Acidantera (51 photos): planting and care in the open field for fragrant gladiolus. When to dig up and how to store the Abyssinian gladiolus? Varieties and description

Diseases and pests

The bulbs of this plant are very often affected by rot, both soft and dry. You can understand that the bulbs are infected with rot by the depressed spots that have a dark shade. So that the bulbs are not afraid of rot, they should be treated with a fungicide solution before planting.
When acidantera gains green mass in the spring and the stems and leaves are actively growing, slugs and snails can appear on them, eating greens and leaving ugly sticky marks. This can happen due to dampness or too much watering in the evening. Weeds can also be responsible for the appearance of a large number of slugs and snails.
During flowering, thrips can attack the plant, sucking the juice from the buds. After the appearance of thrips on the plants, the flowers first wither and then fall off. To prevent the appearance of thrips, the plant should be treated with any insecticide during the budding and flowering period.

Acidantera, like any other garden plants, can be affected by rot and various types of fungus. The first signs of the disease are rusty or dark spots on the foliage. To save the flower, the affected leaves must be removed. After that, all the bushes are treated with fungicide preparations. To solve these problems, gardeners often use Bordeaux liquid (1%). Such a drug is effective even in the late stage of the disease. And you can also use "Fitosporin-M".

In addition to fungal diseases, pests such as:

scabbards;
aphid;
slugs;
bulbous mites.

For the purpose of prevention, the bushes should be periodically irrigated with mustard powder or sprayed with diluted ammonia. These funds are absolutely safe both for the garden crops themselves and for animals. When aphids or scale insects appear, acidanders are sprayed with insecticides sold in flower and garden stores. To get rid of ticks, it is advisable to use acaricides. Slugs will have to be collected by hand.

Choosing a place for planting a flower

For montbrecia, you need to choose an open place, well-lit by the sun. You can plant the plant in areas that receive direct sunlight for only part of the day. It is better that the flower is not shaded in the morning. It tolerates partial shade well with diffused light.

If there is not enough light, the plant will stretch excessively, lose its brightness and bloom poorly. In deep shading conditions, it will not release inflorescences.

There should be undersized plants or lawn near the Japanese gladiolus. Montbrecia needs additional space, as it is spreading. Its inflorescences will hang above the ground, taking up additional space. You need to plant a plant at a distance of at least 40-60 cm from the path.

Flowers should not be in a draft. It is desirable that they be protected from prevailing winds, especially cold ones. At the same time, there must be good air circulation in the area.

You should not plant such a flower in a lowland, where rain and melt streams will collect. You should also avoid places where groundwater is close to the surface of the earth. Like other bulbous plants, montbrecia does not tolerate stagnant moisture. However, choosing the highest section is also not recommended. The soil will dry out quickly on it. Although the plant is drought tolerant, it feels most comfortable in moist soil.

Montbrecia loves loose acidic soils with a pH of 5.8-6.4. You can determine the area with acidic soil by the plants growing on it. Among them will be horsetail, horse sorrel, moss, sedge and wood lice.

If you plan to plant several types of plants, you need to select different areas for them. The minimum distance between specimens of various varieties is 80 cm. With a closer planting, the flowers will be pollinated and lose their decorative qualities.

Acidantera - species and varieties

In nature, there are a huge number of acidantera species, and the most popular options include:

White. Gladiolus has a straight, strong stem, on which grows pure white buds with a bright aroma.
Tropical. The flower reaches a height of 130 cm, and their inflorescences are double-sided. Tropical acidantera in landscape design will become a bright decoration, since its white petals have crimson strokes.
Fourcade. The stem of this gladiolus is thin and short, and the buds are purple-pink. The variety is used for breeding.
Cape. This species has beautiful white flowers with red-purple veins.
Two-tone. The most common variety, which is very fragrant. Flowers are arranged on long pedicels, collected in inflorescences.

When to plant gladiolus bulbs in spring, depending on the region

Gladiolus is planted on the site in late-mid-spring. Planting times vary by region.

Region
Period
Central Russia (Moscow, Moscow region).
It is advisable to plant with the arrival of warm weather in order to exclude the possibility of illness and frostbite of the corms, that is, April 25-May 10. However, this may be a later date, given the continental climate, the temperature should be + 9 ... + 12 ° С.
The middle lane, including the Leningrad region.
The weather is colder, the onset of severe cold weather or unwanted precipitation is possible, so the landing time is shifted: May 10-July 1

You should not rush, it is important that the corms take root, and the soil has time to warm up. If frosts do occur, smoke can be used for protection.
Siberian region and the Urals.
The climate is unstable, the time during which there is no sharp temperature drop is only 90-120 days, which complicates planting in open ground

Dates vary around May 28-July 1. To protect against cold weather on flower beds should be placed agrofibre or special film. Plants in this region rarely survive until next year.
Southern strip.
Growing gladioli is not particularly difficult, since this is an area with the most favorable climatic conditions. Disembarkation time: March 20 - April 15. Do not wait for the onset of heat, the corm may not take root and die.

