A simple, but at the same time nice little fragrant blue flower, some associate with French Provence, others reminiscent of Sofia Rotaru's nostalgic song, and the third - a remedy for moths - all this is a modest beauty lavender. Planting and care in the Leningrad region are possible, only you need to take into account some of its features, choose the right variety and provide it with acceptable wintering conditions. Many gardeners living in the northern regions of Russia have long and with good results grow lavender on their sites in the open ground. We invite you to get acquainted with their secrets.
Description
Although there are not many, there are people who are at a loss to say what lavender looks like. In the Leningrad region and in any other region of the world, its appearance is almost the same. In total, about 50 species and hybrids of this flower are currently known, differing from each other in the structure of the flowers, the tone of the petals, and the shape of the leaves. All of them are herbaceous perennials, growing lush bushes with an average height of about 1 meter. Lower shoots lignify over time. The root of all lavenders is pivotal, hard, also almost lignified, forming multiple branches in the upper part. The leaves of the vast majority of species are covered with delicate hairs, giving them a grayish tint. Flowers are collected in inflorescences spikelets.
Lavender for cold regions
Among others, real or narrow-leaved lavender in the Leningrad region is most successfully grown. The description of this species is not much different from the general description of the plant. The height of the narrow-leaved lavender bushes can be from 30 cm to 1 meter. In shape, its leaves, as the name implies, are narrow, elongated, located opposite, without petioles (sessile), up to 6 cm long. Their color because of the hairs appears silver-green. The shoots of this lavender are tetrahedral. Flowers are arranged in spikelets by whorls. Corollas of flowers are two-lipped, up to 1 cm long. The color of the petals is from deep blue to purple. But there are varieties with white, purple and pink petals. Flowering of lavender begins in the first decade of June and, with proper care, lasts until mid-autumn. At the end, small cups remain on the stems, in which four nut-seeds ripen.
Features and Preferences
Even the ancient Greeks were well known as a medicine and beautiful honey plant lavender. Planting and caring for this flower in the Leningrad Region can cause difficulties, because by its nature it is a “southerner”. The homeland of lavender is considered to be the Mediterranean, and in nature it grows in the south of France, in Spain, North Africa, on the Canaries, in Australia, in India, in the Caucasus. Lavender loves the sun and warmth, and does not like a strong wind and a lot of water. Sometimes you can find information that it calmly tolerates frosts up to -25 ° C, but this is more an exception than a pattern.
If we recall the climatic conditions of the
north-west of Russia, the question arises: "Can lavender grow in the Leningrad region?" The photo shows what some gardeners get wonderful lavender bushes. And this is despite the fact that here it is not hot here in summer, it is windy and cool enough in winter, and groundwater is often too close to the surface, which is why there are many wetlands in this region. In addition to all these inappropriate conditions in the Leningrad Region, a large percentage of
podzolic soils and loams, and lavender needs light and alkaline. What do gardeners recommend that lavender still take root?
Seat selection
Now agricultural technology is so well developed that even in inappropriate conditions lavender can flourish. Planting and care in the Leningrad region will give a good result if this flower is initially chosen the right place. In this case, it is necessary to observe the low humidity required by the plant and sufficient lighting.
That is, lavender will have to be planted in a sunny meadow, where there are no groundwater close to the surface of the earth and puddles never form after rain. Only broadleaf lavender can take root in partial shade, but it does not like cold weather at all, therefore, it is hardly grown in the Leningrad Region. If the site is located in a swampy and constantly damp area, but you really want to plant lavender, you will have to, firstly, arrange a powerful drainage for it, and secondly, build an embankment over it from suitable soil.
The soil
In order for lavender to take root in the Leningrad Region, cultivation should begin with a proper planting. We have already chosen a place for her. Now you need to provide her with suitable soil. Lavender is not particularly demanding on its fertility. In nature, it often grows on rocky slopes or wastelands, where for other plants there are very few useful trace elements. This does not interfere with lavender, but increased acidity is detrimental to it. So that, planted in a garden plot, it does not hurt, it is advisable to check the soil for pH. If the indicator is below 7, it will need to be liming. In addition, the roots of lavender must breathe, that is, heavy soils also do not suit her. Sand or any other baking powder helps to cope with this problem. Experienced gardeners are advised to add ash to the soil.
Lavender, planting and care in the Leningrad region. Photo of the correct placement of seedlings
The beautiful shy lavender does not like transplants, so she needs to be planted right away where she will grow all her life. They built a drainage and embankment, prepared the soil. Now you need to make holes for each plant with a depth of about 30-35 cm. The distance between them, if you plan to have lush bushes, should be equal to the height of an adult plant. If it is planned to create a thick carpet or a living border from lavender, the distance between the holes is halved. Before being placed in the ground, gardeners recommend keeping the seedlings in water for about an hour. Next, they need to remove the lower shoots and the top. Having planted young lavender in the hole, its roots are carefully sprinkled with earth, rammed so that the air that is not needed is gone, watered.
