Family Crassulaceae
This plant has become very popular in recent years, largely because it is possible to induce it to bloom for most of the year. Kalanchoes are short-day plants, which means that they will only flower when they have experienced a period of short days. Their natural time for blooming is from mid-winter to mid-spring, but, if their exposure to daylight is restricted to a maximum of ten hours daylight with fourteen hours darkness in each twenty-four hour period, in about two to three months they w i l l come into bloom. There is not much point in inducing kalanchoes to
flower during the summer months, but they are very useful for the autumn and early winter when flowering pot plants are scarce.
To induce flowering during this period, plants should be restricted to eight to ten hours daylight in each calendar day by covering the plants with black paper or any material which ensures that the plants are in complete darkness. Three months after this treatment begins the plants should commence blooming, so if you wish to have plants in bloom at the beginning of autumn you commence covering the plants in mid-summer.
