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How to Care for a Rue Plant

Mary Smith
By Mary Smith. Updated: January 17, 2019
How to Care for a Rue Plant

Rue is a very lively-looking perennial plant that can grow up to 1 meter high. It is very pretty with alternating leaves, stems shaped like branches that are blue-green and striking yellow flowers. There has always been a magical power attributed to this plant, in fact it was thought that if it dried out it was because it had absorbed the negativity from the area. At oneHOWTO we explain how to care for a rue plant.

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Steps to follow:
1

Protect rue from extreme temperatures. This plant can normally grow up to one meter high. It is an evergreen plant in temperate areas, but in places with frost it is considered deciduous. If you live in an area where it is very cold and windy, you'll need to protect it from these extreme temperatures. It usually blooms in spring and if you want to attract butterflies, this plant is positively a magnet.

Make sure it is placed in an area with plenty of sun during the whole year round, it will need it.

2

Rue requires very little care and maintenance. It is perfect for beginners of gardening or for people who want to have plants that need less attention. To take good care of rue, know that sunlight is necessary to keep it healthy, but it should not receive this directly. It only needs to be watered sparingly, at most a few times a week. But never forget to water it because it could become attacked by whiteflies and mites.

How to Care for a Rue Plant - Step 2
3

Use organic soil. This plant takes root easily in poor soil, but you should use something alkaline because this will give produce to a beautiful and thick decorative plant. To really take good care of it, add some organic soil and cover it to protect the roots, don't worry about adding fertilizer, it doesn't need it. There are specialists who recommend pruning it to 10 centimeters above the ground in winter to stimulate growth, renew its appearance and so that it doesn't grow thin. Rue can be trimmed in a decorative manner, making it a lot of fun.

4

Reproduce rue. If you want to reproduce your rue plant, you can do this from seeds or cuttings. If you do it with seeds, they need light to germinate and you will not need to cover the seeds with soil, just keep the soil moist. They require a temperature above 20 degrees to germinate. It usually takes about 2 weeks to germinate and about 2 months until you can proceed to transplant them. Plant them at least 45 centimeters apart.

How to Care for a Rue Plant - Step 4
5

Extract its seeds. If you want to extract seeds, let the flowers dry on the plant so they create buds. When dry, remove them and gather the seeds, wear gloves to do this. If you want to reproduce the rue from cuttings, wait for spring or summer and choose woody branches of medium hardness that you should prepare by covering them with soil.

6

Prune the plant. It is recommended to prune your rue plant every spring to its natural form. Make sure you keep the pruned bits as you should know that rue can be used as a natural remedy to improve and treat various conditions, so it can benefit your health. For more details, we recommend you read the article what are the healing properties of rue.

If you want to read similar articles to How to Care for a Rue Plant, we recommend you visit our Gardening & plants category.

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Michael Parr
which zone is this suited to?
Elisa Khan
I have ruda in central florida...they do well but needs a lot of water during summer time...actually butterflies leaves their eggs in their stems causing my ruda to die because the caterpillars eat them...so I keep 1 o 2 rudas hidding away... just me to enjoy this cutie plant.
How to Care for a Rue Plant
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How to Care for a Rue Plant

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