Modest beauty aquilegia: cultivation and care

Fans of gardening and summer residents perfectly know this beauty with such a soft and fluent name - "aquilegia vulgaris". "Yes, we do not remember," you will say. Like many garden flowers, this beauty has its own popular name - "catchment". Well, remember? This is the aquilegia. Growing and caring for the mistress of many country lawns will be discussed below, and now we'll talk about where this cutie came from with clover leaves and flower-flyers.

Mountain guest

On our lawns, this pretty grass came from the lowlands of the Alps, from the mountain landscapes of the Kuril Islands and the Sakhalin Ridge. Wild forms of catchment grow in northern Japan. In general, in its origin it is a mountain flower, but not as inaccessible as edelweiss. And, I will tell you a secret, more beautiful than the hero of numerous legends and myths. Due to its love of the mountains, wild species of this plant do not take root in our flower beds. Unlike them, the hybrid aquilegia is very unpretentious. Growing and caring for her does not require special skills and conditions. She is ready to please us with her bluish foliage and unusual flowers from April to September. It is during this period that the catchment area grows and blooms. However, not very long - flowering lasts only two months - June and July.

The flowers of the aquilegia are terry and simple to 10 cm in diameter, differ tremendous variability in color - from snow-white and golden-yellow to bright pink and bright blue. Coloring sepals (outer petals) very often differs radically from the color of the corolla (inner petals with spurs).

Reproduction of aquilegia

Aquilegia can multiply both by seeds and by dividing the bush. The plant is a juvenile. Therefore, after 3-4 years, bushes should be renewed by division or replaced with young ones, grown from seeds, which can be sown in spring or autumn. From the fact, for what time you have outlined this procedure, depends on how it should be carried out. If the crop is planned for spring, the seeds must be prepared - arrange a cool rest in the refrigerator at a temperature of 5-7 ° C for a month. In scientific terms, stratify. Without this procedure, germination can be an order of magnitude lower. Split the aquilege bushes in the spring after the appearance of the first shoots. They will have time to acclimatize and blossom in the appropriate summer period.

Preferences and sickness of flower beauty

Like all cultivated plants, aquilegia care and cultivation prefers timely. The catchment basins will not feel good in the hot sun without a cover, but penumbra will be very pleased somewhere under a tree with periodic glimpses of sunlight. Watering the aquilegia should be sufficient. In the case of dry and hot weather, watering this cutie is necessary abundantly. With insufficient amount of moisture, the bushes lose their appearance and very quickly fade. Feeding the catchment should be, like all plants, 2-3 times per season, better organic fertilizer. Mineral is bred in a mild consistency. At 10 liters. Water only 2 tablespoons of fertilizer for flowering plants or one tablespoon of urea and potassium sulfate.

Varietal forms of plants such as aquilegia, cultivation and care require a few special. This feature is to prevent cross-pollination of different species among themselves. Otherwise, the hybrid forms degenerate. Therefore, it is necessary to cut off the peduncles after flowering. And if there is a goal to get seeds, pollination should be made artificially - with the help of a brush. Processed flowers should be tied with a gauze bandage in order to avoid perepyleniya bees or wind.

Not very capricious aquilegia, cultivation and care for which even a beginning gardener can do. But there is one point that must be taken into account. The catchment area is very easily affected by aphids. Therefore, it is better to carry out preventive measures in the form of preventive spraying with insecticides, than then moan and gasp, trying to save this beauty from the invasion of harmful insects.