Encyclopedia of the gardener-gardener. Snowdrops, or primroses Planting scilla in open ground

With the first rays of the sun from the first thaw patches, it pleases us with its blue look blue snowdrop - blueberry flower.

It can only be called a snowdrop conditionally; it is not related to a real snow-white snowdrop. But it really appears immediately from under the snow ...

Blue snowdrop - scylla flower

In fact, this magnificent plant is called scylla.

In nature, there are about 80 species of this flower. In our area, distribution has received mainly two types, scylla bifolia And Siberian.

Scylla sibirica, despite the name, does not grow in Siberia. It occurs everywhere in the south of the European part of Russia, in the Crimea. Scylla bifolia grows throughout Ukraine and in the European part of Russia. In a word - a flower of a temperate climate.

blueberry flower 10-12 cm high. Peduncles with drooping flowers of blue color and its shades, depends, grows in a sunny place woodland or in the shade.

The fruit is a box.

Leaves linear, small. The bulb is small, 1.5-2 cm in diameter. It begins to bloom in mid-March, in our area, it happens earlier, sometimes later. blueberry flower guided by the weather ;)

What are the good flowers of the blueberry

Many early spring flowering plants attract with their beauty, but modest scylla flowers probably forever registered on our flower garden. Why are they good?

Excellent for breeding.

Frost-resistant.

They adapt well to changing growing conditions.

Immune to disease.

Unpretentious and easy to care for.

And just a beautiful and attractive flower.;)

What you need to know to grow a blue snowdrop?

bluebell flowers unpretentious, but some features of their cultivation at home There is.

Not a particularly demanding plant to the ground, but does not tolerate places where water stagnates.

Does not like nitrogenous fertilizers.

You can feed with mineral fertilizers, phosphorus-potassium. Phosphorus will give a beautiful and active flowering, potassium will strengthen and prepare the bulb for wintering.

The main condition under which the blue snowdrop blooms and develops well is blueberry flower- this is a fairly moist soil, there should be a lot of moisture, as usual in the spring after the snow melts. If suddenly the winter was snowless, and the spring is dry, watering is necessary. Otherwise, flowering may not occur at all, or it will be defective.

It prefers partial shade, but it also grows well in open space, because it is not in vain that it is in a hurry to bloom scylla flower before the leaves bloom in the forest, when nothing can prevent the access of the sun's rays to the plant. But it doesn’t apply either, a very delicate stem.

Propagated by children and seeds. To be honest, in practice I have not observed the process of propagation by seeds, but knowledgeable people say that there are many seeds, and they are carried by ants. This moment is questionable, in my opinion;) We are seated with onions. The only thing that is important is that the bulbs should not dry out during transplantation. Planting depth in the ground - 5 cm.

Where is it better to place a blue snowdrop in a flower garden?

Flowering time is very early spring, and then, like most ephemeroids, the aerial part of the blueberry flower dies off.

By the way, like all early spring ones, the blueberry sometimes has a very hard time when you have to endure, but then frost resistance, unpretentiousness, adaptability help him out - and all unforeseen weather breakdowns scylla flower survives usually without loss.

Here is such a hail that my flowers had to "survive" today:

Good for borders, borders, flower beds, along paths. It looks exceptionally as part of an alpine hill, the bright blue color perfectly “plays” against the background of cold shades of stone.

Unique flowers

I am most pleased and amazed by the pollen that is “shared” with bees blueberry flower. In early spring, bees are in great need of protein feed. and pollen - a great help for the development of bee offspring, the basis for the development of the family. In our area, except for hazel. bees perfectly carry pollen from sprouts. How beautiful she is! And what a delicious, sweetie! A bee with a blue-blue collar is just a miracle of nature, it is impossible to look without delight!

There is an opinion that blue snowdrop listed in the Red Book, and it cannot be plucked into bouquets, etc. Scylla flower not rare and not endangered!

But in the Red Book there is another snowdrop, and its varieties:

Folded snowdrop (Galanthus plicatus),

white snowdrop (G. nivalis),

Voronov's snowdrop (G. woronowii),

snowdrop Bortkiewicz (G. bortkewitschianus).

The liverwort, or copse, is an early flowering plant, widespread in Eurasia and North America. Unlike most spring flowers, it does not belong to ephemeroids, that is, it does not retire in summer. In ancient times, coppice was actively used to treat liver diseases. For early flowering, she received among the people and another name - "blue snowdrop".

general description

This perennial refers to. In nature, it usually grows in deciduous and mixed forests on calcareous ones. It blooms in spring, immediately after the snow melts, before the leaves bloom on the trees. The liverwort is especially beautiful in the mass. The leaves of the coppice are dense, green, shaped like the lobes of a human liver. Hence the main name.

