Plant care
Acanthus is very unpretentious and completely does not oblige the gardener to have any supernatural skills. The main condition is good drainage. The plant tolerates even the poor soil, but if it turns out to be in cold and very moist soil in winter, it may die.
The usual procedures: weeding, loosening and mulching will help maintain the decorative appearance of the acanthus and enable it to grow well a lush green mass of leaves.
For the first few years, young acanthus shoots require compulsory shelter. The most common material for this is spruce branches; you can also use non-woven fabric. Frozen roots of the plant do not give enough shoots for flowering next year. However, this does not apply to adult specimens, they winter well and give many peduncles.
In the spring, in warm regions, the acanthus is pruned, but only strictly after the formation of new ones, otherwise the entire bush can be ruined. Acanthus belongs to the aggressors and can easily seize territory. This outrage can be prevented by limiting the area of its growth. For this purpose, old boards dug in the ground around the bush.
Acanthus is very responsive to watering with warm water. In the summer, it requires such water procedures at least twice a week. However, it is able to withstand small periods of drought, provided that the soil around it is not quite stony from dryness.
Advice. From March to September, the acanthus gladly accepts periodic feeding. They should be comprehensive and held no more than once every two weeks.
Care
This crop does not cause particular difficulty when grown in the Moscow region and other regions.
Even a short drought affects the plant better than excessive irrigation. It is recommended to add a small amount of oxalic acid to the water. The shrub can grow in one place for a long time, and it is rarely transplanted.
This is usually required when the wrong breeding site is chosen. Such a mistake manifests itself in slow growth or in the fact that the encianthus stops growing altogether. It is necessary to transplant it, transferring the earth into a new planting pit. The place for her is selected as carefully as possible and they must take care of the drainage.
Important: in a new place, the shrub adapts in a few months
With the arrival of spring, fertilizer is used for rhododendrons. It must be mixed with compost. It is necessary to feed any variety by laying the mixture in the top layer of the soil. Autumn feeding is also needed. For this purpose, compost is used, which is spread directly on the mulch.
Initially, these bushes will look beautiful. Their inflorescences are formed only on old shoots. It is only necessary to take a secateurs to remove dried and outdated branches. Preparing for winter includes:
- mulching the adjacent circle;
- bending of branches;
- creating a shelter from spruce branches and dry foliage;
- covering this thermal barrier with non-woven material (the entire shelter is dismantled when the danger of frost disappears).
Features of eukomis
Eukomis is a perennial herb. The bulbs, reaching 80 mm in diameter, are oval in shape. There are also many glossy basal leaf plates, their shape is belt-like or ovoid. The height of the cylindrical peduncles is about 100 centimeters. They grow racemose inflorescences, which are outwardly similar to pineapple, in the length they reach about 0.3 m. The flowers have a wheel-like shape, they are colored light green or white with a purple or brownish tint.The flowers include 6 lobes of lanceolate perianths fused at the base, and 6 more fused stamens, which have swinging anthers. At the very top of the flower arrow above the flowers there is a bunch, which includes from 10 to 20 bracts of green color, it is thanks to them that this plant looks like a pineapple. The fruit is a three-ribbed box of a flat-rounded shape, inside there are ovoid or rounded seeds of a dark brown or black color.
Eukomis - an exotic bulbous plant
Types and varieties
Acanthus has a rather large species abundance, many varieties are cultivated in horticulture, and some as indoor plants. Mostly in greenhouses, thermophilic plant species are grown: dull and badian-leaved.
Acanthus blunt has other names - mollis or soft. The plant does not differ in a special height and reaches 70 cm, although in the natural environment it can grow up to 150 cm.Large leaf plates have a length of 30-60 cm and a width of 7-15 cm, form a sufficiently voluminous basal rosette, painted in dark green. The leaves have a beautiful shape, they are roughly cut with a shiny surface. Unlike other species, soft acanthus is characterized by the absence of thorns.
The stem of the plant is straight; it has a long apical inflorescence-spike 20-40 cm in length. The corolla of the flower is about 5 cm in size and is colored white with purple veins. Bracts of a dark shade of lilac or pink, ovoid. This type is very often used in landscape design because of the sculptural shape of the leaf plates and beautiful inflorescences. Soft acanthus has several popular varieties.
Tasmanian Angel grows up to 50-70 cm. The leaf plates are large (length 30-60 cm, width 5-15 cm), decorated with edging and white spots. "Tasmanian Angel" blooms with whitish buds with purple veins that form paniculate inflorescences. It is characterized by moderate growth and frost resistance, it should be covered for the winter, especially young bushes.