Favorable days for planting

So, you can already see what a flower is, you learned that these are thermophilic plants. That is, if you bought an onion, and this is precisely the root system of the acidantera, then until May you do not even rush to plant these flowers. They have nothing in common with tulips, daffodils, these are not primroses, on the contrary, acidanters bloom late - in August and September. They love warmth very much, therefore, only when all the frosts have passed, the soil warmed up well, the bulbs are planted in the ground - not earlier than the end of May, often at the beginning of June.

Since we always say that the lunar calendar helps the summer resident with its dates, that they are focused on the phases of the moon, now we must also say about it. So, this year, the best planting days will be:

in March: 1, 3-8, 10-13, 20-22, 30, 31st;
in April: 2-4, 6-9, 24-27, 29th.
in May: 4-6, 20-24, 26-28th.
in June: 1-3, 5-8th day.

Well, we turn to direct planting and caring for acidantera in the open field.

Preparing the bulbs

It is not always possible to buy good planting material, especially in closed packages. Nobody knows how the bulbs were transported, so after purchasing them you need to check them for defects, deformations, and rot. If everything is in order, then until May the material is stored in a dry and dark room. Before planting the bulb they are checked again - for rot, whether there are dry ones, after which they are sprinkled with fungicides, this will disinfect them and help not to get sick in the future. You can soak the onion in potassium permanganate for 15 minutes, then rinse and dry.

If you notice even the slightest signs of damage, then immediately process the material in the same potassium permanganate, and even with small defects, the material must be removed. Otherwise, all the bulbs will become infected.

Landing in open ground

In principle, there are no difficulties. You need to find a strictly dry place, where there is no low ground, no draft, where there will be a lot of sun. After that, you need to check the soil for acidity with litmus, it should be either slightly acidic or neutral. If the pH is 4-5, then lime is added and dug up. All weeds are immediately removed, after which the soil is poured with boiling water with manganese crystals.

The fragrant acidander, the photo of which you have already looked at, can be planted in a row. At the bottom of the trench, you need to make a substrate of sand, add compost and some peat to the ground. If the soil is poor, then use also a mineral complex feed - superphosphate. Further, the bulbs are planted to a depth of 10 cm, at a distance of 12-20 cm, in the first case, children are planted by 12 cm. Next, dig in a trench, water it only with warm water.

Description of gladiolus

Gladiolus is a perennial. Its rounded corm consists of many glossy scales and is renewed every year. It can be white, black, burgundy or red. Stems are elongated, straight, not branching and have a sagittal shape. They reach a height of about 50-170 cm. Elongated leaves are thin, pointed towards the end, grow to 40-90 cm. Their color varies from bluish to deep green, depending on the species and variety. They maintain the strength of the shoots by connecting at the base. Inflorescences are found as one-sided or bilateral, and spiral.

In shape, they resemble ears of up to 80 cm in size. The flowers have six lobes of various sizes, which are closed with each other, which differ in shape and shade. The fruit is a box of three leaves with small, round seeds that are black or brown.

Types and varieties

Since the taxonomy of the species has turned out to be rather confusing to date, there are many synonymous names: Acidanthera bicolor Hochst. and Acidanthera bicolor var. murielae (Acidantera bicolor and Acidantera Muriel are one and the same). Gladiolus callianthus Marais (Gladiolus callianthus, or callianthus), Ixia quartinana (Ixia quartiniana A. Rich) are also synonyms to them from a botanical point of view. This confusion is due to the fact that descriptions of the same plant were performed by different botanists, in different places, at different times.

In our country, as a rule, it is Acidatera Bicolor or Muriela that is grown. On the packaging of the bulbs on sale, you can find the names: Two-color white, Muriela, Muriel, Two-color. They are all the same variety.

