The many-faced liverwort: planting and caring for a gentle and bright harbinger of the coming spring
An unpretentious liverwort, planting and caring for which is not difficult even for inexperienced flower growers, has captivated people with its delicate beauty for many centuries. Overgrowth, hepatica, blue snowdrop, curl, pure anemone, uterus, windmill - such a huge number of names were given to a flower from the Buttercup family. The forest was named by the ancient Slavs, who saw this flower in the forests, in its natural habitat. The plant received an unusual name for the liverwort for the similarity of three-lobed dense, leathery leaf plates with the human liver. She is also credited with special healing properties, with the help of which you can heal the liver, heal some of its ailments, such as hepatitis, inflammation.
A close acquaintance with the liverwort
The liverwort is a perennial plant. Prefers the temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere, found in Eurasia, North America. It grows in separate bushes 6-10 cm high, which reach 15-18 cm during the formation of buds. It is characterized by a short rhizome with a tuberous-fibrous structure. Stems are brown or brownish without branching, originating in the root zone from the leaf sinuses. The leaf blades are solid-edged or serrated along the edge. Inflorescences 25 mm in diameter with 6-8 petals and stamens in the middle of the bud. Plants with blue-blue flowers are most often found in nature, but you can find purple, pink, white varieties of liverwort.
The flowering period depends on where the plant is planted. If it gets too much sun, flowering ends faster. In the shade, the liverwort practically does not bud. The ideal condition is partial shade with diffused light. Several buds bloom on one bush at the same time. In natural conditions, it is 6-14. Everyone lives for about 5 days. But due to the fact that wilting flowers are immediately replaced by blossoming flowers, continuous flowering is ensured, lasting about 21 days.
After pollination by beetles or butterflies, the fruits of the liverwort ripen - oblong achenes-many-roots. One shoot produces from 20 to 64 hemicarps.
The liverwort flower releases a bud in late autumn before snow falls. When snow covers the thicket, the plant falls into a dormant state until the first sunny days in spring.
Leaves die off after flowering and new ones immediately grow back. They have a brighter color and are covered with the most delicate downy. As they grow, the leaf blades lose their pubescence, become smooth and darken.
In nature, you can find more than 10 varieties of liverwort. The following are cultivated as garden plants:
- liverwort noble (ordinary), preferring coniferous forests of the European territory of Russia and Western European countries;
- transylvanian hepatica growing naturally in Hungary and Romania;
- Asian liverwort, which can be seen in the wild in the Far East.
Terry hybrids with pink, raspberry or deep blue petals are popular among gardeners.
Reproduction
In nature, the delicate flower is propagated exclusively by seeds. But this method is not very popular among gardeners. The fact is that freshly harvested seed is needed for planting, as it quickly loses its germination. Slightly prolongs the viability of placing seeds in wet moss, peat, vermiculite.
Hybrid plants, for example, terry garden liverwort do not give seeds, they are propagated only by dividing the bush.
When growing plants yourself, choose any of the following methods.
Dividing the bush
The most common and easy breeding method. By division, hybrid varieties of the liverwort are propagated, which do not produce seeds. But many growers who do not want to tinker with seed often propagate all other plant varieties in this way.
The best time for the procedure is June, immediately after flowering and the formation of new leaves, or the period from early August to September 10:
- Carefully dug the spill, shake off the soil.
- Divide with a sharp garden knife into several bushes, making sure that each has at least 3 buds.
- Old leaves are cut off, and the bushes are planted in loose soil, consisting of needles and fallen leaves.
- Water well.
If everything is done correctly, care for the liverwort after planting is practically not required, it quickly adapts.
Planting seeds
The plant is propagated with freshly harvested seed material in June-July. The material is planted in boxes or containers filled with coniferous-leaf soil. Then they drop it in the garden in a place suitable for the liverwort, cover with foil. This is to prevent the ants from scattering the seeds. In the first year, the plant develops poorly. Seedlings will appear next spring, after 2 years, 1-2 true leaf blades will grow on the bushes. Hepatica blooms for 4-7 years.
