In nature, there is a huge species variety of flowers. All of them are beautiful in their own way. But among them stand out especially attractive ones, which I always want to consider. These flowers are daisies. About the features of their cultivation at home and in the open ground, read the article.
Plant description
Daisy flowers belong to perennial crops from the aster family. In gardening, they are known as biennial plants. During the first year of life, a leaf rosette forms: it is dense, its shape resembles a scapula or an egg.
In the second year, peduncles are formed in large numbers, the height of which reaches 15-20 cm or more. On them, single inflorescences are formed in the form of baskets with a diameter of two to seven centimeters. In the middle of the flower are tubular petals, and reed at the edges. They are painted in white, burgundy, pink, red shades.
The flowering period begins from the second month of spring. The optimum temperature for this process is from 15 to 18 ° C. This is why flowering is reduced in summer and buds become smaller. In autumn, when the heat subsides and the air temperature drops, flowering again becomes violent, it will continue until the frost.
Daisy flowers are simple, double and semi-double. Today there is a huge variety of varieties of this type of plant, but only 20 are cultivated as cultivated, which are combined into seven garden groups, depending on the timing of flowering, shape, size of inflorescences and other characteristics. Skillfully using the gap in flowering periods (about two to three weeks), you can achieve continuous decoration of your garden with cute plants.
Perennial daisy in translation from the Greek language is called the “pearl" and has a high decorative effect. The flowers are very delicate, their unusual beauty attracts attention. Daisies wake up when the sun rises in order to give joy throughout the whole day with their magnificent attractive appearance.
Varieties of daisies
Perennial flower has a number of varieties:
- "Robella" - this variety is a medalist of the "Fleroselect" contest. Inflorescences of pink-salmon color are large, dense, terry-looking. Their diameter reaches five centimeters. Petals are rolled up tubes.
- "Pomponett" - this variety of daisies has compact bushes, a spherical shape, small pompon inflorescences.
- "Bella Daisy" - the variety received an award at the "Fleroselect" competition. Such daisies bloom early. They have a terry basket, brightly colored pink. Its diameter reaches two or more centimeters.
- "Rob Roy" is a miniature daisy, the diameter of its red inflorescences reaches one or two centimeters.
How to choose a place and prepare the ground for planting
The cultivation of daisies in the open field is carried out on a site illuminated by sunlight. It is important that the shadow from tall plants, especially from trees, does not fall on the flowers. Of course, the perennial daisy is unpretentious and can grow in any conditions, but its bloom in this case will not be so magnificent.
The flower grows on ordinary garden soil, but feels more comfortable in structured loams. Before sowing seeds, the soil is cleaned of all weeds using herbicides. Then loosen to such a depth that the air flows well to the roots. This distance should be larger than their size.
Features of seed preparation
Before sowing daisies, seeds need to be coated with a solution containing trace elements. This saturates them with the substances necessary for plant growth. In addition, thanks to the shell, the seeds are reliably protected from harmful bacteria and insects. The processed planting material is similar in appearance to balls, therefore the method of growing from it is called pelleting. Such seeds are planted individually, and, compared with ordinary seeds, they need to be watered more often. With insufficient moisture, the shell will not completely dissolve, which will negatively affect the growth of the flower.
Sowing daisies in open ground
Planting, depending on preferences or possibilities, is carried out by ordinary and dragee seeds. In the first case, they are taken in the amount of three to four pieces, placed in cassettes and planted in the ground. The pelleted planting material is already in the shell; no additional manipulations are necessary with it. When to plant daisies?
Sowing of seeds should be carried out at the end of spring or at the beginning of the first summer month in moist and fertilized soil with humus or peat. Depth of landing should not be large, just two centimeters. The seeds are sprinkled with the same soil in which they are planted, but pre-mixed with a small amount of sand. For quick germination, plantings are covered with a film for several days, so moisture is better preserved in the soil. It is important to consider that drying out the soil is unacceptable.
Seedling cultivation
Most often, gardeners plant a flower using seedlings. To do this, grow it from seeds that are sown in boxes or containers with soil in early spring, in March. Seedlings are grown indoors or in a greenhouse. Seedlings are planted in flower beds in May. When planting an earthen lump with roots, you do not need to shake it off.
Wells are made in the area reserved for daisies. It is advisable to leave the distance between them at 20 cm. Using the transshipment method, plants are placed in pits, covered with soil, which is well compacted. After this, plantings are watered with plenty of water, and the soil around the bushes is mulched. With this method of growing, daisies bloom in the same year.
Outdoor vegetative propagation
Flowers are cultivated in two ways: by cuttings and by dividing the bush. In the latter case, reproduction contributes to the preservation of valuable plant varieties, since with age the flowers become smaller and lose their decorative effect. The best time to divide the bushes into parts is the end of summer or the beginning of the fall season. Before the procedure starts, all buds and flowers are pinched, leaves are cut, and the roots are shortened to five to eight centimeters. This will help dividends to take root faster. At the same time, cuttings are prepared. To do this, lateral shoots are separated from the bush along with leaves, and then they are planted on beds. Their rooting will pass quickly, within a crescent. Such daisies will bloom only for next year.