Badian-leaved or mountain acanthus is quite often grown in greenhouses or as a pot plant. This evergreen perennial can grow up to 1.5-2 m. The leaves of the plant are glossy and smooth to the touch, dark green in color. A beautiful appearance is added to them by prickly dissections along the edges. The length of the plate is 20-30 cm, and the width is 6-10 cm.
Long inflorescences form from large white-lilac buds growing singly in the axils of the bracts. For growth, the species prefers light and warm places, although in the heat it needs light shading. In nature, the plant thrives in the brackish water of mangrove groves in the Pacific Islands and the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean.
Acanthus prickly or sharp is most often planted in garden plots as an ornamental plant. Under natural conditions, the flower can be found in Mediterranean countries, where it grows up to 80-150 cm. A characteristic feature of the representatives of this species is the color of the petals: the upper ones are purple, and the lower ones are painted white.
The species has a garden shape with strongly thorny leaves - acanthus is the most thorny. It belongs to one of the largest representatives of the genus, leaf plates grow up to 90 cm. They have a serrated shape with elongated thorns at the edges of the leaves. The plant also differs in such a property as winter hardiness. This variety blooms in August with light mauve and white numerous buds.
Balkan or Hungarian acanthus has the highest frost resistance of all species, but also blooms later than all. A characteristic feature of this type are leaf plates with deep cuts and lobes, which narrow towards the base. They are dull green in color, in the length grows to 60 cm, differ in the absence of thorns.The buds are painted in a white-pink tone, the bracts are purple.
Diascorida is a rare species that was discovered not very long ago in a mountainous area near Yerevan. The plant has whole leaf plates and elongated purple inflorescences.
Planting miscanthus seedlings in open ground
Planting of this culture is carried out in the spring from March to May, when the threat of frost return has passed. Since this plant is thermophilic, it must be taken into account that the seedling must get stronger and take root before the onset of the cold period. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for him to winter.
Adults hibernate successfully while creating a good shelter for them.
Before planting, dig small holes in the volume of the plant's root system. A seedling is carefully placed in the pit, spreading its roots. After that, the pit is covered with earth, the place around it is tamped and irrigated.
This culture is characterized by aggressive growth of roots, therefore, when planting, they put limiters, which are used as pieces of slate. Limiters dig into the ground on depth about 40 cm, while they must remain above the soil surface at least 10 cm.
Between the bushes of miscanthus there should be distance about 40 - 50 cm.
After planting, the seedlings are regularly looked after, this will help them get stronger faster and get used to the new place.
Spring care in the garden
It is not necessary to water erantis, since in the spring time the soil contains a lot of moisture, and in the summer months it has a state of dormancy. In the event that, when planting these flowers, the necessary fertilizers were introduced into the planting holes, then you will no longer have to feed them. All that is required from the gardener is the timely loosening of the row spacings, as well as weeding, which should be done even after the foliage has died.
For 5–6 years, you don't have to worry about replanting the spring, during which time lush, spectacular thickets will appear. However, then it is imperative to dig up the plants, divide and plant. It should be remembered that erantis contains poison, therefore, for planting such a flower, they choose an area in a place that is inaccessible to pets and children.
Diseases and pests
Since this plant contains poison, it is reliably protected from pests and rodents. If the soil contains a large amount of moisture for a long time, then this can cause the development of gray mold on the root system. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to try to remove excess moisture from the soil, because the roots of this plant react extremely negatively to wetting.
After flowering
When the flowering of the spring plant ends, a gradual dying off of its aboveground parts will occur. Then the dormant period will begin at the bush. This plant is highly frost-resistant, so it is not necessary to cover it for wintering.
Outdoor planting
Planting culture in outdoor garden or vegetable garden is produced only through seedlings. Young catharanthus are tender and react sharply to a drop in temperature, therefore, seedlings are placed in a flower bed in the last months of spring, when the temperature regime becomes stable and frosts are not observed.
When choosing a place for a future flower, it should be borne in mind that the catharanthus is picky about the wind and prefers lighter areas. It is not recommended to plant seedlings in the shade: the plant will begin to stretch, stop blooming and lose its decorative effect. Young crops can be planted in hanging pots if they are ampelous or low varieties. The rest of the varieties look good in group plantings, when the catharanthus is placed in the foreground. Grow catharanthus outdoors you can immediately from seeds, but it is recommended to use seedlings.
Humus is placed at the bottom of the planting pits, sprinkling the plant with a loose substrate. A distance of 30 cm is maintained between each bush.If the seedlings were grown in a group in one container, then it is planted without dividing the bush, as it is. The root system of the sprouts easily intertwines; when the young are dividing, the roots will be damaged, which will lead to the death of the plants.
For easy extraction of the culture from the pot and convenient transplantation, the container with the flower is watered in advance. The planted bushes are sprinkled with mulch and watered.
