2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Whatever properties people attributed to these funny and cute flowers during their acquaintance with them. Their merry spurs were compared to the caps of jesters, attributing to them a symbol of stupidity. Someone saw in the graceful bend of the spurs of the necks of the doves. The imagination of the third was amazed by the dew that collected in the early morning on the leaves of the plant and rolled down on their smooth surface to the ground. Whatever the name of the plant, it was and remains popular with gardeners for its unpretentiousness, durability and riot of colors
Description
A powerful taproot, which goes to a great depth, allows the plant to not depend on atmospheric precipitation, easily surviving the period of summer drought.
It takes two years for the shoots of a perennial plant to develop. First, the plant lays a bud of renewal at the base of the shoot flowering in a given year. In autumn, a rosette of basal leaves is formed from it. Having ensured a successful wintering of the plant, these leaves die off in the spring, making way for a new generation.
Simultaneously with new leaves from the center of the rosette in May-June, leafy peduncles with a height of 15 to 100 centimeters appear. The flowering stems end with large single flowers of various colors, including two-color. The shape of the flowers is also very diverse. These can be stellate flowers without spurs, but more often they have an elongated hollow outgrowth, called a "spur", in which the plant accumulates nectar. Interestingly, the nectar hidden in the long spurs becomes available to bees only after more powerful bumblebees "work" with the spurs. Flowering continues throughout June.
The fruit of the aquilegia is a multileaf with black, small and shiny seeds. They quickly lose their germination, so it is better to sow them in open ground before winter. The seeds of the catchment are poisonous.
Growing
Aquilegia is great for shady gardens or shaded summer cottages. It can also grow on sunny lawns, but with less effect on a flower garden.
The plant is hygrophilous. To support the efforts of the taproot, it will be more reliable to provide the catchment with abundant watering. And to retain moisture in the soil, resort to mulching.
The catchment is quite cold-resistant and does not require special shelter for the winter, with the exception of thermophilic plant species, for example, "Aquilegia skinneri".
The plant is not picky about soils, it can grow on any. But for abundant and bright flowering, it is better to provide it with loose, light soils, moderately moist, fertilized with humus and mineral fertilizers.
Reproduction
Aquilegia is propagated by seeds, green cuttings, dividing bushes.
It is better to sow seeds immediately after harvesting in open ground, that is, before winter. Such sowing gives friendly and strong shoots. When sowing in spring, seed stratification is required, which complicates the life of a grower.
Green cuttings are propagated more often in spring, and the bushes are divided either in late autumn or early spring, carefully dividing the bush so that each part has several shoots. The bushes are divided at least once every 4-5 years to maintain their decorative appearance.
Pests
Unfortunately, aquilegia is susceptible to disease and cannot withstand some pests. Its main enemy is powdery mildew, which covers the leaves with a white coating, which draws out vitality. The leaves gradually turn brown and die off.
May be affected by gray rot, rust fungi. Among the pests, spider mites, aphids, nematodes, and scoops were seen.
Use in the garden
Due to its height, bright color of flowers, the catchment is suitable for any type of flower garden.
Low-growing varieties harmoniously fit into the alpine hills, complementing dense clumps of saxifrage or gentian with their openwork foliage.
The plant looks good in rabat; on different plans of mixborders, where it goes well with other ornamental plants: incense, swimsuits, irises, tall lupines and bells, ornamental grains, ferns, hosts, astilba, brunner. Shrubs surround the aquilegia.
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Aquilegia (Latin Aquilegia) - flower culture; perennial belonging to the Buttercup family. Under natural conditions, the plant grows in the temperate zone of Asia, Europe and America. The plant is often referred to as a catchment. Characteristics of culture Aquilegia is represented by herbaceous plants, reaching a height of 0.
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Aquilegia glandular (Latin Aquilegia glandulosa) - a bright and attractive flower culture, actively cultivated on personal backyards and summer cottages. A species belonging to the numerous genus Aquilegia of the Buttercup family. In nature, it grows in stony areas with moderately moist soils.
