It is difficult to describe the delight that this plant evokes with its exquisite beauty. Seaside cineraria is a species of perennial herbaceous shrub plant, whose homeland is the Mediterranean coast. In our latitudes it is grown as an annual crop. With its original exterior - almost silver-white carved leaves, it earned the glory of an unsurpassed frame for flower beds and flower beds, for creating background patterns together with plants of bright, contrasting color. Patterns where cineraria is combined with marigolds, petunia, and salvia familiar to us are subdued by their originality and beauty.
Plants are sun-loving and drought tolerant, with the exception of the period of onset of growth. They are undemanding to the earth, although they prefer loose and nutritious soil. In their development, they reach a height of 20-25 centimeters and have a smart rosette of pubescent decorative, like velvet, silvery-white leaves. They do not require special care. It is enough watering in dry times and weeding from weeds. On less fertile soils, they look even more spectacular, because the bushes remain compact, with almost white, silver color.
The flower of cineraria is propagated by seeds, which are sown in February-March on the soil surface of seedlings, without seeding. Shoots germinate at a temperature of 18-20 degrees and sufficient moisture in the second week after planting. In the phase of the appearance of the first true leaves, the plant dives into more spacious containers. Sometimes it is practiced to plant seeds at the end of April immediately in unheated greenhouses, but at the same time the plants lag behind in their development by a whole month. Young plants are planted in open ground in early June, when spring frost has already passed. Between them, a distance of at least 20-25 centimeters is maintained. Although, if the cineraria flower is used as a border or carpet plant to create ornaments on flower beds, it can be planted at a shorter distance. Soon after adaptation in a permanent place, they turn into charming compact bushes, the decorative carved foliage of which is as if sprinkled with silver hoarfrost. Mainly from here comes the name of the variety cineraria diamond powder.
Cineraria blooms in small yellow flowers collected in inflorescences. These flowers do not represent any decorative value, and they are usually removed at the bud stage in order to preserve the decorativeness of the plant bush. In central Russia, it blooms very rarely. It retains its decorativeness all summer, right down to the very frosts. In the south of the country, a plant can winter in the ground if it is provided with light shelter. In the spring, having removed the shelter and cut off the frozen shoots, you can feed the overwintered cineraria and again admire its carved exquisite beauty.
If you wish, you can transplant the plant bush into a pot in the autumn before frosts, where it can calmly winter in a cool place. In the spring, returned to his place, he will continue to delight you with his beautiful decorative appearance.
In addition to seeds, the cineraria flower can also propagate by cuttings. To do this, in the summer, you need to choose well-formed lateral shoots, at least 10 centimeters long. After removing the lower leaves and keeping the cut sections for a couple of hours in a solution of a growth stimulator, they should be planted in loose soil and covered with the upper part of a plastic bottle. The landing site must be shaded.
The flower of Cineraria Seaside is appreciated in landscape design and urban landscaping with its characteristic silver-white color, which harmoniously looks next to any flowering plants. This makes it universal when choosing decorative elements when creating original flowerbeds, borders and garden compositions.
In addition to the seaside cineraria, which was discussed above, two more species of this plant are cultivated - bloody cineraria and elegant cineraria. Both of these varieties are characterized by the fact that they have a green color of leaves and flowers, simple or double, of various colors. Bloody cineraria is characterized by chamomile flowers collected in beautiful inflorescences. In landscape design, it is widely used as an annual crop, and its individual varieties can be grown as indoor plants.