2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The flora of the Russian expanses, withering with every new autumn rain, is slowly preparing for the winter frosts, bending the stems of plants closer to the surface of the earth, more and more exposing the branches of trees, under the fallen leaves of which various insects dream of overwintering. And only the "star" flowers of Aster continue to delight gardeners with the brightness of colors and tenderness of petals. It seems that all the tenderness of the red autumn is concentrated in these resistant plants
The number of plant varieties, whose name is translated from Latin as "Star", perhaps, can compete with the number of stars shining in Heaven on a clear August night. The August sky starfall seems to provoke an abundant bloom of the earthly namesake of stars in the sky, flashing and extinguishing so quickly that not every person manages to make a cherished wish. Indeed, most often the flowering of asters begins in August and continues until late autumn, when most of the ornamental plants have already completed their growing cycle. If the celestial star guarantees the fulfillment of the desire of a person who managed to formulate it clearly and quickly, while the trail of a shooting star is visible in the sky, the “earthly star” does not give such guarantees. A flower basket is not even suitable for checking: “loves - does not love”, there are a lot of petals on it, and therefore Astra's relative, a more modest and chaste Chamomile with snow-white petals, is used in such cases. True, during the time of the French king Louis XV, a gift from Asters was tantamount to a declaration of love.
A man is rewarded with a variety of compliments by a riot of colors that descended from Heaven to Earth in the form of Asters. Some put Astra on a pedestal next to the Rose, giving a compliment - "Autumn Rose". Others agree with the French botanist Antoine Jussieu (06.07.1686 - 22.04.1758), one of the four brothers of the famous French dynasty of botanists in France - Jussieu, who called the Asters "Queen of Daisies". Such a compliment from the lips of a botanist, who was the first to grow Asters in Europe from seeds brought from China in 1728, was given for the outward resemblance of Asters to the already known Daisies, which are inferior to the Asters in size. Since those distant times, the original unpretentious form of Aster, through the works of botanists, has given a huge variety of varieties that delight in their splendor. From the botanical garden of the French king Louis XV, whom the Russian Tsar Peter the Great had a chance to hold in his arms with the words: “In my hands is all France” (which is captured in the monument installed in Peterhof), the triumphal procession of the “crowned” plant across the countries of Europe began
It should be clarified that the popular one-year Astra, which is often called "Garden Astra", has been singled out by botany from the genus Astra into an independent monotypic genus Callistephus (Latin Callistephus), in which today there is only one species "Callistephus chinensis", that is, Callistephus Chinese, or Chinese Astra. The words "one species" do not negate the huge variety of varieties bred by hardworking botanists and gardeners from the Aster that once came to Europe from China, which vigilantly guarded its plant miracle from strangers, but was never able to resist the sneaky and assertive European "walkers. over three seas ". Chinese aster is suitable for any type of flower garden, because among its diversity you can always pick up plants of the desired height (from dwarf to tall), with different flowering periods (summer or autumn), with a very different color range of flower petals, with simple and double flower baskets. Such a variety, perhaps, is not found in any other ornamental garden plant.
For the successful cultivation of Asters, you need fertile and loose soil that does not provoke stagnant water. Plant care is quite traditional: loosening the soil with the removal of weeds, watering during a dry period. Excess and stagnation of moisture favors diseases that interfere with the growth and proper flowering of the plant. Asters grow successfully not only in open ground, but also in flowerpots on terraces, verandas, balconies …
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