Care Features
Growing flowers in the open field does not present any difficulties. The main thing is to provide them with proper and timely care. Daisies need watering, top dressing, loosening the soil, weeding. The roots of these flowers lie at a shallow depth, so plants need to be watered regularly, since a lack of moisture affects the size of the inflorescences: they become much smaller, and the terry varieties lose their specific appearance.
After each watering, the soil needs to be loosened. In order not to weed often, the area with flowers can be mulched. This will protect the soil from evaporation of moisture in it and prevent the sticking out of roots close to the surface of the earth, which occurs due to drying out of the soil.
It is especially difficult for daisies to tolerate hot weather. Therefore, in the dry period, the soil should be moistened abundantly and often. If it dries, the flowers will simply die. Each irrigation procedure should begin with drainage of the soil, otherwise excess moisture will linger in it, and oxygen will not reach the roots in an incomplete volume.
At different periods of growth, plants need additional nutrition. At the initial stage, they need nitrogen and potassium. As an additional nutrition, use a weak solution of these trace elements. The next dressing should be carried out before the beginning of the flowering period with a mixture prepared independently. For this, two tablespoons of nitrophosphate are diluted in a bucket of water with a capacity of 10 liters and a composition called “Agricola Fantasy” is added. With the same fertilizer, the daisy is watered several times throughout the season.
You can use for feeding another mixture, which in equal proportions includes potassium sulfate, superphosphate, ammonium nitrate. Care includes a procedure such as removing wilted buds. This significantly prolongs the flowering period and its quality indicator.
How to collect seeds?
For those who prefer their own planting material to their home, one should know that the seeds are harvested when fully ripened on the plant. But this process does not take place simultaneously. Therefore, seeds must be collected at least once or twice a week. For this, inflorescences that are in the wilting stage are cut off from the plant. This should be done in dry weather. If it rains, the seeds will be washed away, and there will be nothing to collect. Seeds are shaken out on the underlying paper or fabric from them and sent to the room for drying. It must have powerful ventilation installed. After the procedure, the seeds are poured into a bag of paper and placed in a dry place for storage.
Preparing daisies for winter
Since these flowers are perennial, they are left to winter in the open ground. But for the period of cold weather, they should be covered with improvised materials so that they do not freeze and spring up. To do this, use peat, fallen leaves, branches of needles. In autumn, before the onset of frost, the area on which the flowers grow is mulched by humus. The layer thickness should not be less than one centimeter. When spring comes, the overwintered daisy flowers are transplanted to another site, deepening the roots well.
Features of home care
Florists who are engaged in the cultivation of daisies, consider it a great success to have this flower in their collection. The easiest way to breed daisies in the room is to transplant annual annual flower rosettes from the street into indoor pots. This should be done in the first half of autumn, until the daily temperature drops to 8 ° C or lower. At this time, the flowers are at rest and are preparing for flowering once again.
In order for the daisy in the pot to grow normally and bloom magnificently, it must be planted in light soil with good drainage. To increase fertility, humus and sand should be added to the soil. The flower will grow well on sunlit windows. During the autumn planting of daisies, their flowering occurs in the first month of winter and will continue until its end.
Planting Indoor Daisies
To reproduce these flowers, several methods are used. At home, the most relevant way is to divide the bush, as this procedure rejuvenates daisy flowers, after which they grow more actively and open buds faster. Young plants are not suitable for this method of reproduction, you need to take two-year-olds and older.
For dividing the bush, the best time is summer, the month of July. Usually during this period, flowering is suspended. For the procedure, you need to get the bushes from the pots and divide them into small parts. Each separated bush needs to cut off all the buds, leaves and shorten the roots. Only then put them in separate pots and put in partial shade until they are accepted. At this time, you need to water the plants more often.
Many gardeners propagate indoor daisy cuttings. They are taken from healthy plants in the last month of spring or in the summer, at the beginning of the season. Cuttings are lateral shoots. They are added to the soil, which should be soft and loose. It takes half a month to root the cuttings. The flowering period of such daisies will come only next year.
The easiest way to propagate daisies is with seeds. They are scattered on the surface of the soil and sprinkled. To do this, use sand or a loose substrate. Shoots will appear in seven to ten days. When the seedlings grow up, they are transplanted into pots, where they will grow constantly. The flowering of such daisies occurs depending on the time of sowing seeds. If this procedure was carried out early in the spring, then the plants will bloom in the same season. When sowing seeds in summer, the flowering period will come only next year.
Home Care
Indoor daisies need abundant watering, which should be carried out regularly. A lack of moisture negatively affects the flowers: they become small, their fluffiness disappears. Caring for daisies also involves feeding them. Growing in a pot with a limited amount of soil, the flower needs to be fed with a frequency of at least once every half a month. To do this, use a fertilizer consisting of organic and mineral compounds. They are called complex for indoor flowers.
For landscape design
Daisies are flowers that look especially good when combined with spring plants, such as tulips and hyacinths, lilies of the valley and daffodils, primroses and primroses. Small, but very expressive and bright violets or forget-me-nots, tightly planted with blooming daisies, will shade and complement their unobtrusive beauty.