Ether Of Hyssop

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Despite the climate resistance of hyssop, it is not often found in our gardens. However, this culture is very useful and interesting. She will not only decorate your beds with cute flowers, but also fill the garden with a unique herbal-spicy aroma. In addition, hyssop is known for its medicinal and cosmetic properties

Aromatic and healthy

Hyssop came from the southern Mediterranean countries. In nature, on the territory of Russia, it practically does not occur. He loves the sun and the warm breeze. If you chew on its stems and leaves, then you can feel a pleasant warmth in your mouth. It tastes bitter and spicy and is great as a seasoning (both fresh and dried). It goes especially well with legume dishes (with bean soup, pea casserole, etc.) and with various salads. It is often used for harvesting vegetables - cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, etc.

Its small flowers attract pollinating insects well, since they are fragrant and melliferous. Hyssop is also famous for its essential oil properties. A very aromatic oil is obtained from it in southern countries, which is used in perfumery and cosmetics. And folk medicine has included hyssop in the list of medicinal plants since ancient times. It is useful as an expectorant for respiratory diseases (including asthma) and for the normalization of the gastrointestinal flora in case of digestive disorders. It helps to heal wounds and relieves rheumatic pain.

Blooms until frost

This perennial plant belongs to the labiate family. Its erect stems with four edges reach 70-80cm in height. The oblong-oval leaves on them are located opposite and have two shades: below - gray-green, and above - dark green. At the tips of the stems in the corner of the upper leaves, blue, white or pink modest flowers are quite densely located. Their corollas are somewhat reminiscent of a pig's stigma, hence the name of the vegetable culture - after all, hyssop is translated from Greek as “the face of a pig”. Basically, three varieties are cultivated, which are named for the color of the flowers: Pink, Blue and White. Most often, Blue Hyssop is found in our gardens.

This wonderful herb blooms in early to mid-June and does not wither almost until October, or even November (if there is no frost). All parts of the plant have a rather strong herbal-spicy aroma. However, more essential oil is obtained from inflorescences than from stems and leaves.

Ready for both drought and frost

Having planted it once in a permanent place, you can rejoice in hyssop for 5-10 years. After that, as a rule, it is renewed with new shoots. On average, it is quite enough to have 4-5 bush plants on your site, if its extensive and large-scale use is not planned. In care, he is unpretentious and undemanding. But since this is a culture of "southern blood", it takes root better in sunny, warm and moderately humid places. Periodic loosening and weeding will only benefit her.

Hyssop is not frightened by either drought or frost. Therefore, it takes root well even in central Russia. However, if the winter is not snowy, then shelter is desirable for him. And in a dry summer, you can water it 2-3 times. By the fall, organic fertilizer (ordinary mullein) (2.5 kg per 1m2), potassium salt (10g per 1m2) and superphosphate (25g 1m2) are usually applied to the hyssop garden. Then the earth is dug up to 30-40cm.

The older, the more productive

Hyssop is propagated using seeds, cuttings, and dividing the bush. The plant is sown in early spring, as soon as the soil warms up at a distance of 50x50cm and with a depth of up to 1cm. Seedlings appear on average in 1, 5-2 weeks. In the southern regions, hyssop is also sown in autumn. After a year of planting, it is useful to feed the plant with urea (10g per 1m2). If the summer is sunny and warm, and hyssop care is good, then it can please with the harvest in the first year. But, as a rule, in subsequent years he is more fertile than at the very beginning.

To speed up the growing season and in cool spring and summer, it is better to propagate hyssop in seedlings. To do this, it must be sown in boxes on the windowsills or in a cold greenhouse at the beginning of March. As soon as 5-6 leaves appear on the stem, the sprouts can be transplanted to their permanent place, providing them with regular watering. Flowers with this method bloom in the first year. But it is even faster to propagate the plant by dividing its bushes, which is carried out in early spring. Delenki need to be planted deeper than the mother plant.

As a seasoning, the leaves and stems of hyssop can be harvested throughout the summer, but for medicinal purposes it is cut literally before flowering in early June. Then they dry it in a dark room and store it in a cool and well-ventilated place. Most of all medicinal properties in the upper part of the stems. If you need to get the essential oil of hyssop, then you need to collect it only in the second year during the period of mass flowering.