2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
This easy-to-maintain flower opens its bright bells in the afternoon and exudes aroma during the night. It is perfect for "owls" who love to sit in a garden gazebo or on a summer cottage, enjoying the evening starry sky, talking with friends over a samovar until midnight, breathing in the smells and silence of a country night
Rod Mirabilis or Night Beauty
Herbaceous plants with a thin taproot, on which tubers are formed with a supply of nutrition. Delicate plants are annual and perennial. But even perennials are often grown as annuals.
The five petals of a funnel-shaped flower often bloom closer to the night, but there are varieties whose flowers reveal their delicate aromatic beauty in the sunniest hours. Flowers love to amaze gardeners by having a different color on one bush. They gather 3-6 pieces in apical groups and fill the evening air with a pleasant aroma, justifying their name. Indeed, translated from Latin, the word "mirabilis" means "amazing".
Varieties
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Mirabilis Yalapa (Mirabilis jalapa) - the most popular of the mirabilis grown in gardens, the flowers of which reveal their bright petals in the evenings, for which they received their second name "Night Beauty". This species belongs to perennial plants, retaining its strength in a tuberous thick root.
A tall and branched bush, reaching almost a meter in height, is covered with pointed-oval leaves, similar to triangles. The apical clusters of funnel-shaped flowers are colored in a variety of shades: pink, purple, crimson, orange, yellow, white and bicolor.
Mirabilis Yalapa is used in indoor floriculture. In addition, this species has given birth to many hybrids.
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Mirabilis longiflorum (Mirabilis longiflora) - is even more decorative than mirabilis yalapa. Its meter high bushes are distinguished by a branching stem, sticky leaves and white flowers with a pink pistil and yellow stamens. There is a variety of long-flowered mirabilis with purple flowers that open at night looking..
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Mirabilis multiflorous (Mirabilis multiflora) - differs from "Night beauties" in that its dark brown-green leaves of a meter-long bush are decorated with blossoming funnel-shaped pink-purple flowers only in the sunniest hours of a summer day. The flowers form cymose inflorescences, in which the main and lateral axes end in flowers. First, the main flower blooms, then, like waves on water, others begin to bloom, supporting flowering, which lasts all summer until autumn frosts.
Growing
Mirabilis is photophilous, therefore, the places for it need sunny, but protected from gusts of cold winds and drafts.
The soil is preferred loamy, well fertilized with organic matter, drained, slightly alkaline or neutral. During the summer, once a month, watering is combined with top dressing with full mineral fertilizer. Watering is carried out as needed, when a clear lack of moisture is visible. Potted specimens are watered regularly.
In autumn, when the aboveground part of the plant dries up, tubers are removed from the ground. They are stored in the same way as storing dahlia tubers in a closed cool room. In April, they are again planted in open ground, positioned at a distance of 30 centimeters from each other.
Usage
Mirabilis is more often grown as annuals to create borders for garden paths and flower beds; decorate the middle and background of mixborders; planted in independent groups on a green lawn.
The plant is also suitable for flower pots that decorate verandas, terraces and balconies.
Less commonly used for cutting.
To maintain the appearance, remove damaged stems and leaves, wilted flowers.
Reproduction
Propagated by seeds. Mirabilis often reproduces by self-seeding. Seed germination lasts up to three years.
Sowing seeds for seedlings is carried out in March-April. The seedlings are relocated to open ground when the danger of recurrent frosts has passed.
Diseases and pests
May be affected by nematodes. To protect against nematodes, marigolds can be planted next to mirabilis.
When roots rot, diseased plants should be removed.
Rust may appear on the leaves. For protection, it is enough to remove the affected leaves.
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