Lupine long-term - unpretentious garden decoration

Among gardeners and gardeners lupine, many years of enjoying well-deserved love. This plant is very impressive, decorative, blooms all summer, is easily cultivated.

Description

Plants have a powerful root, deeply rooted in the soil and a high stem terminating in a bright inflorescence candle. Within a month the lupine flower grows up to one and a half meters and looks spectacularly against the background of a carpet of beautiful leaves. These flowers are decorative because of the shape of the inflorescences, which can have a variety of colors: they are white, lilac, light red, yellow, purple, cream, red and purple. In addition, high stems make them noticeable in the most remote corners of the garden. In group plantings of mixed varieties, lupine looks very beautiful and is widely used by designers to decorate garden areas and as a background for other crops. By the way, the flowers are good in the vase and stand for a long time in cut form.

Selecting a landing site

This perennial can be left in one place in the garden until six years. It is wintery, not only grows well on loamy soils, but also ennobles them, supplying nitrogen (it is able to absorb it from the air). For planting a place is better to choose sunny, but will fit and a little shaded.

Reproduction

Lupine is grown from seeds on separate beds for many years, and in May seedlings are placed on a garden plot for it. But when planting seeds, plants do not always retain color. It is necessary to propagate the most decorative varieties vegetatively (bush division, cuttings).

Fertilizers. The second flowering

Care of plants is common: irrigation, weeding and loosening of the soil. From the second year potash phosphorus fertilizers are introduced into the soil of the flower garden (100 g per 10 square meters). In spring it is desirable to cover the soil around the plants with humus. The peculiarity of growing lupine: if, after the first flowering, the leaves and drying candles are cut off, a new vegetation will begin, and in August he will again be pleased with the bright colors. In addition, if the stems are plaited, the lobed roots develop well, which the plant strengthens, increases the area of nutrition, and contributes to the duration of flowering. For the winter, lupine is cut off, but green leaves are left. Usually no additional shelter is required. Cut off leaves are used as fertilizers. After four years of cultivation of lupines, the perennial becomes smaller, the flowers lose their brightness and variety, so the flower garden should be renewed.

Lupine as a fodder crop

This plant is not only decorative, but also useful. In the vegetative part of the flower there are many valuable substances. They are especially rich in seeds - they contain 50% protein and 20% oil. Because lupine is one of the best forage crops. If the chopped lupine perennial smell into the ground, it decomposes and forms humus, improves the structure of the soil, reduces its acidity. Even cut leaves and flowers should be placed under other plants in the garden as fertilizer. Lupine fodder can be mowed several times during the summer and at the same time get a green mass that is not inferior to the nutritional qualities of the clover.