Today, not every florist enthusiastic about new products can boast that in his garden there is such a plant as a soft cuff.
Planting and caring for this perennial do not require any special skills and knowledge, but it has excellent decorative qualities. A leaf of just this rather modest plant at different times inspired architects who designed the
athletics arena of the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture and the waiting room of the Kursk railway station in the capital. This article will tell about the botanical characteristics and features of planting and caring for a soft cuff when growing it in the open ground.
Botanical Description
Soft cuff (Alchemilla mollis) - a perennial plant of the family Rosaceae (Rosaceae) with a rather short rhizome and a large, powerful root system. This herbaceous perennial is universal: it feels great in the sun, in the shade of trees and in partial shade. On cultivated soils with good drainage, it grows especially actively, but also on other types of land, with regular watering and top dressing, it develops well.
Its aerial grassy part can reach 40 cm. Fan-shaped leaves with a wavy edge tapering with a funnel to the base are collected in a rounded compact bush. From the beginning of summer to the onset of autumn, the soft cuff blooms. Planting and caring for it are quite simple, and even a beginner gardener can easily cope with this. The plant “throws out” peduncles up to 70 cm long, on which there are many small greenish-yellow flowers, forming airy and lush paniculate inflorescences. With green leaves, the cuff is soft in winter. Care for such plants is to sprinkle the core of the bush with humus or foliage and spud it with earth. Such measures will help prevent the “loss” or weakening of the cuff in the next season.
This plant propagates both by dividing the rhizome and by seeds.
Why is she called that?
Indeed, why is the plant rather modest at first glance called Alchemilla, which in Arabic means “alchemy”? The fact is that medieval scholars drew attention to such an amazing property of cuff leaves - to keep dew drops on their surface. Alchemists could not explain why the water does not drain, and considered the cuff a mystical plant.
The dew drops collected from the leaves of this grass, they used in their experiments to create the
elixir of youth and obtain the philosopher's stone.
The second word in the scientific name is mollis, which translates as "with a fluffy, soft edge." The leaves of this plant decorated with a serrated wavy edge really resemble old cuffs with lace scallops, which is why they call it the cuff.
A bit of geography
In the XVIII century, scientists ranked the cuff only one species - soft. Modern scientists include more than 350 species in the family Rosaceae and the genus Alchemilla. Cuffs of 170 species can be found on the territory of our country, of which more than 30 are found on its European part. The main distribution area of plants of this species is located in the temperate climatic zones of North America and Eurasia. Some alpine species are found in Africa, South America, and New Zealand.
It is also interesting that today the soft cuff is widely cultivated in European and North American gardens. Planting and caring for it are uncomplicated, as the plant is very unpretentious both to soils and to lighting conditions. Thanks to such features, flower growers are happy to use this rather decorative perennial when decorating flower beds and flower beds in their gardens.
We are sowing ...
One of the ways soft cuff propagates is by planting seeds.
To obtain young plants, the seed material is planted in containers with previously prepared soil. After planting, they are transferred for germination in a cool room. Tanks are left there until the shoots appear. The grown seedlings must be planted in separate containers so that a complete
root system can be formed
. For normal growth and development of young plants, individual containers should be well drained, such as perlite or pebbles. Reproduction by seeds is best done in the fall, then next spring the seedlings planted in a permanent place will not only take root well, but will also please with their flowering.
Divide the bush
Gardeners have the opportunity to get several new plants in early spring and autumn: you can divide the adult and overgrown bush, which formed a soft cuff. Planting and caring for the separated seedlings are not a problem: the most difficult thing is to extract a thick lump of roots from the soil and divide it. The resulting delenki are planted in a soil prepared in advance and enriched with peat. If the cuff is divided in the spring, then the strong and grown seedlings can be transplanted in the middle of summer in a constant place, leaving a distance of at least 30 cm between them.
Soft cuff: planting and care in the open ground
As mentioned above, Alchemilla mollis easily adapts to almost any condition. It is worth noting that the cuff demonstrates its decorative qualities most fully in fertile, well-fertilized, sunny and moist areas. On poor soils, as well as in dense shade, a small bush will grow, which will grow not in height, but as if "creep" on the ground. Regardless of the ground and the level of illumination at which the soft cuff grows, planting and care (the photo below shows this clearly) are always simple and accessible even for children.
It is important to remember the following features of growing this perennial:
- In winter, the leaves of this plant should not be pruned, as they will serve as an additional shelter in the winter cold.
- If the weather in the autumn-winter period is not constant, then both young plants and adult bushes are best to mulch with foliage, rotted compost or humus.
- In spring, even with well-tilled soil, it is better to feed plants with nitrogen-containing fertilizers in order to stimulate the formation of leaves and the formation of a lush bush.
- As the soil dries, it is necessary to water the plant, especially in hot and arid weather.