How many kinds of flowers does each of us know? Most likely, a lot. These are roses, and chrysanthemums, and chamomiles, and peonies, and gladioluses, and many, many others. However, there are those who not only delight in their unsurpassedness, but also surprise in their unusual appearance. For example, a venus slipper - not to say that it is a beautiful, but unusually interesting and attractive plant. About him and the story.
The shoe is large-flowered, or the Venus shoe
The first species of this plant were found in northeastern India, China and Vietnam. After the flower came to Europe, and only then - to Russia. You can meet this interesting plant in Siberia and the Far East. The slipper belongs to the orchid family and is a perennial herb. The genus of this plant has more than 30 thousand years. It’s impossible to keep an accurate account of the flower species - this is due to the fact that some species are almost completely destroyed for commercial purposes, while others suddenly reappear in the wild. The large-flowered slipper is not in vain bears such a name - the shape of its flower resembles a shoe very much. In addition, the flowers have a bright, attractive color and a very pleasant aroma.
Types of shoes
There are a lot of species of this plant, however, three main ones can be distinguished. The true venus slipper is a plant with a horizontal rhizome, about 50 centimeters high, with leaves that resemble an ellipse in shape, and an original flower. It begins to bloom in July. The next view is a large-flowered shoe. It is widely used to create hybrids, as it has several natural variations. His flowers are very large, the standard one can reach 10 centimeters in diameter. Their color is usually hot pink, but the shoes can also be white or red.
This variety blooms a little earlier than the first species - in May. Another species is Venus slipper spotted. Its flower is truly beautiful - white or pink, it is covered with dark purple spots. This is the rarest shoe large-flowered. The Red Book of the Russian Federation has protected this endangered species.
What are the conditions for growing a shoe?
Since there are actually a lot of varieties of shoes, there are no uniform conditions for growing for this flower. What is indispensable is that they should be as close as possible to the natural conditions of growth. Among cyripediums there are plants adapted to different growing areas - these are orchids that grow on trees, and plants that are more comfortable on stones and rocks, there are also those that prefer a simple humus. Therefore, it is very important to know which species is more suitable. The soil into which the shoe is to be planted must certainly be moderately alkaline, moist and with good air filtration. These flowers love both sunlight and shaded places.
But there is another side that combines different subspecies of the shoe - almost all of them are frost-resistant.
Care
The large-flowered slipper does not require special care - the plant is considered not whimsical at all. All that is required is regular, moderate watering. It is important to know that in no case should soil be poured. Just as you can not dry it - the plant in these cases will certainly die. If the air is very dry, it’s better to spray the shoe periodically or try to create conditions that will allow you to maintain moderate humidity. When the shoe blooms, it should be fed. The best lure in this case is mullein infusion. But you can’t overdo it with mineral fertilizers - they contribute to the formation of salts in the soil, which will also destroy the flower. So, we partially considered the large-flowered shoe - description, types, care.
What you need to know more about this plant?
How does the shoe breed?
Venus slipper propagates in two ways - using seeds and vegetatively. No matter how strange it may sound, the seed propagation of the plant is quite difficult. Seeds can sprout only under certain conditions, otherwise they will simply dry out without giving a single shoot. Even if it was possible to germinate the microscopic seed of the shoe, the first flowers on it will appear no earlier than 8-10 years from the day of sowing. Therefore, such germination is practiced only by biologists who engage in breeding processes. Gardeners prefer to plant a flower by dividing the rhizome, the best time for this is August-October.
How to plant a shoe from the root
Orchid (large-flowered slipper) is planted from the root as follows. Part of the rhizome should have several daughter buds. The root is dug into a well-loosened substrate to a depth of not more than 10 centimeters. After that, the substrate is covered with a thin layer of ordinary soil. Important - the substrate layer above the daughter kidneys should not be more than 2 centimeters. It can not be trampled, tamped or even simply crushed, otherwise the sprouts simply will not break. So the large-flowered shoe will spend the whole winter, and in the spring it will start new shoots. And yet - for the time of wintering, the planted flower is better to insulate additionally - these can be dry leaves poured on top or a regular polystyrene foam (not in pieces, but finely divided).
Beneficial features
We learned what a large-slipper is. Plant description, care and planting considered. However, there are also interesting facts that you need to know about the shoe. The plant contains a lot of useful substances, so shoe polishes prepared according to old recipes are widely used for insomnia, childhood fright, mental illness, epilepsy, headaches, and incontinence. It is easy enough to prepare the infusion - a teaspoon of dry grass is poured into 200 mm of boiling water, it is left to stand for two hours and passed through a sieve. Drink with headaches, bleeding, hernias, as a diuretic. But with depression and mental disorders, you can cook another broth - 10 grams of dry grass in 250 mm of water. All this is heated in a steam bath for 20 minutes. Chilled broth is best stored in the refrigerator.
A decoction is prepared for the children - half a teaspoon of dry grass is poured with one glass of boiling water, insisted for at least 8 hours, carefully filtered. The child is allowed to drink no more than 1/3 cup, be sure to eat about 20 minutes before eating. If a decoction is taken by a person as a course of treatment, then they drink it as follows. 20 days daily, then give a respite of 10 days. The most remarkable thing about taking a folk remedy is the complete absence of contraindications. A decoction of a large-flowered shoe will only benefit, without absolutely harm.