Features of planting Chilean gravilata and plant care on the site
When choosing perennials for a flower bed, you need to consider how they will look after flowering - they remain decorative or only spoil the look. One of the favorite cultures of landscape designers is the Chilean gravilat - planting and care is simple, the flowering is lush and long, the leaves are beautiful all season.
Description of the plant
Gravilat forms a neat, dense bush, consisting of a short, straight stem and odd-pinnate lyre-shaped leaves collected in a basal rosette. They do not lose their attractiveness all season, bright green, pubescent above and below, with a wrinkled surface, pronounced veins and a jagged edge.
The height of the bush reaches 20-30 cm, with peduncles - up to 60 cm. Rhizomes are developed, grow rapidly, easily tolerate division and transplantation.
The flowers of the gravilata are baskets formed at the ends of pubescent grayish stems rising above the rosette of leaves, collected in loose panicles of several pieces. In a specific plant, they have a diameter of about 3 cm, red, consist of inner tubular flowers, collected in a small disk, and large outer, reed (petals).
Flowering begins at the end of June, lasts 50-60 days. At the end of the season, the seeds ripen, collected in multi-roots. At the end, they are equipped with a kind of hook, cling to clothing or animals, and spread by self-seeding.
Chilean gravilat has beneficial properties - it can be used as a medicinal, fodder or food plant. Its use for these purposes on the territory of Russia is limited, since, first of all, the culture is decorative and does not occur in the wild.
Popular varieties
When growing Chilean gravilata in flower beds, varieties can be found more often than a species plant. They come in different colors, terry, with large corollas, differ in the time and duration of flowering. Some, with good care, can push new buds at the end of the season.
The most popular varieties are:
- Gravilat Chilean Fireball - grows up to 60 cm, blooms in May-June, differs in scarlet double flowers, is used for making bouquets.
- Mrs Bradshaw is a novelty with red petals arranged in 2 rows, up to 5 cm in diameter, forms a large bush, in the Middle Lane requires light shelter.
- Lunnaya Dolina - a spectacular variety with semi-double golden corollas, winter-hardy, blooms in May.
- Gravilat Aurelia Chilean is a spectacular perennial with yellow double flowers up to 5 cm in diameter, opening from May to June.
- Alabama Slammer is an original variety with semi-double golden petals, decorated with a wide orange border, undersized, up to 35 cm.
- Limonello grows up to 30-35 cm, flowers are small, simple, lemon-colored, located on tough straight stems, the variety is resistant to adverse factors.
- Chilean Gravilat Lady Strataden is a bush 50 cm high, blooms in the middle of summer, corollas are yellow, double, petals with a wavy edge, requires shelter for the winter.
Chilean gravilat: planting and care
The plant is not capricious and easy to care for. Undemanding to soils, but prefers light loams with a slightly acidic or neutral reaction. Flowers can be planted in partial shade and in the sun, it blooms better in an open place. Does not tolerate sticky areas and too acidic soil.
Landing
Chilean gravilat is planted in spring, late summer or autumn. Bushes are placed no closer than 20 cm from each other.
Add to the wells and mix with the top layer of soil:
- sand or peat if the ground is too dense;
- humus, compost on worked-out areas;
- high-moor peat with alkaline soil reaction.
It is impossible to deoxidize the area immediately before planting the gravilat. This is done a few months earlier or in the previous season.
After planting, the bush must be watered to ensure better adhesion of the root system to the soil. The surface is mulched with dry peat or decorative dumping - this will save moisture, prevent weeds from germinating.
Fundamentals of agricultural technology
The plant requires regular watering, but does not tolerate stagnant water in the root area. It tolerates short-term drought well, but without irrigation in hot summer, the flowers quickly wither, and the leaves dry out, decorativeness decreases. Even if you leave the gravilat unattended for a long time, and the aboveground part disappears, the rhizomes can survive. When watering is resumed, the leaves will grow back, and flower stalks will appear next season.
Fertilizers for the culture are suitable for conventional fertilizers containing a full mineral complex, for example, nitroammofosk.
In intensive care gardens, gravilat is fed three times per season:
- in early spring with nitrogen to build up green mass;
- at the beginning of the extension of peduncles - with an NPK complex;
- at the end of summer or in autumn, they give phosphorus and potassium (without nitrogen) - this will increase winter hardiness and have a positive effect on flowering in the next season.
The specific plant and varieties of Chilean gravilata with simple flowers do not need a winter shelter in most of Russia. Terry varieties at the end of the season are mulched with dry peat, covered with litter of healthy fruit trees or spruce branches.
Regular pruning of wilted flower stalks stimulates the formation of new buds.
Reproduction of Chilean gravilat
The culture is easily propagated vegetatively and by seeds. When choosing a method, you need to take into account the origin of the variety.
If it is a hybrid, plants from self-collected seeds do not inherit the characteristics of the mother bush.
By dividing the bush
In one place the gravilat lives up to 5 years, during which time it grows strongly and turns into a dense curtain. Bald spots appear in the center of the bush, flowers become smaller, decorativeness decreases.
Division simultaneously allows you to rejuvenate the plant and obtain planting material:
- Dig up a bush. Shake off the ground.
- Carefully divide the rhizome into fragments with your hands. You probably won't even need a knife to get some young bushes. If you need a lot of planting material, you can cut the rhizome into pieces, each of which contains at least one growth point.
- Examine the underground part. Throw away all pieces with dried, rotten or pest-infested pieces.
- If there are signs of disease on the roots, clean up to healthy tissue and soak for 2 hours in a solution of a fungicide, for example, Fundazole.
- Plant in prepared harriers and water abundantly.
Suitable time for surgery:
- spring - any region;
- early autumn - areas with a mild climate;
- late summer, after flowering - Middle lane and cooler regions.
For Chilean gravilata, planting and care should be the same as for an adult plant.
Chilean gravilat: growing from seed
Sowing directly into the soil can be done at the beginning or end of the season. The soil should be loose, nutritious, well-drained. Embedding depth - about 2 cm.
Gravilat will bloom:
- next summer when planting in spring;
- in the current season with podzimny sowing.
Gravilat is planted on seedlings in March-April. This is usually done in a common container with light fertile soil, without picking. Seeds are laid out 2 cm apart, rows - every 5 cm, covered with a layer of substrate of 2 cm, easily compacted, watered, covered with film or glass. They are kept at a temperature close to 25 ° C, ventilated daily.
When shoots appear, the shelter is removed. When the soil warms up to 15 ° C, they are planted directly from the seedling boxes on a flower bed, a rabatka, in a solid array when grown as a ground cover.
The Chilean gravilata planting and leaving is not difficult, and the decorativeness is high, there are many interesting varieties. The culture is easily propagated by dividing the bush, the seeds germinate well, but in order to breed a hybrid, you need to buy them, and not collect them in your own flower bed.