Noble liverwort flowers are usually blue, purple or white. However, sometimes there are red varieties. Young leaves are covered with hairs, adults are glossy, leathery, dense. Under the snow in autumn they go green and remain so until spring.

Variety of liverworts

About 10 species of this plant grow in nature. In our country, there is mainly a liverwort noble or ordinary. In gardens, various subspecies of coppice are often grown. The most beautiful are:

American. The flowers of this variety can be lilac, pink or white.
Acute lobed. It has rather large flowers.
Asian. It has beautiful leaves with a marbled pattern. The color of the buds is white.
Transylvanian. Flowers liverwort of this species usually has bright blue.
Japanese noble. In nature, there are a huge number of forms of this subspecies.

There are some other varieties of liverwort, also quite spectacular. Of the artificially bred, a group of hybrids (Hepatica x media) can be distinguished. These flowers were obtained by crossing the common and Japanese noble liverwort.

How to choose a place in the garden

An ordinary liverwort, Japanese, Transylvanian, etc. can be a very good decoration for a garden or yard. Most subspecies of this plant are unpretentious, in spring they delight with their bright flowers, and in summer with beautiful leaves of an unusual shape. The liverwort is usually planted in a shaded (in June - August) and brightly lit (in April - May) place. The best beds are located under the trees.

Since the flowers of this plant do not contain nectar, they are not pollinated by flying insects. Seeds ripening in June are taken apart for which their sticky appendages are a special delicacy. Therefore, it is better to plant a liverwort in distant places of the garden, where foliage is not removed in autumn, and therefore there are many of these insects. In this case, after a few years, the copse will grow with bright, eye-pleasing spots over a fairly large area.

Most varieties can be planted, including on these plants are very unpretentious and will feel great (especially garden forms) even in direct sunlight. However, in this case, the time of their flowering will be reduced. Therefore, it is better to plant them near large stones, not on the south side.

What should be the soil

The soil under the blue snowdrop should be laid rich in humus, slightly acidic. There should be no stagnant water in the selected area in the summer. Most varieties of copses love loose soils much more than dense heavy ones. Usually, before planting the liverwort, spruce needles, sand or peat are mixed into the ground.

Reproduction methods

Noble liverwort, once planted in the garden, usually grows by self-seeding. Just like the Transylvanian. Garden forms of coppice are much more difficult to propagate. There are several ways to increase the number of such liverworts:

curtain division,
sowing seeds,
side sockets.

Reproduction by dividing curtains

Using this method, you can get a lot of new planting material. Division is usually done 4-5 years after planting. By this time, the coppice is already growing quite well. The bushes are simply carefully dug up and washed off the roots from the ground. The division is carried out in such a way that each part has at least 2-3 kidneys. But usually more is left.

Planting a liver-plot is made in loose soil (can be mixed with sand). Leaves are cut off from the plant first. Mulch is laid on top of the soil after digging the bushes. As the latter, you can use wood chips, bark, fir needles, dry grass, etc. In nature, leaves from trees constantly fall on the liverwort. In the garden, she needs to arrange similar conditions. Transferred plants should definitely be shaded.

The liverwort is propagated in this way, usually either in very early spring or summer. Division of bushes is also allowed during flowering. However, in this case, after transplantation, all flower stalks should be cut off so as not to weaken the plant.

Sowing seeds

In this way, mainly non-double species of copses are propagated. It can be a noble liverwort, Transylvanian, American or sharp-sided. In terry species, seeds usually do not ripen by the end of summer. Propagation of copses in this way is also not too difficult.

Seeds are harvested after they have become pale salad or even until June, they can be stored in a bag of moist perlite. It must be placed in a cool place. At the beginning of summer, the seeds are planted in pots filled with earth. The latter are dug in the flower beds. Seeds will begin to germinate after winter stratification. Some seedlings will appear as early as next spring. Others will sit in the ground for a couple more years. The liverwort, planted in this way, begins to bloom at the age of about 3-5 years.

Watering freshly sown seeds is carried out from a spray bottle. For the winter, a flower bed with plants planted in this way should be covered with spruce branches.

Propagation by side rosettes

This technique is very well suited for both ordinary types of liverwort and terry. To propagate plants in this case, a small cutting is carefully separated from the main bush with a sharp knife. The root neck must be preserved on it. Thus obtained is transferred to loose soil in a shady place.