Cuttings
At the bush, they carefully rake off the soil and cut off the side of the rhizome with a cutting with 1-2 leaves. Dust it Kornevin or kept in a growth promoter. They are planted in a pot with a substrate from one part of garden soil, 2 parts of humus, part of peat and part of coarse sand, deepening no more than 2 cm. Close with a plastic bottle. Caring for the liverwort after planting is only to control soil moisture. Do not allow it to dry out and waterlogging. The cuttings will be ready for planting in a couple of months.
Particularly valuable varieties of liverwort are propagated by cuttings, the bushes of which are not recommended to be dug out, so as not to injure the plants once again.
Liverwort planting and care
For planting liverworts, they choose sunny places that are only slightly shaded by the thin foliage of tree crowns, as is the case in forest glades or forest edges, since it does not tolerate direct rays well. If the rays hit directly on the leaf blades, they will quickly become covered with black spots and will soon die off. This rule applies to natural varieties of the liverwort. But the damaged leaves are restored the next year with the arrival of spring. Some varieties of liverwort tolerate strong shade well. And garden views do well in sunny places. Only this will shorten the period of their flowering.
Despite the unpretentiousness of the plant, it is important to take into account that its varieties prefer different soils:
- liverwort Transylvanian prefers heavy soil;
- American loves loose, fertile neutral soil;
- noble grows on almost any soil, but loves places rich in limestone;
- for the Japanese liverwort, it is necessary to prepare soil from leaf humus, coarse river sand and peat in a ratio of 2: 1: 2.
But the whims of the Japanese liverwort are leveled by a huge variety of beautiful flowers. In Japan, they learned what a liverwort is several centuries ago. This plant is considered cult there. It is the Japanese hybrids that are distinguished by their incredible beauty. They are semi-double, double, deep blue, crimson, pale pink and even two-tone.
The plant is planted in autumn or spring after flowering, that is, during the dormant period of the plant. The plant prefers loose, airy, slightly acidic or neutral soils. Does not like boggy. Dig holes every 15-25 cm, spread compost or mineral fertilizer on the bottom. Bushes are planted, sprinkled with soil lightly, tamped and watered.
Snowdrops are considered good neighbors for the liverwort, irises, crocuses. Cereals, ferns, which create a slight shade with their high openwork leaves, are preferred.
Care
Growing a liverwort and caring for her is not difficult. The plant grows almost by itself at the right planting site. Needs regular weed control and soil weeding. Every 3-7 years, planting is required as the plantings grow, otherwise the bushes will become cramped, which will affect the number of buds.
The scrub is not demanding for additional food. In early spring, even before the snow melts, the soil is fertilized with urea or bone meal. After flowering, the plant is fed with complex fertilizers. Before the onset of autumn, phosphorus-potassium dressings are introduced into the soil.
For the winter, the plant is mulched with humus, compost, straw and fallen leaves in case of little snowy weather.
Healthy old leaves are not cut, so as not to worsen the winter hardiness of the liverwort. They are removed in the spring when warm days come.
The liverwort, planting and caring for which is simple, is susceptible to fungal diseases, the development of which is provoked by damp weather and temperatures below +18 degrees. The development of diseases is provoked by the thickening of the plantings, due to which, after abundant watering and rain, the soil cannot dry out. Such diseases include gray rot, powdery mildew. If brown spots, grayish or whitish bloom are found on the leaves, all affected parts of the bush are removed, the rest are treated with fungicides such as Topaz, Bordeaux liquid, Fundazol.
During the period when the liverwort blooms, with its bright beauty, it attracts lovers to wander through the forest in early spring, mercilessly picking flowers in huge quantities. Because of this, in some regions, for example, in the Moscow region, hepatica was included in the Red Book, since it is on the verge of complete destruction. The disappearance of the plant is facilitated by the deforestation and, as a result, the lightening of the territories chosen by the liverwort. And on a sunny area, it practically does not grow.
Fortunately, you can enjoy the beauty of delicate flowers on your site. Just one bush or a few seeds is enough for a real flower carpet to grow in the garden in a few years. The plant is unpretentious in care, easily tolerates the division of the bush and, subject to the rules of agricultural technology, grows well in one place for up to 25 years.