2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Omphalodes (Latin Omphalodes) - a winter-hardy shade-tolerant perennial belonging to the Borage family. The second name of the plant is the navel.
Description
Omphalodes is a short perennial, whose height rarely exceeds ten to twenty centimeters. Lanceolate leaves of omphalodes sit on forming spectacular basal rosettes of rather long petioles.
Omphalodes flowers boast a wonderful bright blue color. They all gather in very beautiful corymbose inflorescences. And at the end of flowering, a great many "antennae" are formed on the plant - it is due to them that the very rapid formation of luxurious thickets occurs. And for this feature, that is, for the ability to such a rapid vegetative growth, omphalodes is often called "creeping forget-me-not."
In total, the genus omphalodes has about twenty-five plant species.
Where grows
Forests of Southern Europe and the Caucasus - they are the main places of growth of omphalodes.
Usage
Currently, the most common types of omphalodes in culture are the spring omphalodes and the Cappadocian omphalodes. Omphalodes is especially appreciated in ornamental gardening for its ability to form a permanently green and surprisingly smooth closed carpet - such a carpet does not lose its amazing decorative effect until the onset of frost. In addition, it will always be a great backdrop for a wide variety of medium or tall vegetation.
Omphalodes is also quite suitable for planting on slopes or on terraces - its whimsical antennae hanging along with rosettes of young leaves will look very cool against such a background!
Growing and caring
The best option for placing omphalodes is under the canopy of a wide variety of deciduous trees. Ideally, there should always be enough shade, and the soil should be sufficiently loose and rich, not subject to stagnant moisture. By the way, the acidity of the soil in this case can be almost any - omphalodes does not tolerate only too acidic soils. If very recently the soil was fertilized with fresh manure, then it is definitely not suitable for growing omphalodes, because in this case too active growth of plant leaves will go, and to the detriment of its flowering. As for leaf litter, it is usually not removed from omphalodes plantings for the winter.
Omphalodes is especially good because it is able to develop well in almost any conditions and does not need any special systematic care at all. It will be quite enough to simply water and weed it from time to time. Omphalodes also does not feel the need for fertilizing, the main thing is to properly fertilize the marginal soil when planting with high-quality compost fertilizer. If the soil is fertile, this is no longer necessary.
Both the transplant and the division of omphalodes are ideally recommended either closer to the end of summer, or at the very beginning of autumn - as a rule, by this time the plants have already managed to lay flower buds of the next year. If it became necessary to transplant the plant earlier, then it should only be transplanted together with an earthen lump.
Reproduction of omphalodes is carried out by separating small daughter rosettes from plants, and these manipulations should be performed only in late summer or early autumn, that is, when the plants already have flower buds of the next year. Also, sometimes omphalodes reproduces quite successfully by cuttings, so it is quite acceptable to use this method as well.