How to water

The liverwort, which is not particularly difficult to care for, loves watering, however. The soil under adult plants begins to be moistened from about the end of June. But only if the plant is planted in partial shade, and the soil does not dry out. Young copses are watered twice a week in spring, once in summer. It is best to do this in the morning or evening. At the end of August, watering is usually stopped. In autumn, natural rain moisture is quite enough for plants.

Fertilization and maintenance

The liverwort is a plant that also needs top dressing. Fertilize it usually once a year - immediately after flowering. Nitrogen mixtures are used in this case. Such top dressing helps to strengthen the leaves of plants, as well as their root system.

Both young and old copses should be regularly weeded. This flower does not tolerate the neighborhood of weeds at all. It is also necessary from time to time to carry out the prevention of fungal diseases. To do this, it will be enough to spray the plants with one percent Bordeaux liquid in the summer.

With good care - timely weeding, periodic watering, disease prevention - in one place, the liverwort can grow up to 25 years.

Combination with other colors

Usually, next to the copses (no closer than 15 cm), various kinds of early-flowering bulbous plants are planted. It can be some snowdrops, muscari, blueberries, etc. On the alpine hills, the common liverwort, Transylvanian or American looks very beautiful in combination with gargan bells, deltoid shaving or saxifrage.

Since the coppice plant is not too tall (about 15 cm), it is usually planted in the flower beds in the foreground. The liverwort also looks very beautiful alone, being planted, for example, along the curb.

Flowers look unusually impressive under coniferous trees. In addition, they feel very good in such places - they bloom profusely and grow rapidly, forming a bright carpet. You can also plant this plant next to crocuses, reticulated iris, adonis, hellebore.

Distillation

The liverwort, which was described above in the article, can also be grown at room conditions. In order to be able to admire the delicate blue or lilac flowers in winter, the strongest specimens with a large number of buds (6-8) are dug up in August. They are transplanted into small pots filled with loose soil (humus, sand, leafy soil in a ratio of 1x1x2). Before frost, containers with flowers are simply added dropwise somewhere in the garden in the shade. In early November, they are transferred to the room. Throughout the month, plants should be watered as needed.

Liverworts bloom on about the 20th day. In April, the bushes are transferred to the garden, pulled out of the pots and planted in loose soil.

As you can see, the liverwort is not only a very beautiful plant, but also unpretentious. With a minimum of effort, you can get such a flower bed, which will surely become one of the most spectacular decorations of the site in early spring.

Family: amaryllis (Amaryllidaceae).

Homeland: Europe, Western Asia.

Form: herbaceous plant.

Description

Snowdrop (galanthus) is the name of a genus of perennial bulbous plants. Types of snowdrops are quite numerous - in nature there are about 18. Many of them are listed in the Red Book. Blue snowdrops are called plants of a different kind - from the lily family.

Galanthus (snowdrops) are perennial bulbous plants with linear leaves. The flowers are solitary, with a perianth consisting of individual leaflets arranged in two circles.

(G. alpinus) - a plant with dark green broadly lanceolate leaves. Peduncle up to 9 centimeters high. The outer tepals are concave, obovate, up to 2 cm long and up to 1 cm wide, the inner ones are two times smaller, cuneate. Flowering time is early spring.

(G. nivalis) - the most common garden snowdrop. A plant up to 12 centimeters high with flat dark green or bluish leaves. Drooping flowers up to 3 centimeters in diameter, fragrant, white with a green speck. Snow Galanthus has many garden varieties, including terry.

Snowdrop Bortkiewicz (G. bortkewitschianus) - a rare species of snowdrop. The leaves are dark green, with a bluish bloom, lanceolate, after flowering grow up to 30 cm in length. Peduncles 4-6 cm high. Outer petals up to 1.5 cm long and up to 1 cm wide, inner petals shorter.

Caucasian snowdrop (G. caucasicus) - fragrant snowdrop, the flower is rather small, white. The leaves are bluish, linear, up to 30 centimeters long. Peduncles reach a height of no more than 10 centimeters. Outer leaflets concave, obovate, up to 2 cm long and up to 1.2 cm wide, inner cuneate, half the size of the outer ones, with a spot around the notch at the apex. The flowering period is about 2 weeks in early April.

Cilician snowdrop (G. silicicus) has dark green, matte, linear leaves without a bluish bloom. Peduncle up to 18 cm in height. Outer tepals obovate, oblong-oval, narrowed towards the base, up to 2.1 cm long and 0.8 cm wide, internal - oblong, widened at the top, with a green spot around the notch at the top. Blooms in April.

