You need a honey plant - get a cotton wool, planting and care, a photo of a plant in the garden

Tell me if it is a perennial plant, planting and care, I would especially like to see photos of flowering plants. I bought the seeds by accident, at a sale. We liked the beautiful orange inflorescence baskets on the packaging, and this is my favorite color. But there is no more information about the plant. Of course, I sowed them, immediately on the flowerbed, more than half of them grew. And what about wintering now - it will freeze out and you need to have time to collect seeds for next year? Or is it a perennial flower?

Some species of this plant have medicinal properties and are used in folk medicine. But most of the fleece is grown for decorative purposes for the sake of gentle flowering. Vatochnik, planting and care (the photo will be further in the article) for which it is absolutely not difficult, with its considerable growth in large inflorescences, will not surprise. But against the background of meter-long grassy bushes, many lush baskets of small bright flowers look especially charming. And some varieties, even in winter, do not shed their bright green foliage and decorate the empty front gardens and flower beds. What kind of plant is it, why did it get such an interesting name and how to grow it in your garden?

Mysterious cotton wool - a brief description of the culture

The plant belongs to the kutrovy family and is known in the scientific community as the asklepias. The flower received this name for its medicinal properties - various skin inflammations were treated with its leaves. Vatochnik is a perennial and has two hundred species. Most of them are deciduous herbaceous shrubs with a height of about 1 m. In one place they can live up to 15 years, shedding the aerial part in winter, which grows back in spring. There are also evergreen vatniki, which are especially popular among gardeners.

The structure of the fleece is a bit like phloxes... It also grows a strong upright shoot on which elongated leaves grow densely. Inflorescences bloom at the tops of the stems, forming multi-flowered umbrellas. The color can be different, but mainly pink, orange and red colors and their shades prevail.

The flower was directly named after the original structure of the seeds. They are covered with dense pubescence, like cotton wool. By the way, this fluff was previously used as a filler for pillows.

Cotton wool - planting and care, photo

The plant propagates both by seed and vegetative means (cuttings and cuttings). Seeds can be sown in two ways:

• early spring for seedlings;
• directly into the open ground in April.

But only florists living in warm southern regions will be able to collect their own seeds. In colder latitudes, they simply do not have time to fully mature.

If the cottonwood is already growing in the garden, there will be no problems with its reproduction. The bushes are distinguished by a powerful root system and during the season they form a lot of young growth, which grows outside the flower bed. Such plants can be divided and transplanted.

How to care for cotton wool in a flower bed

For a plant to enjoy and bloom for many years, it needs a sunny place, preferably with nutritious soil. In this case, caring for the cotton wool will be minimal, namely:

• weeding;
• frequent watering only in drought;
• top dressing is also only if the soil is poor - for this, a mineral complex is introduced before flowering;
• pruning faded inflorescences in order to prolong the overall flowering.

As for hibernation, the vatnik does not need serious shelter for the winter. It is enough just to mulch the bushes, having previously shortened the stems to 10 cm, with the exception of evergreen varieties - they are not cut off.

Vatochnik - a beautiful medicinal flower, honey plant or weed