Sometimes in the flower beds in the yards of experienced gardeners you can see a majestic and unusually spectacular plant - a delphinium. Care and growing a plant - the procedure is quite complicated and troublesome. It often happens that not too beautiful flowers with loose inflorescences grow from seeds purchased at the store. In order to get lush bright plants, you need to follow certain technologies.
Plant description
Delphinium is a powerful perennial with a height of 80 cm to 2 m. The flowers from it are collected in cluster-shaped or paniculate inflorescences, elongated up to 50 cm. The buds can be double or simple. Petals are most often painted white, blue, blue or purple. Inside each flower, two petals grow in a contrasting main bouquet of colors. They are called staminodes and are needed by the plant to attract insects. Terry varieties lack such petals.
Planting seeds
So, what kind of plant, such as delphinium, is needed for care? Both the cultivation and cultivation of these flowers require the observance of certain technologies. Of course, plants must first be planted correctly. You can buy delphinium seeds in the store. Before boarding, they must be kept in the refrigerator. You can’t store seeds for more than a year.
At the first stage, small containers (for example, plastic cups) are a good place to grow young seedlings of a plant such as delphinium. Landing is done in steamed and well-moistened soil. The earth should not reach the top of the cups by 1 cm. The seeds are laid out at a distance of about 2 cm from each other and slightly pressed into the soil. Then they are sprinkled with dry earth. Watering is not necessary. Each container should be wrapped in black film and refrigerated for about two weeks.
Growing seedlings
After the first seedlings appear, the glasses are transferred to the windowsill, removing the polyethylene. Everyone needs to be covered with a transparent lid. Thus, seedlings are grown until they reach it. Once a day, the cap must be removed for ventilation. Seedlings are watered very carefully. It is best to do this with a thin stream of syringe, filling the latter with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Twice a week, seedlings need to be fed with nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizer with the addition of Epin (2 ampoules per 10 liters of water).
Dive
As soon as the first seedlings appear (2-3), they will need to be transplanted into larger containers. You can take ordinary seedling boxes. They deepen the plant to the point where the first real leaves grow. The grown dolphiniums are transferred to the open ground immediately after the end of the frost.
Choosing a place for dolphiniums
Only in a well-lit area can you get a beautiful spectacular delphinium. Care for these plants will subsequently consist solely in periodic feeding and planting. The flowerbed must be broken in a place protected from the wind. The fact is that delphiniums are plants quite high, and therefore, under heavy loads, they simply break. For the same reason, shoots longer than half a meter are tied to pegs. Dolphiniums should not be planted in places where groundwater is close to the surface.
Soil preparation
So how to plant a dolphinium? Care and cultivation will be successful only if the flower beds for the plants are prepared correctly. Delphiniums like soil slightly acidic or neutral, well-fertilized. Under a flower bed, dig a hole and fill it with soil, consisting of carefully mixed garden soil, sand and rotted compost. In order for the plants to develop better, you can add Kemira fertilizer to the soil. Planted seedlings need to be properly filled. Abundantly moisten the soil under the plants will need to be periodically - until rooting. Bushes are planted at a distance of at least 70 cm from each other.
Delphinium: care and cultivation. How to fertilize?
For the first time, delphiniums fertilize in the spring. In order to get lush inflorescences, under seedlings you need to make nitrogen-potassium-phosphorus fertilizer (with a predominance of potassium and phosphorus). In the spring, peat is poured under the bushes (2 cm layer). As soon as the plants get color, they need to be fertilized a second time. This time, 30 g of potassium and 50 g of superphosphate are added to the soil per 1 m 2 of soil. In August, ammonium sulfate (30 g), potassium chloride (20 g), ammonium nitrate (10 g) and superphosphate (60 g) can be added under the plants.
How to water?
Adult plants require watering only in very dry periods. The root system of dolphiniums is developed just fine and goes deep into the ground. Therefore, under normal conditions, the plant is able to produce enough moisture to grow on its own. However, it is necessary to water the soil under newly planted or recently transplanted dolphiniums.
Delphinium: landing in the fall
If desired, you can plant delphiniums in the fall. Do this in late August or early September. In this case, the garden bed is prepared in the same way as in the spring. Garden soil is mixed with humus, Kemira and compost. You can also add a little ash.
Plant division and transplant
At the same place, delphiniums can be successfully grown for about 10 years. But it often happens that already in the fourth or sixth year, the middle of the bush begins to decay. Of course, this significantly reduces the decorative value of a plant such as delphinium. Transplanting it, meanwhile, is not a particularly complicated procedure. The bush you just need to dig and divide the roots. On each piece should be no more than 3-4 adult shoots surrounded by green shoots.
Sprout propagation
The delphinium plant, the planting of which is most often carried out by seeds or division of roots, can be grown from cuttings if desired. For this, shoots with a length of at least 10 cm are suitable. Before planting, they are kept in a heteroauxin solution for about 2 hours. After that, they stick into a moistened sand-peat mixture and cover with a jar or polyethylene. Within a month and a half, the soil at the petioles must be constantly moistened. It is this period that they need to root.
Winter preparations
Adult delphiniums tolerate winter very well. Young ones, as well as newly transplanted ones, should be covered for the winter with spruce branches or foil. The latter, in order for it not to be carried away by the wind, must be dug along the edges of the earth. Adult plants are pruned before the onset of cold weather. At the same time, at least 30 cm of each shoot should remain above the surface of the soil. Thus, it is possible to reliably protect the dolphinium. Planting in the fall of these flowers is done quite often. Such young plantlets can generally just be buried with the ground.
Diseases and Pests
Of the pests, this beautiful plant is most often damaged by the delphinium fly, slugs, aphids and nematodes. There are certain methods to combat these insects. The most dangerous pest is the delphinium fly. This insect lays its eggs at the base of the plant stem. Therefore, when transplanting dolphiniums, one should carefully examine their roots. “Bazudin” must be added to the hole. If these insects are seen in the flowerbed, it should be treated with a weak solution of malathion.
How to cut flowers into bouquets
These wonderful plants were grown in our country not so long ago. At the permanent flower exhibition in Kazan, they, being presented for the first time, once made a splash. Today in the yards and gardens you can mainly see the New Zealand delphinium or cultural (complex hybrid). In the bouquets, his flowers look just great. Cut off inflorescences to extend preservation need to be turned over and filled with water in the hollow trunk. In order that it did not pour out, the green "tube" is clogged with a cotton swab. Delphiniums look best in narrow tall vases. These flowers will retain their freshness for a long time - about 10 days.
Delphiniums as part of landscape design
Well, now you know how to plant, grow and when to transplant a dolphinium. What role can this plant play in yard design? On the site, delphiniums are always planted in groups. So the plant looks much more spectacular. In this case, it is worth growing varieties with inflorescences of different colors in one flower bed. Very often it is delphiniums that are used as background plants in mixborders. It’s good to combine them with phlox, roses, lilies, dahlias. Sometimes delphiniums are planted at the front porch of a house or along its facade.