Beautiful flower beds fill the garden with bright colors. Flowers are given the most honorable place. Bulb plants deserve special attention , the splendor of which is surprisingly combined with the simplicity of cultivation.
Gladioli. Short description
The Iris family has many plants of incomparable beauty. A popular representative of this family are gladiolus, or fenders. Perennial tuberous plant known since ancient times and has a rich history. The natural habitat is the tropics and subtropics of Europe, Asia and Africa. Skewers differ in a variety of forms. Tens of thousands of varieties of garden gladioli and at least two hundred natural species are known.
The graceful long plant has vertical stems. Its height is from fifty centimeters to one and a half meters. Hard leaves, whose length reaches eighty centimeters, like a sharp blade of a sword, rush up. Funnel-shaped flowers have a different color and shape. The spike-shaped inflorescence can be quite dense or loose.
How to grow gladiolus? General landing rules
In order to grow a full-fledged gladiolus, which will please you with abundant and beautiful flowering, you must follow certain rules of agricultural technology. Skewers are moisture-loving and heat-loving plants. For planting bulbs, an important point is the choice of the site. Gladiolus will be powerful and healthy in a well-lit area protected from wind and drafts. In poor lighting, plants stretch out and bloom poorly. Normal flower development is provided by soil fertility. Its most suitable type is chernozem or light loamy soil. When planting, complex fertilizers will be useful. They are added to the well under each plant.
Gladiolus - vigorous flowers. The question arises: how to grow a gladiolus so that the stem is stable and does not break? The correct planting depth will contribute to the stable fixation of the plant in the ground. After selecting a site for a flower garden and preparing the soil, corms ready for planting are sorted by size.
Large corms are deepened by ten centimeters, medium ones by five to seven. Small bulbs - children - are planted to a depth of two to three centimeters. The distance between the holes is from five to fifteen centimeters (depending on the size of the planting material).
How to grow gladiolus at home? Choosing a pot for growing
Bulbous flowers can be found not only in the composition of garden flower beds. Skazhniki sometimes settle in the most unexpected places. Growing gladioli in the open field is not the only possible option for planting bulb flowers. In the conditions of artificial soil, they will be a decoration of any interior. But before you grow a gladiolus, you need to solve a number of issues. First of all, you need to choose the right container in which the flowers will grow.
Mistakes made will not allow you to get a full flowering plant. In order to solve the problem of how to grow a gladiolus with a normal developed root system, you need to know the degree of its growth. It branches in the soil to a depth of forty centimeters. A full flower nutrition will be able to provide a soil layer with a thickness of at least forty-five centimeters. Based on this parameter, a suitable capacity for growing is selected. You can use large flower pots or plastic containers, the capacity of which should be at least twelve to fifteen liters.
Gladioli on the windowsill. Landing rules
An unusual sight - gladioli on the window of the living room. How to grow gladiolus in a pot so that it is healthy and fully develops and blossoms? At home, small-flowered and miniature varieties of skewers will be more suitable. They have a stem height of thirty to fifty centimeters. The root color system of these varieties is less powerful. The selection of a suitable container has already been said.
The drainage hole must be present in the pot. Flowers do not tolerate moisture stagnation. Drainage material is poured to the bottom of the tank, which will ensure a normal outflow of water. A good drainage system will ensure normal growing conditions. The pot is filled with soil, which should be quite fertile and at the same time moisture-consuming. The success of growing full-fledged plants depends on its composition. Corms in pots are deepened by eight to twelve centimeters, maintaining a distance between them of six to seven centimeters.
How to grow gladiolus on the balcony. Choosing a flower container
The decoration of balconies and loggias is impossible without flowers. Bulb plants can be used for this purpose. When choosing varieties, preference is given to gladioli with a small stem height. In order to organize a miniature flower garden, select the appropriate containers. In this case, you can use containers of the required size.
