when the nighttime temperature drops to around 50°F (10°C).
Humidity Requirements for Calandiva Plants
Calandiva plants thrives in dry air and does not flourish in moist air. They thrive in low humidity circumstances with good air circulation. Since rooms have drier air than outdoors, household humidity levels are optimal for kalanchoe plants. Keep humidity low and ensure proper air circulation by watering calandiva houseplants often.
You never have to mist calandiva leaves because most kalanchoe species don’t need high humidity. The plant’s leaves will let you know if high indoor humidity is affecting calandiva development. Powdery mildew on the leaves of high-air-moisture plants may occur.
White powdery patches on the glossy green calandiva leaves are symptoms of this fungal plant disease. Powdery mildew is a fungus that isn’t harmful, but it may make the plant appear sick.
Fertilizing a Calandiva Potted Plant
During the fall and winter, calandiva kalanchoe plants don’t need much fertilizer. Calandiva are self-sufficient succulent plants that grow at a leisurely pace. During the growing season, from spring through the end of summer, you may apply a diluted and balanced houseplant organic fertilizer every four weeks if necessary.
Calandiva need only be fertilized twice a year if you care for it well. Your calandiva succulent plant will thrive with fresh development if you feed it once in the spring and again in the middle of the summer.
Pinching Calandiva Plant Leaves and Stems
Calandiva growth is aided by pinching off dead flower stalks and straggly stems. Remove the stalks after they’ve finished blooming. A calandiva reblooms because of this light pruning. All you have to do is clip off the dead flower stalks at their base with sterile scissors.
On the bushy calandiva plant, pinch off any leggy growth you see. Long or tall stems are easier to keep in shape if they are pruned. Light pruning is also beneficial when it comes to promoting fast development. To avoid future legginess, move the calandiva to a brighter location after pinching long stems.
Repotting Calandiva Plants
You don’t need to repot a calandiva kalanchoe often since it grows slowly. In the spring, you should repot a succulent that has grown too large for its current pot. The roots have enough room to develop and continue blooming every year after being transferred to a bigger container.
Look for roots protruding from the pot’s drainage holes to determine if you should repot a calandiva. In addition, if the plant is rootbound, slow-drainage water might be a symptom. In any case, the plant needs to be repotted and the potting mix needs to be refreshed.
Calandiva repotting is a lot like any other houseplant. Select a suitable pot one size bigger than the calandiva’s original pot to repot it. Carefully remove the calandiva plant from the pot, shake off the dirt, and untangle the roots to avoid damage. Move the plant to a new pot with fresh cactus mix after snipping off dead roots.
Propagating Calandiva
Stem cuttings or root division are two ways to propagate your calandiva plant. Cutting a 4″ (10 cm) piece from a healthy stem just below the node is the easiest way to propagate a calandiva. Callous the leaves by removing them from the bottom 2″ (5 cm) and allowing them to dry for five days. Plant in a pot with well-drained, light soil.
Care for propagated calandiva cuts is critical. To help increase humidity, you should put potted cutting in a bright location and cover it with a plastic bag. Make sure the soil is moist all of the time by Mist. After three weeks, the calandiva should be rooted and transferred to a sunny area for regular care.
When repotting the succulent in the spring, propagating a calandiva via root division is ideal. After removing the plant from the pot, cut the roots into two or three pieces, with one or two thriving stems and a few leaves on each piece. Individual containers full of light, moist potting soil should be used to repot the new calandiva plants.
Pests Affecting Calandiva Growth
Houseplant pests rarely bother Calandiva kalanchoe cultivars, which are hardy flowering succulents. Use a neem oil solution to get rid of the bugs if you notice them. You could alternatively use insecticidal soap to clean the contaminated leaves. Any of the following pests may harm calandiva plants:
- Spider mites—Spider mites may be detected by looking for webbing beneath the glossy green leaves or between stems and the plant’s stalk.
- Aphids—Tiny pear-shaped insects crawling on the calandiva stems or beneath the leaves are a good sign that aphids have been spotted.
- Mealybugs—A fuzzy white growth on the leaves similar to cotton wool or little white creatures crawling beneath leaves is a sign of mealybugs.
Diseases Affecting Calandiva Growth
Roots rot is the most frequent disease that kills calandiva plants when they are overwatered or exposed to high humidity. Always allow plant soil to dry between watering to avoid root decay. Check for signs of moisture before watering your calandiva each time. Before determining whether the plant needs water, wait a few days.
Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that may make your calandiva plant look unsightly. Try to increase air circulation around your plant if you see dry white powdery patches on the silky leaves. You may need to replace the potting medium with a fresh, sterile one if your calandiva looks like it’s dying due to over-watering.
Are Calandiva Plants Poisonous?
Cats, dogs, and other animals should not eat Calandiva kalanchoe plants. Ingesting kalanchoe leaves may cause significant gastrointestinal distress in dogs, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
FAQs about Growing Kalanchoe Plants
While the calandiva is a low-maintenance blooming succulent plant, it may experience certain difficulties in its development.
How long do kalanchoe calandiva plants live?
If you take care of your Calandiva kalanchoe plants, they can live for a long time. The plant’s blooms stay fresh for six weeks or longer if the lighting conditions are perfect. Additionally, allowing the calandiva to blossom throughout the year allows it to rest in dark circumstances.
Why are there brown spots on calandiva kalanchoe leaves?
Brown patches on kalanchoe leaves are frequently caused by a buildup of mineral salts. Flush the earth with running water for a few minutes to help your plant recover. For at least a few months, leave the plant alone, with brown spots on the leaves.
Why are calandiva plant leaves withered and discolored?
A lack of sunlight or watering problems are common causes of limp or withered calandiva leaves. Make sure the calandiva plant gets at least six hours of sunlight every day. Only give the roots a thorough, deep watering when the soil has partially dried.