Care
Already in many gardens, lavender grows in the Leningrad region. Landing and caring for it, although they require compliance with the rules, are quite simple. The main thing to remember is that lavender does not like high humidity. Therefore, you need to water the plant very carefully and only when the soil under its bushes is dry. With an excess of water, the roots of lavender rot, and with drought, it blooms poorly. Therefore, in the case of lavender, it is better to shorten than to pour.
The second indispensable condition for successfully growing lavender is weeding and loosening the soil under the bushes so that the roots can breathe freely. Gardeners recommend mulching the soil, then the humidity is kept constant for a long time, and there is no need to loosen it. And if you take compost as a mulch, then you will not need to fertilize lavender. In general, this plant responds well to infrequent top dressing with mineral mixtures. Do this during the bloom of flowers. And in the spring it is recommended to pamper the lavender with nitrogen-containing complexes, so that the bushes are especially lush.
Lavender has practically no pests, so it is not required to treat it with chemicals.
Pruning
To make lavender beautiful, planting and care in the Leningrad Region include the pruning process. In principle, you can do without it, but those who want lavender to bloom longer and more luxuriantly cut off shoots with faded inflorescences.
Pruning is also required to rejuvenate aged lavender bushes. In this case, the shoots are cut almost at ground level, after which the plant is watered.
You also need pruning to grow lavender as a medicinal plant. All its ground parts, especially flowers, contain lavender oil, geraniol, tannins, cineole, bitterness, coumarin. To find the maximum amount of these chemical elements in the flowers, they need to be cut off immediately after blooming.
Another reason pruning is to ensure that the remaining shoots have air access. That is, this work is performed to thin out very thickened bushes.
Winter preparations
To lavender bushes safely survive the cold, it is recommended to shorten them before frost. Cut the shoots in a gentle way, leaving stalks up to 10 cm long above the ground. Some gardeners recommend that in the Leningrad Region in the fall, lavender should not be cut at all. With regard to her winter shelter, experts differ. Some recommend necessarily wrapping the bushes with covering material, plywood boxes or spruce branches. Others advise you not to cover anything at all, as some varieties can withstand temperatures around -20 ° C, for example, narrow-leaved lavender. In the Leningrad Region, planting and care of this variety have already been mastered quite well. And he wintered relatively normally, but there are reports of gardeners that even in the Krasnodar Territory, where it is much warmer, uncovered lavender froze over the winter.
Lavender indoor
Some gardeners, in order not to risk, lavender, especially French, which is a big sissy, is grown in pots. In winter, she lives in the house, and in the summer goes to the garden. With this method of growing, you need to remember that lavender loves heat and the sun only if it grows in open ground, and in a pot its roots can burn out from the heat. Therefore, pots with a plant in the garden in the summer need to be buried, and in the autumn, before entering the room, dig out. At home, potent lavender also needs to be protected from overheating, kept in winter in bright, but cool rooms, and in summer removed from window sills, where direct sunlight shines for long hours. Watering and loosening the soil in pots is the same as in open ground. Important: containers for potted lavender need to be selected spacious so that the roots have room to grow.
Seed propagation
Quite successfully, and in various ways, lavender propagates in the Leningrad region. How to grow it from seeds? This process is not so much difficult as troublesome.
It is often recommended that the lavender seeds be stratified by keeping them in the refrigerator all winter, and in the spring sown either immediately in the beds or in boxes. But, as experience has shown, lavender seeds need not be frozen, but warmed up, which increases germination to 90%. To do this, they just need to be placed in very warm water (t = 40-45 ° C), then rinse thoroughly, dry a little and sow in prepared containers. The fact is that almost hot water dissolves the oils and fats that cover the seeds, which helps them germinate more actively. The substrate in the containers should consist of garden soil with sand, vermiculite can be added. Having placed the seeds in the soil, they need to be covered with a bag or glass, sprinkled with water (the soil should be slightly moist all the time of germination) and put where it is warm, but not hot and there is no bright sunlight. As soon as the shoots become noticeable, the glass is removed. Sprouts are very moderately watered, and planted in the ground when the ground is freed from snow and warmed enough. The first year, the bushes of young lavenders will not be fluffy, and they will please the flowers only next summer.
Vegetative propagation
Lavender in the Leningrad Region is most successfully propagated by cuttings and layering. Features of the cultivation during cuttings are as follows. Cuttings are harvested from annual shoots, cutting them into pieces of 10-12 cm long. Then they are placed in the prepared soil, watered a little, covered with a film (make a hotbed). Such a stalk takes root very quickly.
Layering lavender is also easy to propagate . You just need to bend the selected shoot to the ground, fix it in this position and dig it in so that the tip remains outside. To water. After about one and a half to two months, an already rooted branch should be cut off from the mother plant and planted in a favorite place.
If the site has a very overgrown lavender bush, it can be divided into two or more fragments that will give new plants. For this, shoots are cut off at such a bush in the summer, well spudded, and in the autumn they are carefully dug up and dividing the bush into parts that are immediately planted.