Eustoma Large-flowered

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

Today, this amazing flower, surpassing charming roses with its tenderness, is rarely found in city flower beds and summer cottages. And yet, its former popularity is gradually returning, thanks to the flower growers of the Land of the Rising Sun

Gentian family

Plants of the family with such a funny name, as if "chomp grief", that is, they eat any grief with appetite, leaving people only joy, tenderness and grace. This plant is very ancient, preserving the memory of the times when on Earth, in the midst of the raging waters of a single ocean, there was a single continent. Thousands of years passed, and the mainland slowly spread in different directions, carrying gentian plants. Therefore, they grow today everywhere, from the hot tropics to the icy Arctic, in meadows and swamps, in the steppes and tundra, in coniferous and deciduous forests, along the banks of rivers and lakes, but they especially love the alpine mountain expanses.

In fact, the plants of this family received their name for the content of bitterness in themselves, which causes an unpleasant sensation in the mouth if you chew on a stem, grass or root. Bitterness is given to them by substances such as alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and others.

But not everything is harmful, which is bitter. For many millennia, plants of the gentian family have played an important role in human life. Medicinal infusions and powders are prepared from extracts of herbs, rhizomes and roots, which are used both in folk medicine and in official medicine.

In addition to the bitterness content, the plants have an enviable decorative effect and will adorn any garden.

Eustoma large-flowered or Lisianthus Russell

Large-flowered eustoma or Lisianthus Russell is one of the representatives of the Gentian family. It can be grown as a houseplant, or it can be used to decorate a flower garden in the country.

In June-July, you can buy ready-made flower seedlings that already have buds and plant them in a flower garden. The closed roots of seedlings must be well watered before planting in the ground. Eustoma will delight with delicate flowers until late autumn. If you plant it in greenhouses or greenhouses, it will delight you with repeated flowering.

Her natural colors: blue, red, pink, white were complemented by breeders. Now you can find eustoma apricot, light yellow, lilac. Also bred varieties with a two-color color and bordered.

Growing eustoma from seeds

In light sandy soil with neutral acidity, we sow seeds superficially in February-March. Most often, seeds are sold in granules. Seeds should be lightly pressed into the soil and watered with a spray bottle. We cover with glass or foil, remembering to ventilate and moisten daily from a spray bottle.

You can use peat tablets for seeds, one tablet for one seed. This sowing will make the transplant easier. After about a couple of weeks, the first leaves will appear, after which we remove the glass.

Eustoma is a culture of long daylight hours, therefore, with early sowing, it is necessary to provide additional lighting with fluorescent lamps. Once a week, we feed the sprouts with an instant complex fertilizer specially designed for flower seedlings.

When three true leaves appear, we plant the seedlings in disposable cups, or in a permanent place if the potted cultivation option is chosen.

Despite its light-loving nature, the plant does not like direct sunlight, so the eustoma should be shaded from the midday sun. She also loves fresh air, moist soil, but does not tolerate stagnant water.

The long-stemmed eustoma is grown commercially to be cut for sale.

Diseases and pests

Due to the bitterness of the plant, eustoma is rarely affected by diseases and pests. But, if you do not thin out the planting, overmoisten the soil, and at low temperatures, it can be affected by powdery mildew, gray rot, fusarium wilting (damage by a pathogenic fungus).