Snowdrop Krasnov (G. krasnovii). The leaves are bright green, glossy, slightly twisted, up to 18 cm long. Peduncle up to 15 cm tall, stretches up to 30 cm after flowering. Outer tepals obovate, slightly concave, up to 3 cm long and up to 1.2 cm wide , with a blunt or pointed tip. Blooms in the first half of spring.

(G. plicatus) - a plant up to 15 centimeters high, with basal, flat, linear leaves. Flowers solitary, drooping, large in size. The color is predominantly white, with green spots on the inner petals. The flowers have a faint fragrance. There are 6 stamens with cone-shaped anthers. The flowering period begins in March and lasts 14-17 days. The bulb is ovoid or conical in shape, up to 3 centimeters in diameter. The fruit is a box.

Snowdrop broadleaf (G. platyphyllus) - a snowdrop with dark green shiny wide drooping leaves. Plant height during flowering is about 15 cm, by the end - up to 25 cm.

Snowdrop Elwez (G. elwesii) a plant with green leaves with a bluish bloom. Peduncle up to 13 cm tall. The outer tepals are broadly obovate, up to 2 cm long and up to 1.3 cm wide, the inner ones are oblong, slightly widening at the top, with a green spot around the notch at the top and at the base.

Growing conditions

Galanthus prefers semi-shady or shady areas. The soil is desirable nutritious, moist, well-drained. Soil reaction should be close to neutral. Snowdrops should not be planted in open areas where snow is blown away in winter and the soil dries quickly in summer.

Application

Snowdrop flowers are used in group and border plantings, in, as well as for cutting. In spring, snowdrops in the garden are among the first to decorate the site with delicate flowers.

Care

During the active growing season, snowdrops should be fed with liquid mineral fertilizers. Snowdrop is a moisture-loving plant, but watering is usually necessary only if the winter was not snowy.

reproduction

Galanthus propagates by seeds and bulbs. Snowdrop seeds are sown immediately after harvesting directly into the ground.

The best time for planting bulbs is July-August. In September, new roots appear, and by October, sprouts come out almost to the surface of the soil. With a later planting, snowdrops may suffer from frost.

Planting depth: triple the height of the bulb. It is better to plant galanthus in groups of 10-15 bulbs. In one place, galanthus can grow 4-6 years.

You can learn more about growing snowdrops from a special one.

Diseases and pests

Like all bulbs, snowdrops can be affected by tuber-eating insects and animals: moles, mice, slugs. In addition, snowdrop pests are caterpillars of scoop butterflies and a bulbous nematode. Snowdrops suffer from viral and fungal diseases. Affected plants must be destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease.

Popular varieties

Varieties of white snowdrop

"Lutescens"- white snowdrop, with very light leaves.

"Viridapicis"- early snowdrop, blooms at the end of February. Galanthus flowers of this variety are distinguished by greenish spots.

"Lady Elphinstone"- Terry white snowdrop with yellow spots on the perianth.

Spring came, the snow melted and appeared on the thawed patches. And among the first - a blueberry. For such an early appearance, it is also called the blue snowdrop. In fact, blueberry and snowdrop are different plants, although they are really similar.

Scilla, scientifically scylla, is a small perennial bulbous plant. Scilla has a small, well-developed bulb, 2-3 cm in diameter. The leaves of the plant are broadly linear, basal. Flower arrow single 10-15 centimeters high. The flowers are bell-shaped or star-shaped, blue or blue, less often pink, white and purple, located singly or collected in a brush. Spill blooms in early spring, at the end of March - April and blooms for 15-20 days.

Cultivation and care

Scilla is an unpretentious plant and does not require special care. Scylla loves shady places, but also grows well in lighted areas. The soil prefers loose, moist, fertile, does not tolerate stagnant water. In dry weather, the scilla should be watered and loosened. For better growth, you can feed the plant with mineral fertilizers. This is done in early spring.

In one place, a blue snowdrop can grow for decades. It is necessary to replant and divide the scillas no earlier than after three years. You can do this even during flowering. Scylla is a frost-resistant plant and does not need additional shelter.

reproduction

Spillage is propagated by bulbs and seeds. The bulbs are dug up after the leaves die off in July-August and planted immediately, avoiding overdrying. Bulbs are planted at a distance of 5-10 centimeters to a depth of 4-6 centimeters.

Diseases and pests

Spillage can be affected by diseases characteristic of other bulbs, such as achelenchoides, bulb rot, gray rot. Sick bulbs should be removed, and healthy bulbs should be treated with a disinfectant. Of the pests, scilla can be threatened by rodents and root bulbous mites.