In addition to the two-color acidantera, today in the gardens of especially fine connoisseurs you can find:

A. white (acidantera white) - medium-sized flowers, with rounded petals, pure white, without spots, very fragrant. This is the most odorous type of acidander. Today this plant is classified as white gladiolus.
A. fourcade. The plant is relatively short, with thin stems. The flowers are pink-lilac, almost uniform in color, thickening towards the edges, without spots. There are only two flowers on one peduncle, but they are adorable. Today the plant has been renamed to Fourcade geyssoriza.
A. tropical. A powerful plant with ribbed foliage, very tall - up to 130 cm. The flowers are original, snow-white or pinkish, with very bright crimson prints, as if painted with watercolors. The flowers are larger than those of other species, collected in inflorescences of 5-6 pieces. Outwardly, it is very similar to gladiolus nanus varieties "Nymph" or "Prince Claus".
A. Cape (or Ixia paniculata - Ixia paniculata). It has very beautiful flowers: white with purple veins instead of spots.
A. cereal.The most graceful representative of the genus, with thin narrow foliage, like in cereal plants, and the same flowers with narrow, elongated petals. The color is pale pink with a purple stripe in the center of each petal. Peduncles are long drooping. Today, this species of acidantera is referred to as a form of abundant flowering gladiolus. This also includes A. small-flowered. It is very similar to cereal, only the flowers are red, not purple.
A. tubular or, as it is classified today, stemless geyssoriza. The flowers are similar to the flowers of the grass-leaved acidantera, with the same narrow, elongated petals, in color they resemble Fourcade - a delicate pink color with slight thickening towards the edges.

Other names can be found: broad-petaled (with very wide perianths, which makes the flowers look like orchid flowers), pink-white (extremely rare).

10. Gladiolus varieties:

On the basis of the above species, many varieties of cultivated plants were bred, which are widespread in floriculture - such hybrids were called "garden gladioli". Currently, about 8,000 varieties of gladioli have been bred, which are conventionally divided into different groups.

By flowering time - early, middle and late.

By the shape and size of the buds - giants, large-flowered and small-flowered, butterfly-shaped, primrose.

By plant height - miniature or dwarf, medium and tall.

In the form of inflorescences - one- and two-row, spiral, alternate.

According to the shape of the petals, they are smooth and corrugated; at present, varieties with torn edges of the petals are also bred.

There is also a classification by the size of the corms.

10.1 Gladiolus Mombassa

Large-flowered plants 80-110 cm high, flowers reach 15-18 cm in diameter, spike-shaped inflorescence. Each peduncle can have up to 20 dark purple butterfly buds. Flowering occurs in the second half of July.

10.2 Gladiolus Oscar

Giant mid-late gladiolus blooming in the second half of July - August. The flowers are painted in a deep red hue and reach a diameter of 16 - 18 cm. The height of the plant can be 150 - 180 cm, each peduncle has up to 24 buds.

10.3 Gladiolus Priscilla - Priscilla

Large-flowered gladioli up to 110 cm high with delicate, white-pink flowers. On each peduncle there can be up to 15 buds with corrugated edges of petals up to 15 cm in diameter. The flowering period begins in the second half of July and lasts about a month.

10.4 Gladiolus Nanus

Often the shoots of these plants do not exceed 40 - 60 cm in height, dwarf gladioli have earlier flowering compared to other species and are ideal for forcing at home. Each peduncle can have up to 10 funnel-shaped buds, in the throat of which there is often a rhombus of a contrasting shade. Plants belong to the small-flowered type - the diameter of the buds is 8 - 10 cm. Peduncles are strong, erect, do not need support.

10.5 Gladiolus Malika

Medium flowering plants up to 160 cm in height with high peduncles, on which up to 23 bright pink buds with diverging strokes can be located. The flowers can reach 15 cm in diameter.

10.6. Chocolate girl

Interesting variety 160 - 180 cm high with 22 light brown (cocoa-colored) buds on a peduncle. The buds reach 12 cm in diameter and have slightly corrugated petals.

10.7 Gladiolus Olga

Plants of this variety reach 130 cm. With pale pink, alternately arranged buds with a bright pink throat. Plants have early and long flowering, each flower stalk has up to 22 buds, each of which reaches 15 cm in diameter.

10.8 Aphrodite

Plants with tall, spike-shaped inflorescences, consisting of 20 - 22 buds of a lilac or pink shade with a lighter center. In height, these gladioli can reach 140 - 150 cm. Flowering occurs in August.

10.9 Tango

Medium-sized plants, the height of which is 90 - 110 cm. Flowering occurs in July - each flower stalk blooms up to 20 large buds with a diameter of 16 - 18 cm with strongly corrugated petals. Flowers are painted in a purple shade with a darker throat. The flowering period lasts up to 25 days.

10.10 Bangladesh

Large-flowered plants with double-rowed white buds. The edges of the petals are slightly corrugated. In diameter, the flowers reach 15 cm, bloom in July, the height of the plant can reach 120 - 140 cm.