2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
If you like spike-shaped inflorescences on tall peduncles, located on a green lawn, like elegant candles, then the Almighty created this plant just for you. Perennial Liatris is easy to grow and does not take away many precious summer minutes
Rod Liatris
The Americans, who had mastered the vastness of the northern continent long before the arrival of the European conquerors, used all parts of the plant for medicinal purposes. Apparently, this was the Latin name for the genus Liatris, which is based on the Greek words "smooth" and "doctor".
In Russia, people affectionately call the herbaceous perennial "merry feathers" for its tubular flowers, which, contrary to natural traditions, begin to bloom from the crown of the inflorescence, running down into elegant feathers along a strong peduncle.
Rhizomes-tubers store nutrients for plant growth and reproduction, located close to the surface of the earth. Peduncles, crowned with dense large inflorescences, are covered with linear leaves, beautifully curving to the surface of the earth and giving even more decorativeness to the whole plant.
Varieties in culture
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Liatris spike (spikelet) (Liatris spicata) is a moisture lover who sometimes chooses a place to live in swampy places. It grows in height from 60 cm to two meters and is popular as a cut flower. Erect, glabrous, or slightly pubescent, the stem is covered with sessile linear-lanceolate leaves with a solid margin. In summer, from top to bottom, flowers of spike-shaped long inflorescences begin to bloom. The flowers are painted in bluish-purple, pink-purple, red, less often white, color.
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Liatris callilepis (Liatris callilepis) - a less tall species, rising to a height of 90 cm. In proportion to the growth, its lanceolate leaves are smaller and shorter than the inflorescence (up to 30 cm in length). From mid-summer to September, pink-purple inflorescence baskets bloom.
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Liatris the lovely (Liatris formosus) is a dwarf species that can rise to only 30 cm in height. Beautiful inflorescences are formed from white flowers.
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Liatris herbaceous (or
cereal) (Liatris graminifolia) is a medium-sized species that grows up to 85 cm in height. The species was named for its thin long leaves, similar to the leaves of cereal grasses. Nature has painted white spots on the green surface of the leaves. In the last month of summer, purple flowers bloom, forming a spike-shaped inflorescence.
Growing
The plant is resistant to high and low air temperatures. In areas with a cold climate, it is better to place liatris in sunny places, and where it is warmer, partial shade is suitable for it. The aboveground part is cut off in late autumn, leaving only the rhizomes underground. In cold and snowless winters, it is better to insulate the rhizome with mulch, since it is located close to the surface of the earth.
Grows more fruitfully on fertilized, drained soils. In summer, watering is more abundant, but without fanaticism, since only spikelet liatris loves high humidity.
Reproduction
If you have a good supply of patience, then you can propagate liatris with seeds, sowing them in special boxes in March without embedding in the soil. The plant will show spike inflorescences to your attention only in the third year of its life.
Faster flowering can be achieved by propagating liatris in the spring by dividing the tuberous roots. Moreover, once every three years it just needs to be done in order to defuse the planting, giving freedom to the plant. Large parts of the rhizome will please with spikey inflorescences the next summer, and small ones should be grown in special beds, called "kindergarten" for plants.
Diseases and pests
Liatris has in the camp of enemies the snails familiar to everyone, the striped nutcracker, the bear, who love to feast on the tuber roots of the plant. In the fight against them, all means are good, starting with folk decoctions of herbs, all kinds of traps with baits, and ending with granular insecticides.
Usage
Due to the different heights of the species, Liatris is suitable for any type of flower garden. It will decorate the background of a mixborder, it can become a flower border, it will harmoniously fit into a rocky garden. It is grown for cutting for live and dried flowers.
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