2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The herb nasturtium has versatile properties. Beautiful leaves and bright orange flowers of nasturtium will decorate any flower garden. Planted next to vegetables, it will scare off earthen fleas and voracious cabbage caterpillars. The spicy-flavoring qualities of nasturtium are actively used by culinary specialists, and the rich chemical composition of all parts of the plant helps to strengthen human health
Perennial annuals
Nasturtium, born in the warmth of South America, feels great in our harsh lands. True, it is more often grown as an annual, sown directly into open ground, since it does not tolerate transplants. Many species are afraid of even light frosts, so you need to be careful when choosing a variety for planting in the garden.
Plants are sometimes short, erect bushes, but more often, they are climbing plants, reaching a length of several meters. This ability of the plant is used for vertical gardening.
People fondly call nasturtium "krasulka", "colored salad", "Capuchin watercress" or "Indian watercress". The stems of the plant are hollow, the thyroid leaves are located on long petioles, from May to August, large flowers with a spur bloom with a solid orange, yellow or red carpet.
The fruit is a nutlet that looks like smart peas. The surface of the nut is not smooth, but covered with “brain convolutions”.
Varieties
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Large nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) is a perennial species rich in various varieties, grown as an annual. It can be a 30-centimeter compact bush, or a 3-meter creeping plant, strongly branching. Rounded long-stemmed leaves are green or purple tinged. Fragrant single simple or double flowers give a variety of shades: salmon pink, red, bright orange, yellow..
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Foreign capuchin (Tropaeolum peregrinum or Tropaeolum canadensis) is a climbing perennial plant grown as an annual. Thyroid green leaves and yellow flowers with a yellow-green spur and a fringed edge adorn the plant from spring to autumn.
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Multifoliate nasturtium (Tropaeolum polyphyllum) - differs in a creeping fleshy stem. Dark green thyroid-shaped leaves are divided into lobes. Smaller orange or yellow flowers than large nasturtium, bloom in June.
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Tuberous nasturtium (Tropaeolum tuberosum) is a climbing tuberous plant that blooms later than other species. It has five-lobed gray-green leaves and yellow-orange flowers with a reddish spur. There are varieties with early flowering, such as Early Flowering, which begins to bloom in early summer and is blooming until October.
Growing
Places for nasturtium need sunny or partial shade (for foreign nasturtium).
During the flowering period, the plant needs regular watering and mineral feeding once every 3 weeks. Should not be fed with organic matter, as this causes vigorous growth of leaves to the detriment of flowering.
Planting is carried out in fertile, loose and moist soil, refraining from introducing fresh manure, but adding a mineral fertilizer of prolonged action.
When growing tuberous nasturtium in a cold climate, the tubers are removed from the ground in autumn and placed in dry peat, placing the box in a place protected from the cold. Perennial outdoor nasturtiums are pruned at ground level in the fall.
Flowering begins 1, 5-2 months after sowing and lasts until the first frost.
Reproduction and transplantation
Propagated by seeds, or by dividing a perennial plant.
Due to the long taproot, the plant painfully tolerates transplants, therefore, it is better to sow seeds immediately to a permanent place in the spring, when there is no longer any danger of frost. Perennial species can be propagated by dividing the bush in the spring.
Usage
Nasturtiums can be grown both outdoors and in hanging containers, flower pots. They will decorate any flower garden with their beautiful leaves and bright large flowers, as well as give brightness and aroma to a garden terrace or gazebo.
Often nasturtium is planted near vegetable crops to protect them from earthen fleas and voracious cabbage caterpillars. But the plant itself is attacked by green aphids and leaf beetles.
To maintain the appearance, diseased or damaged plants and wilted flowers are removed.
Leaves, flowers and seeds of nasturtium are eaten. And also for medicinal purposes.
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