Cypress spurge is an unpretentious perennial with useful properties

Species milkweed more than a thousand are found in nature, and the most famous is the cypress spurge. On sandy slopes, in pine forests in Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, in Europe, you can often see thickets of these creeping plants covered with needle-like leaves.

The healing properties of the herb were discovered by the Macedonian king Ephorbus in the fifties BC, therefore, in honor of the ruler, it is also called euphorbia. Outwardly, the grass looks like a juniper, and its milk-like juice in its qualities is close to the venom of a snake.

Content:

• Features of the structure and useful properties of cypress milkweed
• In what ways does Euphorbia multiply
• Planting an ornamental culture in a garden plot
• Care rules
• How to deal with milkweed diseases and pests

Features of the structure and useful properties of cypress milkweed

A perennial of the milkweed family has a large number of short vegetative stems branching from the base. They are densely covered with thin leaves, like delicate needles, which are located horizontally relative to the stem, giving the milkweed airiness.

Twice, at the beginning of May and at the end of July, a bright green bush is covered with umbrellas of numerous small flowers of a yellow-green or lavender hue, attracting with a fragrant aroma.

After the plant has faded, its stems lie on the ground, further expanding.

Properties and application of milkweed:

• Milky sap appears on the cut of the plant stem, which contains a small amount of toxic substances, as well as rubber, resins, oleic acid.
• In the stem and leaves of milkweed - salts of malic and tartaric acids, vitamins, tannins.
• Insisting the herb, they use it to treat cancerous tumors in the stomach, liver, and female reproductive organs, since the euphorbia effectively fights bacteria.
• Hot baths with the addition of milkweed help the body to cope with nail fungus.
• The infusion of the plant is used as a strong laxative, cleansing the body of toxins and parasites.
• And infused with alcohol, it helps with diseases of the lungs, stomach, and rheumatic pains.
• Warts, calluses and various tumors on the skin are smeared with the milky juice of the herb to remove them.
• Milkweed seed oil has a high percentage of fat and is used for the production of homeopathic medicines.
• Cypress euphorbia serves both for decoration of garden plots and for the treatment of certain species diseases.

In what ways does Euphorbia multiply

You can grow an ornamental plant by reproduction seeds, cuttings and dividing the bush... Euphorbia belongs to dioecious plants, therefore, if male and female flowers grow nearby, then reproduction will occur naturally during the process of self-spreading seeds.

It is possible to distinguish between male and female bushes only by the structure of the flower.

For males, a narrow, long flower with large pistils inside is characteristic, and for females, a wide one with many stamens.It is better to plant the purchased seeds in the fall, then filling the planting site sawdust or a layer of humus. Such hardening helps the seeds to become more viable, not to be afraid of later cold winters. In the spring, it is also permissible to plant them, and after two weeks you can observe the appearance of the first shoots.

For milkweed grafting - one of the easy breeding methods:

• At the beginning of summer, a sharp tool with young shoots is cooked cuttings.
• The cut branches are washed in warm water, eliminating the drops of the milky juice that has appeared.
• Places of cuts are sprinkled with powdered activated carbon.
• Within two days, the cuttings are dried and planted in boxes with prepared soil, consisting of a drainage layer and fertile soil with the addition of sand and charcoal. Just moisten the soil a little.
• As soon as the sprigs of milkweed take root, after about a month, they are planted in the selected area of ​​the garden.
• To strengthen the roots, make fertilizers Kornevin, Heteroauxin.

Propagation of milkweed cypress by dividing the root is acceptable and harmless to it. In mid-spring, when buds appear on the plant, the bush is divided so that there are at least two of them on each part, and the branches are planted in a prepared place in the garden. Any method for propagation of cypress milkweed is effective and does not require costs and efforts.

Planting an ornamental culture in a garden plot

The bright green of the cypress milkweed and the unpretentiousness of its growth attracts many gardeners to its growing... It looks great along paths, on flower beds and alpine hills, because the richness of the greenery of the shrub emphasizes the brightness and personality of flowering plants growing next to it. Euphorbia is also harmonious with coniferous shrubs and trees.

The plant loves places open to the sun's rays.

Before planting a plant on flower beds, it is necessary to prepare holes with a drainage layer filled up on the bottom, consisting of expanded clay or pebbles. Pieces of woody bark, a little rotted, are placed on them, and only then a cutting is lowered into the hole, on the roots of which there must be clods of earth. Having filled up the hole with the plant with sand mixed with leafy soil, rotted peat in the same amount, they dig in a support next to it to tie up the planted plant.

Euphorbia cypress takes root in open sunny and even in the shade areas well, scattering its seeds over the surface of the earth. And under favorable conditions, it actively grows, seizing other people's territories, like an aggressor. In order to keep the plant within a certain framework of growth and not then suffer from the struggle with excessive growth, it is necessary to plant it, limiting the space and removing self-growing seedlings in time.

Care rules

For ornamental milkweed, there are no special requirements for growing conditions and care:

• The plant tolerates heat well and does not like abundant glaze.
• Two or three times during the summer, fertilizing with mineral and organic fertilizers... Especially good for the growth and strengthening of milkweed roots diluted with water humus or peat.
• For the winter, the plant needs mulching rotted manure or sawdust.
• If the spurge grows in large bushes, then in the fall it is covered with a film or spruce branches so that it better endures frosts.
• Transplant ornamental bushes do not tolerate well, therefore this procedure should be carried out rarely, no more than once every five years.

How to deal with milkweed diseases and pests

Spurge is almost not susceptible to diseases, he can only suffer from an excess of moisture. Then the leaves of the bush droop and die off. Fungal diseases such as root rot or fusarium are extremely rare in him. But if it happened, they will help fungicidal funds like Fundazole. Due to the toxicity of the milky sap of the plant, pests are afraid to communicate with it.Only whitefly and spider mites can damage green spaces.

Spraying milkweed thickets with insecticidal preparations or soapy water will destroy pests.

During the period of rains and heat, nematodes and worms are noticed on the grass. When affected by nematodes, the plant stops actively growing, the leaves turn yellow and fall off, and new ones develop poorly. Preparations that contain phosphamide, a toxic substance for parasites, will help.

For the larvae of the worms there are no barriers to spreading throughout the plant, covering it with a mealy bloom. You can fight them like this: destroy the eggs that are in a cotton-like bag and spray the plant with insecticides. Proper care of the plant, soil treatment before planting will save the euphorbia from diseases and pests.

More information can be found in the video.