Katananche - Lilac Daisies. Care, Cultivation, Reproduction. Photo

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Katananche - Lilac Daisies. Care, Cultivation, Reproduction. Photo
Katananche - Lilac Daisies. Care, Cultivation, Reproduction. Photo
Anonim

Katananche surprisingly combines winter hardiness with an appearance more typical for summer visitors. This plant is surprisingly airy and gentle, relentlessly releasing quivering flowers with a delicate bluish-lilac color. Despite its fragility, katananche does not know competitors both as a plant for cutting and in decorating compositions. After all, no other perennial can boast of such an ability to bring lightness and harmony into complex ensembles. Growing katananche is not at all difficult, except for the need to provide this culture with fairly frequent watering in drought.

Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)
Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)

Content:

  • The relentless blooming katananche
  • Conditions required by katananha
  • Boarding and transplanting katananche
  • Katananche care
  • Wintering katananche
  • Pest and disease control
  • Katananche breeding methods

The relentless blooming katananche

Katananche is a plant that cannot be ranked among the most popular garden crops. But it deserves a completely different fate. A beautifully flowering perennial, all summer adorned with a scattering of flowers, which is not inferior in anything to any blue-colored summer plant, is really a unique plant. In growing, katananche is no more difficult than garden cornflowers, but much more luxuriantly. And their popular nickname "Mediterranean cornflowers" fully reflects the nature of this plant.

There are only 5 plant species in the genus Katananche. Of these, only blue catananche (catananche caerulea) is grown as an ornamental crop. This is a herbaceous perennial, which in countries with severe winters is distinguished by its fragility and a shortened life span. But the information that katananche lives for only 2 years and dies is erroneous: this plant simply loses its decorative effect from 3-4 years, needs more frequent division than ordinary perennials. But at the same time it does not die at all even without shelter in a frost of -30 degrees.

Katananche bushes reach a height of 60 cm. Their "garden life" begins with tiny curtains, which gradually grow and gain strength, reaching almost a meter in diameter and increasing height and abundance. The narrow, linear foliage reminds of bulbous and grasses, and the illusion is stronger, the more clearly the arrangement of leaves is exclusively at the base of the shoots, in beautiful rosette bunches.

The inflorescences-baskets at the katananche blossom at the ends of thin, bare and, despite the apparent fragility, very strong peduncles. Katananche flowers resemble a hybrid of chicory, cornflowers and daisies. They are surprisingly beautiful and delicate, with narrow ciliated “petals” along the edge and a beautiful center of dark contrasting color.

At the same time, the ligulate flowers are quite tough, resemble paper to the touch, are located both in one row and in several in double varieties. And the tubular ones in the center of a darker, inky purple color form a very beautiful center. The baskets reach 4 cm in diameter. After flowering, beautiful achenes are tied, each of which contains more than 5 hundred seeds.

The flowering period of the katananche lasts almost all summer. Classic katananche blooms from May to August, but most modern hybrid varieties bloom until September and even before the first frost.

The colors of the amazing katananche include blues, purples, mauve and whites.

Catananche soddy (Catananche caespitosa)
Catananche soddy (Catananche caespitosa)
Catananche yellow (Catananche lutea)
Catananche yellow (Catananche lutea)
Sandy Catananche (Catananche arenaria)
Sandy Catananche (Catananche arenaria)

Catananche in ornamental gardening is used:

  • as a blue accent;
  • as a long-flowering base of compositions;
  • for textured flower beds and mixborders, chintz beds, rustic herbs;
  • in English gardens, flower beds surrounded by a boxwood border for a contrasting light "middle";
  • for texture accents and mixborders with a focus on leaf texture;
  • in flower beds in the foreground and in flower beds in the middle;
  • for decorating the lawn with large curtains;
  • to add airiness, visual lightness to massive, large compositions;
  • for decorating rockeries and rock gardens;
  • as a cut crop for live and winter bouquets.

