Today, not every flower grower passionate about novelties can boast that in his garden there is such a plant as a soft cuff.
Planting and caring for this perennial do not require any special skills and knowledge, but it has excellent decorative qualities. The leaf of this rather modest plant at different times inspired the architects who designed the athletics arena of the Moscow Institute of Physical Education and the waiting room of the Kursk railway station in the capital. This article will tell about the botanical characteristics and features of planting and caring for a soft cuff when growing it in open ground.
Botanical description
Soft cuff (Alchemilla mollis) is a perennial plant of the Rosaceae family with a rather short rhizome and a large, powerful root system. This herbaceous perennial is universal: it “feels” wonderful in the sun, in the shade of trees and in partial shade. On cultivated soils with goodit grows especially actively with drainage, but it also develops well on other types of land, with regular watering and fertilizing.
Its above-ground herbaceous part can reach 40 cm. Fan-shaped leaves with a wavy edge tapering towards the base are collected in a rounded compact bush. From the beginning of summer until the onset of autumn, the soft cuff blooms. Planting and caring for it is quite simple, and even a novice gardener can easily handle it. The plant “throws out” flower stalks up to 70 cm long, on which there are many small greenish-yellow flowers that form airy and lush paniculate inflorescences. With green leaves, the cuff is soft in winter. Caring for such plants consists in sprinkling the core of the bush with humus or foliage and spudding it with earth. Such measures will help prevent the cuff from "falling out" or weakening next season.
This plant propagates both by dividing the rhizome and by seeds.
Why is she called that?
Indeed, why is a rather modest at first glance plant called Alchemilla, which means "alchemy" in Arabic? The fact is that medieval scientists drew attention to such an amazing property of cuff leaves - to hold dew drops on their surface. The alchemists could not explain why the water does not drain, and considered the cuff a mystical plant.
Dew drops collected from the leaves of this herb, they used in their experiments to create an elixir of youth and getphilosopher's stone.
The second word in the scientific name is mollis, which translates as "with a fluffy, soft edge." Decorated with a jagged, wavy edge, the leaves of this plant really resemble vintage cuffs with lace scallops, which is why it is called a cuff.
A bit of geography
In the 18th century, scientists classified only one type of cuff as a genus - soft. Modern scientists include more than 350 species in the Rosaceae family and the Alchemilla genus. On the territory of our country, you can find 170 types of cuffs, of which more than 30 are in its European part. The main distribution area of plants of this species is located in the temperate climatic zones of North America and Eurasia. Some alpine species are found in Africa, South America and New Zealand.
It is also interesting that today in European and North American gardens it is the soft cuff that is widely cultivated. Planting and caring for it are simple, as the plant is very unpretentious both to soil and to lighting conditions. Thanks to these features, flower growers are happy to use this rather decorative perennial when decorating flower beds and flower beds in their gardens.
Sowing…
One of the ways the soft cuff reproduces is by planting seeds.
To obtain young plants, seed material is planted in containers with pre-prepared soil. After planting, they are transferred for germination in a cool room. The containers are left there.until seedlings appear. The grown seedlings must be planted in separate containers so that a full-fledged root system can form. For normal growth and development of young plants, individual containers must be well drained, such as perlite or pebbles. Propagation by seeds is best done in the fall, then next spring the seedlings planted in a permanent place will not only take root well, but will also please with their flowering.
Dividing the bush
The opportunity to get several new plants appears for gardeners in early spring and autumn: you can separate an adult and an overgrown bush, which was formed by a soft cuff. Planting and caring for separated seedlings is not a problem: the most difficult thing is to extract a thick lump of roots from the soil and divide it. The resulting delenki are planted in the soil prepared in advance and enriched with peat. If the cuff is divided in the spring, then the strengthened and grown seedlings can be transplanted to a permanent place in the middle of summer, leaving a distance of at least 30 cm between them.
Soft cuff: planting and care in the open field
As mentioned above, Alchemilla mollis easily adapts to almost any conditions. One has only to note that the cuff demonstrates its decorative qualities most fully in fertile, well-fertilized, sunny and moist areas. On poor soils, as well as in dense shade, a small bush will grow, which will not grow in height, but, as it were, “spread” along the ground. Regardless of the soil and light level in which it growsthe cuff is soft, fit and care (the photo below clearly demonstrates this) is always simple and accessible even for children.
It is important to remember the following features of growing this perennial:
- For the winter, the leaves of this plant should not be cut, as they will serve as additional shelter in the winter cold.
- If the weather in the autumn-winter period is not constant, then both young plants and adult bushes are best mulched with foliage, rotted compost or humus.
- In the spring, even with well-filled soil, it is better to feed the plants with nitrogen-containing fertilizers to stimulate the formation of leaves and the formation of a lush bush.
- As the soil dries, it is necessary to water the plant, especially in hot and dry weather.
