Eremurus is back! The extremely popular West European plant has long been adorned with the vast expanses of landscape parks. But the homeland of these tall handsome men is Central Asia, and they came to Europe from Russian botanical gardens of the 19th century.
Historical reference
In the past, the inhabitant of deserts and vast steppes quickly returns to its former popularity, decorating country and household plots of the inhabitants of our country. Here it is often called shiryash, which in Tajik means glue , because in the old days powder from the dried horses of eremurus was added to the solution fastening the masonry. The eremurus received its native name because of the similarity of a long and magnificent inflorescence with a fox tail: eremos is a desert, and hurray is a tail. There are medicinal eremurus, for example - E. hilariae - eremurus of Ilaria. It has a lot of alkaloids and it has bactericidal properties. Young shoots and roots are quite edible, a good paint is obtained from the leaves. All eremurus are excellent melliferous plants. And finally, the most important thing, since big industry is not yet interested in eremurus as a raw material, it is extremely beautiful. The proud peaks of its peduncles are not in vain in the West called Cleopatra's needles, referring to the two famous obelisks built by the pharaoh Thutmose. The height of the towers is more than twenty meters, and the proud arrows of the eremurus rising up to the sky, vividly remind of the great construction sites of Ancient Egypt.
Botanical Description
Eremurus (Eremurus) comes from the genus of herbaceous plants of the Asphodelaceae family (Asphodelaceae), of which more than sixty species.
They like dry and hot summers and not cold and wet winters. Perennial plant with long - meter - linear basal leaves in a powerful outlet. In April, the first shoots appear, similar to giant asparagus. They grow quickly, grow to two and a half meters tall. In May, huge candles of various shades are lit, from white to orange. It blooms eremurus. Planting and care require some attention, but this is not the most whimsical plant. But you can enjoy flowering until the end of July. In August, the seeds ripen. Plants sway in the wind and release winged babies out of small boxes formed on the spot of flowers. Seeds of very high germination, not even quite mature. After seed ripening, only the rhizome remains alive for some time, growing a new upper root disk, and the above-ground eremurus giant dies, and its old root gradually dies too.
Types of Eremurus
There are two main garden species: spectacular with bluish leaves E. robustus Regel (powerful eremurus) and E. stenophyllus Barker (narrow-leaved eremurus) with golden yellow flowers. There are also E. lactiflorus O. Fedtsch (milky-flowered eremurus), a mountainous species - snow-white flowers on a reddish peduncle, and E. elwesii (Elvis eremurus) - especially tall with fragrant pink flowers, and the most elegant E. olgae Regel (Olga eremurus) - one of the most magnificent species, named after the Russian biologist Olga Fedchenko, who was a monograph of the genus Eremurus.
Planting and care - general information
Eremurus is planted on heated high beds, which are well drained. It is better to choose sunny, not windy places, the soil should be loose and fertile with deeply located groundwater. Eremurus feel and do not like the high acidity of the soil, you need to maintain a pH level of 6.5-7.0 and add lime. In rainy summers, the roots often rot; you can dig up plants and store them in a dark, warm and dry room for a period of rest. In dry weather, eremurus are watered abundantly. In winter, they should be carefully covered with peat and spruce spruce branches, and in the spring they should be protected from frost. But the most dangerous for eremurus is bacterial and fungal diseases.
Eremurus - landing
They reproduce by seed and vegetatively. Sow seeds directly in the year of their collection, in the fall, in greenhouses, at a depth of two centimeters, picking is done there. Eremurus are planted in the second year of life, giving them a living space of twenty to twenty-five centimeters, and only in the fourth year of life do they receive a permanent place and open ground. These seedlings bloom soon - in the fifth or sixth year.
Adult bushes can be divided only after six to eight years. This is done this way: during summer dormancy, the plant is dug up to the root and, without being removed from the ground, cut into four parts. The cuts are sprinkled with crushed coal and buried. The next year, eremurus forms many new outlets, which are planted in the fall. Such a plan, vegetative propagation helps the plant bloom much earlier - sometimes the eremurus smells sweet right in the second year. Planting and care are also easier than when grown from seeds. Transplanting eremurus is best from mid-August to the end of September. Rhizomes are planted at a depth of ten centimeters and at a distance of about a meter from each other. Sand or small expanded clay is poured at the bottom, then a mixture of earth with compost. From above it is obligatory to mulch with rotten manure: in winter - it will protect, in spring - it feeds. Perennials that prefer the same living conditions, but bloom in the second half of summer and autumn, settle in the flowerbed for eremurus. It can be irises, daylilies, carnations, poppies, phloxes. Thanks to neighbors such as phloxes and lilies, your flower bed will not be exposed when the eremurus blooms. Thoughtful planting and care of perennials provide beauty for the entire season.
Eremurus - care
In central Russia, eremurus need to be protected from the cold and protected from waterlogged. Cover the plantings with dry earth, leaves, peat, and then cover with a film, setting arcs so that a little air remains under the film. Usually in August, the eremurus begins to drop foliage, the plants become very vulnerable. If you do not worry about the health of the pet, then excess moisture will kill him. It is necessary to loosen the soil, to dig around the plants so that the moisture leaves. Watering always with great care - can rot eremurus. Landing and care in terms of drainage are necessary. In spring and in the first half of summer, you need to water constantly, so that the leaves do not dry out, but if the summer is rainy, then watering must be limited. Top dressing is also necessary - several times during the season. Mineral fertilizers have proven themselves well.