Proleska Or Scylla

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

These heralds of spring are like love at first sight. Yesterday there was snow under the high crown of a birch, and today a blue spot of flowers adorns the wet black soil. The gardener's scrub will delight and disappear again until the next love, that is, until the next spring. She is such a mischievous woman

Description

Scylla or scilla is a perennial bulbous herb. Some call it "Blue Snowdrop" for its ability to emerge in early spring from under the snow. Although there are species of forest trees that bloom in the fall.

From rounded ovoid bulbs, inflorescences appear simultaneously with linear leaves. Leafless peduncles from 12 to 25 centimeters high are crowned with single bell-stellate flowers or racemose inflorescences. They can be white, pink, light or dark blue, purple. Bloom in April - early May.

The fruit is a capsule containing black seeds.

Growing

Proleska is very unpretentious, but responsive to care. Grows best on loose, humus-rich soil. Frost resistant.

It grows both in open, illuminated areas and in partial shade of trees with a high crown.

Scylla is propagated by seeds or bulbs. Seeds are prone to self-seeding. The bulbs are fertile, form up to 6 babies in one season. To thin out the plantings, once every three to four years, it is necessary to dig up the bulbs, sharing them with friends or planting them in new areas. Moreover, it is not recommended to store the bulbs for a long time, starting from the end of August you can plant them in fertile soil, deepening no more than 5 centimeters.

Types of woodlands

• Armenian Proleska - grows in lighted places and under the canopy of the crown of trees. Sickle-curved leaves emerge from a medium-sized bulb. On a 15-20 cm peduncle there are dark blue flowers. Blooms for two to three weeks in mid-spring.

• Siberian Proleska - ironically, you will not meet her in Siberia. She prefers loose, drained, non-acidic soils of southern European territories. Bright green linear leaves in the amount of 2-4 surround a 10-12 centimeter peduncle with flowers of azure, white, less often slightly yellow. It blooms for a long time. Frost resistant.

• Autumn screech - pleases with flowering in July-August. Linear narrow grooved leaves appear much earlier than peduncles, having time to die off and be replaced by new ones. Peduncles (15-20 cm) are crowned with racemose loose inflorescences of reddish-purple or pale lilac flowers. Medium-sized conical bulbs, up to 4 cm in diameter. Autumn woods are less decorative than their spring relatives.

Use in the garden

In early spring, when the trees are just beginning to wake up from hibernation, the near-stem circles of birch, oak, maple, fruit trees will be decorated with a blue or lilac carpet of delicate star-shaped flowers of the forest.

All types of woodworms are excellent honey plants.

The woods will revive the gray stones of the alpine slide, side by side with daffodils and dwarf tulips.

From them you can make funny and elegant borders.

The woodlands will brighten the foreground of the mixborder in combination with other bulbous plants. They will defuse the monotony of the green lawn with their bluish-purple clusters.

The bells of the forest forest among the bushes of peonies, which have not yet had time to unfold their openwork leaves, look beautiful.

Scyllas are used for forcing and cutting, making up small spring bouquets and miniature arrangements from them.

Attention

Squid bulbs are inedible. They cause poisoning in the body. At a high dose, they cause vomiting, hair loss. They violate blood clotting, disrupt the activity of the kidneys.