Planting and caring for cornflowers in the open field - basic rules and subtleties
Cornflower is a beautiful, bright and unpretentious flower that will become a charming decoration of any flower bed. Planting and caring for cornflowers in the open field is within the power of even a novice florist. If you follow a few agronomic rules and subtleties, you can easily grow lush blue or blue-purple flowers used in gardening to create original compositions.
Cornflowers - botanical description of the plant
The main features of cornflower:
- the stem is high and erect, up to 50-95 cm in height;
- leaves are long, thin and lanceolate, with "downy";
- tubular petals with "cut" edges, collected in the form of baskets;
- flowering lasts from June to late August or early September;
- after flowering, the fruits ripen - oblong "boxes" of gray color, containing seeds.
Cornflowers can have different colors depending on the variety. The most common flowers are blue, snow-white, yellow, purple.
All varieties of garden cornflowers are distinguished by good resistance to sudden temperature changes and drought. That is why the basic rules for planting and caring for cornflowers in the open field do not cause any difficulties even for novice gardeners.
Planting and caring for cornflowers in the open field
There are two main ways to plant cornflowers. They can be sown with seeds directly into the ground or pre-grown seedlings. Also, an ornamental plant can be propagated using cuttings or by dividing bushes.
Sowing dates
For a plant to take root quickly, consider when to sow cornflower. It depends on how the crop is grown. Sowing seeds can be carried out both in October and in spring, in April-May. Experienced gardeners emphasize that under-winter sowing allows for earlier flowering.
When to sow cornflowers in open ground also depends on the climatic conditions of the region. In central Russia, winter sowing is carried out at the end of October or the first days of November. In the south, sowing work can begin until the beginning of December.
Soil selection and preparation
An important role in planting and caring for cornflowers in the open field is assigned to the correct choice of site and soil preparation. Cornflowers are light-loving plants, so you need to choose well-lit areas for sowing them. Flowers should not shade each other, so it is best to plant them at a distance of 10-20 cm.
Cornflowers prefer light loamy soils, and therefore in the fall add ash, chalk, dolomite flour or lime (300 g per 1 sq. M.) To the acidic soil. To loosen the soil, add a bucket of sawdust or sand for each per square meter.
Immediately before sowing, dig the area onto the bayonet of a shovel and apply fertilizer - humus or peat, wood ash or nitrophosphate.
Step-by-step scheme for sowing cornflowers
Before growing cornflowers from seeds, they must be properly prepared. Most varieties for podzimny sowing do not need preliminary preparation, the only exceptions are Fisher's cornflowers and field ones.They go through a process of dry stratification - for this, wrap the seed in a plastic bag and place it on the top shelf of the refrigerator for 4-8 weeks.
Seed sowing stages:
- Prepare the beds for cornflowers - level and lightly tamp the dug soil, make small grooves up to 3-4 cm deep.
- Water the grooves liberally and place the seeds about 8-10 cm apart.
- Lightly dust the seed furrows with soil.
- For additional protection, cornflower beds can be covered with a layer of spunbond.
- Sown flowers need to be watered every 2-3 days.
After about 7-8 days, the first young shoots appear. After that, the spunbond can be removed. After another 5-6 days, the sprouts need to be thinned out, leaving a distance of 10-15 cm between the bushes.
Growing seedlings
Growing cornflowers with seedlings ensures good rooting and quick adaptation of the ornamental plant in a permanent place. When choosing the time to plant cornflowers on seedlings, it is best to stop the choice in April - the soil will already warm up enough, and the risk of recurrent frosts is noticeably reduced.
Seedling growing stages:
- Fill plastic containers or pots with ornamental potting soil and tamp it lightly.
- Make small holes in the soil up to 2 cm deep and moisten well.
- Place cornflower seeds in the holes and lightly sprinkle with soil mixture, do not tamp.
- Cover the container with the seeds with plastic wrap and place in a warm place at a temperature not lower than + 21 ° C.
- After the first green shoots appear, the covering material can be removed.
Feed young sprouts with complex fertilizers designed specifically for seedlings. You only need to do this once. When the seedlings reach 10-12 cm in height, they can be transplanted into open ground.
Cornflower care
Cornflowers are unpretentious to care for. They do not need abundant and frequent watering. The only exception is prolonged dry weather. If the flowers of the ornamental plant become smaller, and the leaves begin to wither and dry out, this is a sign that the cornflower does not have enough moisture.
In such cases, the best option would be to install drip irrigation system... In rainy weather, it is not necessary to water the plants, since an excess of liquid for them is much more dangerous than its lack.
Top dressing
Immediately before flowering, cornflowers can be fed with a mixture of a tablespoon of urea and nitrophoska in a bucket of clean water. This fertilizer, applied under each bush, will ensure lush and long flowering until autumn.
To accelerate flowering, you can use the Zircon preparation, which is sprayed on plants before budding.
Pruning
An important condition for the aesthetic appeal of garden cornflowers is their timely pruning. Remember to remove any dried, damaged and faded shoots throughout the summer.
For cornflowers, two pruning methods are used - upper and low. The first removes all dried and wilted elements, the second removes the stem up to 10 cm from the ground level. The first is considered more preferable, since after the procedure the bushes will look fluffier and more attractive than with low pruning, which can leave ugly "bald spots" in the garden.
Garden cornflowers are ornamental plants that have gained wide popularity among gardeners due to their bright, aesthetically pleasing appearance and unpretentious care. Subject to all the rules of agricultural cultivation and care, gardeners will be able to enjoy the colorful and lush cornflower blue flowering throughout the summer.