2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Lonas (lat. Lonas annua) - an annual plant belonging to the Astrovye family and characterized by long and abundant flowering.
Description
Lonas is a spectacular bushes, the height of which ranges from twenty to fifty centimeters. Its reddish erect stems branch rather strongly, and pinnately dissected elongated leaves are arranged alternately and slightly pubescent. Without exception, all leaves are characterized by a rich dark green color.
Small flowers of this plant fold into plump corymbose inflorescences, the diameter of which reaches ten to twelve centimeters across. Outwardly, these flowers have a striking resemblance to tansy flowers, and their color is also rich yellow. Lonas bloom starts in June and lasts until September, and some of its varieties delight with their flowering until the onset of the first frost!
Lonas fruits have the appearance of achenes, and the seeds usually ripen very well. As a rule, one gram contains up to seven hundred seeds!
Where grows
Lonas was introduced into the culture back in 1686. And you can find it on a wide variety of continents.
Usage
Most often, lonas is planted in relatively low flower beds: in the foregrounds of mixborders, in curbs, as well as on beds and flower beds. Lonas will look no worse in rockeries. Cut flowers are capable of retaining their attractiveness for a long time and look great both in low bouquets and in a wide variety of flower arrangements.
Inflorescences that were cut at the final blooming stage in dry weather can be dried in shaded dry places - they get amazing dried flowers. First, the leaves are removed from the plants intended for drying, after which they are tied in five to ten pieces in small bunches and hung on trellises for drying. Lonas is good because dried flowers do not lose their shape and bright color.
Growing and caring
Best of all, lonas will grow in sunny open areas, in bright light - only in this case the flowering of the plant will be especially decorative, and with a lack of lighting, its decorativeness will drop sharply, so this factor must be monitored carefully. It is recommended to plant this plant on moderately fertile and fairly light soils.
Lonas is planted, as a rule, by means of seedlings, as for sowing seeds, in March it is produced in greenhouses, and with the onset of April - in open ground. Seeds are sown sparsely, trying to place them at a depth of about three millimeters (it is desirable that the substrate is not only light, but also loose enough), and the range from fifteen to twenty-one degrees is considered the most optimal temperature for their germination. As for planting in permanent places, it usually falls on the end of May or June, while trying to maintain a distance of twenty to twenty-five centimeters between the plants.
Immediately after planting, as well as during periods of drought, lonas needs moderate watering (at normal times, this plant has enough moisture from dew or rain), in addition, at the very beginning of its growth, it is recommended to feed it once or twice with complex or nitrogen fertilizers. It is not forbidden to introduce lonas and organic matter when planting - compost, humus, etc.
The undoubted advantage of lonas is that it is almost never affected by pests, and also does not suffer from various diseases, that is, flower growers do not have to rack their brains from time to time over how to overcome another attack.