Flower growers are selected according to the same principle that is used when choosing pots for growing gladioli. They must have a volume of at least fifteen liters. Typically, large containers are used on balconies or loggias, in which more plants can be planted than in pots used for indoor cultivation.
How to grow gladioli from bulbs to ensure normal water balance? Containers must have openings for outflow of water. Before filling them with soil mixture, drainage material is laid at the bottom. The soil should be sufficiently fertile. At home, you can use purchased universal light peat soils designed for growing flower crops.
Flower garden at home. Cultivation agricultural
Before you grow a gladiolus on a window or balcony, you should study the conditions of planting and the content of these flowers. In open ground, gladioli are planted at a temperature of the soil of at least ten degrees Celsius. In the conditions of the closed ground, fenders begin to plant from mid-April.
When choosing a location for placing pots and containers on a windowsill, balcony or loggia, it should be borne in mind that gladioli are heat-loving and photophilous plants. Containers with flowers are located in well-lit places. Plants do not tolerate drafts and low air temperatures. When growing on a balcony, it is necessary to monitor the temperature regime. When cooling down to ten degrees Celsius, containers are temporarily brought into the room.
The first shoots appear two or three weeks after planting. At this time, it is important to ensure proper hydration of the flowers. A lack of moisture will certainly affect the growth of the plant. It will be weak and lose its decorative shape. Provide moderate watering, avoiding waterlogging. Moisture preservation can be achieved by mulching peat. At the same time, it will serve as additional fertilizing of the plant. Attention should also be paid to air exchange. The soil in the tank is constantly loosened, thereby providing air access to the root system of the gladiolus.
The next important point is the feeding of gladioli. In the conditions of the closed ground they cannot do without. How to grow flowers to ensure an adequate diet?
The normal development and flowering of gladioli will require three to four foliar top dressing with mineral fertilizers, for the preparation of which the following substances are dissolved in one liter of water:
- ammonium nitrate - 0.5 g;
- superphosphate - 0.5 g;
- potassium chloride - 0.5 g.
The feeding dates are as follows:
- the first is the appearance of three leaves;
- the second is the appearance of six leaves;
- the third is the beginning of flowering.
Preventative measures
The next part of agrotechnical measures for growing gladioli at home is preventive measures. In a closed environment, plants develop much weaker than flowers grown in garden flower gardens.
How to grow gladiolus from bulbs in pots and containers, while preventing flower disease? First of all, you should use healthy planting stock, which is disinfected for thirty minutes in a potassium permanganate solution before planting. To prepare it per liter of water, 0.5 grams of potassium permanganate is enough. During the growth period, the condition of the flowers is monitored and the necessary preventive measures are taken.
Planting material. Cleaning and storage
Gladioli are harvested in open ground in late September and early October. Corm ripens four weeks after flowering ceases. In closed ground, the flowering period lasts a little longer. The cleaning terms in this case, respectively, are shifted. When harvesting, the plants are completely dug out of the soil. After that, they are dried and trimmed stems.
Bulbs are peeled and rinsed with water. Then they are kept in a solution of potassium permanganate and then dried well. Next, remove the old bulbs and root system. The final stage is a thorough drying, which will last up to fourteen days.
It is necessary to store gladioli bulbs in a dry room at a temperature of three to eight degrees Celsius. At home, gladioli can be stored in paper bags or cardboard boxes by placing them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
Reproduction of gladioli
Apply several methods of reproduction - seeds and small bulbs, children. The latter method is more common. How to grow gladiolus from children?
Tubers are an excellent material for breeding fenders. Children are formed on the main bulb. They are small in size. In order to accelerate the flowering of this planting material, in March it is sown in containers. The sowing depth is from two to three centimeters. The gladiolus baby will grow in the container until September. Plant care is the same as for flowers grown from large corms. At the end of the season, the baby increases in size to three centimeters. In the next season, such corms will be an excellent planting material for full-fledged flowering plants.