2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Orlik (Latin Aquilegia) - a light-loving, flowering perennial from the Buttercup family. Other names are catchment or aquilegia. This plant got the name "eagle" for its curved flower spurs, which resemble the claws of an eagle.
Description
Orlik is a short or rather tall plant, equipped with graceful petiolate leaves and long-stemmed flowers gathering in very attractive loose inflorescences. The height of this handsome man can vary from half a meter to a meter.
Eagle flowers can be both simple and double, most often - long-spired, and their diameter often reaches ten centimeters. They all sit on rather long pedicels. As for the color of this plant, it can be as varied as you like - there are pink, pure white, lilac, and even golden yellow flowers, and even this the abundance of their colors does not end there! It is noteworthy that the color of sepals and corollas is often different! And you can admire the flowering of this plant in June or July.
In total, the genus of the eagle includes about one hundred and twenty independent species, in addition, it is customary to distinguish several dozen hybrid varieties.
Where grows
The homeland of the eagle is considered to be the temperate regions located in the Northern Hemisphere. In nature, this plant can most often be seen on rocks or in meadows in the temperate regions of North America or Eurasia. The eagle can also be found on the territory of Russia, and here you can find as many as seven of its species!
Usage
They began to cultivate the eagle long ago - the first mention of this fact dates back to the fourteenth century. In ornamental gardening, the hybrid eagle is most often used and its most diverse varieties - this is because this plant boasts the presence of larger flowers and a much larger color spectrum than all its other relatives.
Low-growing varieties of eagle have proven themselves well in rock gardens, and hybrid forms of this plant and its taller species look great in group plantings among other perennials, in addition, they are often planted in mixborders, along the edges or on ridges, and are also very successfully used for decoration located near reservoirs of shady areas. Eagle goes especially well with brunner, oriental poppy, badan, bells, hosta, anemones, astilbe, ornamental grasses, ferns and irises. But in the cut, the eagle, alas, will not stand for long. Nevertheless, this handsome man dries excellently, which makes it possible to use it in drawing up a wide variety of dry flower arrangements.
Growing and caring
It is recommended to plant an eagle in slightly shaded or sunny areas with fairly light sandy soils.
The eagle tolerates drought very well, but he also does not refuse regular watering, as well as fertilizing with organic or full mineral fertilizers, with which this plant is pampered once or twice a season. The eagle also needs systematic weeding. And after it fades, it is recommended to remove all its aboveground parts from the plant - closer to autumn, new leaves will certainly grow on it.
An eagle is usually transplanted every three to four years, and this plant is very easily propagated by seeds, moreover, it is even capable of self-seeding, but it does not hurt to take into account the fact that plants grown from seeds collected in the garden almost never save the main characteristics of their original variety. But by dividing the bushes, the eagle is extremely rarely propagated, since adult specimens do not tolerate transplantation very well.