The best partners for katananche: perennials and annuals with white, lilac, yellow colors or a beautiful texture of leaves - daisy, sage, bells, Byzantine chisel, gray fescue, spray roses

Conditions required by katananha

In order for the katananche to reveal all its decorativeness, it must be planted on a sunny platform. Even the slightest shading negatively affects the abundance of flowering, so it is better not to experiment and immediately choose open areas. The landing sites for katananche should be warm, protected from cold drafts.

Any of the high-quality and calcareous soil is suitable for katananche. The main thing is that the soil is well-drained, loose and light in texture. The reaction of the soil is critically important, and for a katananche planted even on neutral soil, you will need to add a portion of lime to the soil every year (in early spring).

Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)
Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)

Boarding and transplanting katananche

Planting seedlings in the ground can be carried out only in late May or early June, katananche delenki are planted in May. The optimal distance when planting a katananche is 30 cm to neighboring plants. When planting seedlings, it is important not to destroy the earthen lump, as much as possible protecting the rhizomes from injury. Katananche is not afraid of transplants, but this approach will help the plants take root and bloom faster. Immediately after planting, both plots and seedlings of katanancha need to be given increased attention, ensure regular watering until growth resumes.

But if there are no tricks in planting a perennial, then there are many nuances in its division, updating. The thing is that katananche is a perennial, but not very durable. Due to the very long abundant flowering of the plant, 3 years after planting, the attractiveness of the bushes and the number of flowers begin to sharply decrease. To avoid disappointment, do not bring the katananche bushes to a neglected state, it is better to plan planting updates every 3-4 years. To do this, you need to either completely replace the plants with young ones, or divide the old bushes and move them to a new place.

Katananche care

This plant is not too demanding to care for. The main thing is to provide katananche with drought compensation by introducing mandatory watering of katananche on hot and dry days in the garden care program. The higher the temperature, the more abundant watering should be. With normal rainfall, there is no need to water the plant. When carrying out the procedures, carefully monitor so as not to overmoisten the soil: dampness on the katanancha has a very bad effect, inhibits growth and flowering.

Top dressing katananche will not be needed regardless of age. This crop grows well in poor soil. For her, even in early spring, traditional organic fertilizers are not applied.

Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)
Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)

Wintering katananche

Katananche, despite sufficient frost resistance, needs shelter for the winter. The thing is that snow-free periods and sudden temperature changes are destructive for this perennial, and the task at shelter is to stabilize the conditions, compensate for the phenomena typical of the middle zone.

Pest and disease control

Even in waterlogged conditions, katananche remains a resistant plant, does not suffer from pests and diseases. But endurance does not mean at all that careless care or improper selection of growing conditions will not lead to a loss of decorativeness.

Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)
Catananche blue (Catananche caerulea)

Katananche breeding methods

Self-seeding (the use of "spontaneous" growth as seedlings)

Seeds

For this culture, it is the sowing of seeds that is considered an ideal breeding method, because this option is the most effective, and allows you to get bushes that do not lose their attractiveness for 3-4 years. Katananche seeds can be sown directly into the soil. But in this case, sowing should be postponed until the beginning of summer, carried out on seedling ridges, followed by transfer to a permanent place and come to terms with the fact that the katananche will begin to bloom only from the second year.

The method of sowing seedlings is more effective. It is carried out in the last decade of March, in a loose substrate, just scattering seeds over the surface and covering with the thinnest layer of sifted soil. It is necessary to moisten the soil not before, but after sowing, using a spray bottle. In order to achieve success, you need to not allow the substrate to dry out or overmoisten, gradually grow young shoots to the second pair of leaves and transfer them to individual containers. In open soil, planting is carried out not earlier than May 25, but better in June.

Splitting bushes

Katananche can be divided in May, towards the end of the month. The bushes are dug out with a large amount of soil, carefully separated with a sharp knife and planted without destroying a clod of earth.

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