Usage

Scilla is traditionally an early spring decoration of lawns and. Blue snowdrop harmonizes well with stones, so it can be used for rockeries and alpine slides. Scilla grows well under fruit trees. Good partners for her are snowdrops and

SNOWDROPS

There is no bad time of the year, so it is impossible to single out any one of the four in the first place. But spring in almost everyone causes a feeling of joy and uplift - the world is awakening. And of course, after the endless whiteness of the snows, we wait and always with amazement meet the first flowers - snowdrops. As a child, I was sure that snowdrops were blue - these grew in a small flower bed, in a neighbor's garden. The garden was tiny: a small round flower bed with a bench next to it, surrounded by lilacs and May bushes - that's how adults called spirea to us. And on this flower bed, after the snow, several green-burgundy sprouts appeared on their land and, opening up, blue drops-buds crawled out of them, opening into blue stars. Spring has come, snowdrops have grown from under the snow. Now I know that it was a blueberry, Siberian scylla, but now, and then for everyone on Ivanovskaya 19 it was snowdrops. The snowdrop fallacy is ubiquitous. Everything that grows after the snow melts, the people call snowdrops. I came across a caption under a photograph of a backache, sleep-grass, as it is often called - a snowdrop, And backache even blooms later, at the end of April, at the beginning of May.
Real snowdrops appeared with us much later. In the late 80s, we bought a house in the Meshchera village and began to purchase flowers for the plot. And they were sold at that time only in the markets, at the grandmothers-florists. Here, in the Leningrad market, I bought a bunch of different bulbs, with a bunch of useful tips, half of which I forgot that hour. But all the bulbs turned out to be viable, they multiplied and every year they delight with abundant flowering, for which I am very grateful to that nameless old woman. Of course, after we had a lot of flowers, but the first purchases for our own garden are remembered for a lifetime. So, after the autumn planting, in the spring the bulbs began to bloom. And the first to appear were little white drops-earrings - snowdrop snowdrop, or scientifically - galanthus nivalis. You can read how and why Galanthus manages to flash through a layer of snow and proudly raise a flower as white as snow over it. But you never cease to amaze the ability of a small onion to be the first to announce from under the snow the arrival of spring, to be the first snowdrop. Over time, a whole bunch of snowdrops is obtained from one bulb, and if they are not planted, the overall flowering decreases. Following the galanthus, almost in parallel, there are blueberries, white flowers, chionodoxa, muscari, each of which is worthy of our attention, its little stop.
Siberian blueberry can be blue, and blue, and white. In my opinion, the blue and blue color somehow suits her more: heavenly droplets appear from the leaf bed, then decaying into stars.
For a long time I was looking for one spring primrose. Somehow, in the early 90s, I saw a plucked flower in a glass at the entrance of VILAR: petals descend from a green ball with a white lampshade and on each - a yellow dot. Just beautiful. At that time, I did not receive clear explanations about the flower from the watchman, and the acquisition of this treasure lasted for several years.
The spring white flower, as it is called, is an unpretentious plant that grows well and is an adornment of the spring garden.
But I fell in love with chionodoxa, the snowy beauty, with some special love. Very dense compact curtains are pierced with greenish-reddish arrows of leaves between which for a long time you see bluish-purple fully opened flowers-stars. These are descendants from the onion bulb of a flower grower grandmother from the Leningrad market. Then I bought a lot of chionodox, but they don’t have such a compact and long flowering like the first ones. Muscari. Mouse hyacinth. Viper bow. Names of the same plant. From the center of the rosette of leaves emerges an ever-growing bunch of grapes. After a while, it rises quite high above the ground on a thin peduncle and the "grapes" begin to bloom starting from the bottom. And if you look closely, each blue flower has a white rim - a feast for the eyes. There is a pure white variety of muscari, but it is not very impressive, but the tri-color one looks great:
It is impossible not to mention the noble liverwort with its pretty, bluish-purple flowers.
This is an ordinary, natural form, but you can’t take your eyes off it: very joyful flowers look at you from last year’s withered foliage. But to the right of the path is Pushkinia, a not very common plant, in appearance similar to a small hyacinth. But the colors of Pushkinia are much more modest - only white and blue tones. After winter, these snowdrops are the first to delight us, and although all of them cannot be attributed to large plants, rather miniature ones, they leave a deep blissful mark in our souls, carried by flower growers until next spring. Find time in your fast-paced life in the spring and admire the blooming of snowdrops.
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