In our article we want to talk about honeysuckle. It is a very popular shrub in our gardens and home gardens. The plant has a decorative appearance and is unpretentious at the same time, and it bears fruit quite early, giving berries rich in vitamins.
Honeysuckle Bluebird
Honeysuckle is a low shrub. The plant is quite resistant to different climatic conditions and types of soil. The culture itself came to us from distant regions of Russia: Kamchatka, Magadan, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. This plant has been known there since ancient times and was used by local residents as a medicine for many diseases. The berries of this crop are of particular value, from which delicious jam is made.
Currently known varieties of shrubs: Kamchadalka, Gzhelka, Viliga, Morena, Cinderella, Altair, Amphora, Leningradsky, Blue Bird. There are other varieties, their number reaches several dozen. All of them were bred by gardeners from one ancestor.
What is honeysuckle Bluebird? This is one of the varieties that came to us from Kamchatka. He quickly found his fans among gardeners. Due to its ability to quickly adapt, the plant has become very common. The honeysuckle variety Bluebird is of particular value because of its fruits. They have a sweet taste and at the same time some sourness, which is much less than in other varieties.
Probably the only plant that can be harvested shortly after winter. In the month of May, you can already safely enjoy blue fruits, in which there is so much ascorbic acid that they can compete with blackcurrants.
Honeysuckle Bluebird: description
As we have already mentioned, the ancestor of all varieties is Kamchatka honeysuckle. It was from her that the Blue Bird was obtained. This is an early general purpose variety. The blue-black berries of the plant are fragrant and tasty with a characteristic waxy coating. Overripe fruits fall off the bushes, but are well preserved. Knowledgeable gardeners spread some clean material under the bushes before ripening to avoid damage to the crop. The culture is pretty good. The yield is 1.6 kilograms per bush.
Honeysuckle Blue Bird, like other varieties, is in great need of pollinators. According to experts, other varieties of culture are best suited for this: Blue spindle, Kamchadalka, Cinderella, Sinichka Morena. It is believed that the best option is to keep at least three varieties on one site.
Honeysuckle The blue bird is a sprawling vigorousoval-shaped bush with rather thin branches. Young shoots have an edge, and last year's ones are covered with bark. The culture endures winter frosts and even cold weather during flowering. But the summer heat and winter thaws are not so harmless for her.
Variety Blue Spindle
Honeysuckle Blue spindle - an early ripe variety bred by the Research Institute of Horticulture of Siberia named after Lisavenko M. A. It has been tested on experimental plots since 1980. Bushes of this variety are vigorous plants, they reach a height of one meter. Honeysuckle has a round and rather rare crown. The shoots of the plant do not have an edge and are painted green. Moreover, the sunny side of the leaf differs in shade from the shady side. The leaves are large oval dark green.
Honeysuckle Blue spindle differs from other varieties in large berries. Wherever the plant grows, the fruits will always be large and look like a spindle. Apparently this was the idea for the name of the variety. The berries are blue-blue in color with a strong wax coating. The very surface of the fruit is very dense and bumpy.
The pulp of the berries at the same time has a very delicate texture with a fresh taste. In dry weather, the fruits acquire some bitterness. The taste characteristics of the berries are very different from the place where the plant grows.
Culture bears fruit in mid-June. The blue spindle belongs to high-yielding and early maturing varieties. From one bush you can collect from one and a half to 2.5 kilograms of berries. The culture is winter-hardy anddrought-resistant, moreover, little susceptible to pests.
Planting and care
How is Blue Bird honeysuckle bred? Planting and caring for a plant has its own characteristics. In principle, the culture itself is unpretentious. Still, you need to know some of the nuances of how to plant honeysuckle and what to do in the future to get a decent harvest. Of course, the plant itself has a decorative appearance, but for many gardeners it is the berries that are of interest, so the yield is one of the main parameters.
Basic rules for growing crops:
- The honeysuckle loves the sunlight.
- Once every two years, humus is sure to be introduced into the soil.
- Sometimes pruning should be done for proper growth.
- The plants should be covered for the winter.
- In the spring, when buds appear, the bushes are covered from birds with any material.
Basic crop care is reduced to the implementation of these rules. But we must remember that, in principle, the plant is fruitless, so it should be helped. Honeysuckle needs cross-pollination. Well, when there are two or three plant varieties on the site, then the problem is solved by itself. Connoisseurs advise using special varieties of pollinators for pollination: Titmouse, Cinderella, Blue Spindle, Laura, Morena, Cinderella.
Honeysuckle The blue bird bears fruit early, is not susceptible to disease and is not afraid of temperature changes. However, if there is a desire to transplant a bush in the garden, it is better to wait until the end of summer. And in pots or greenhouses you cando in the autumn, then the roots adapt better.
Shrubs are quite durable and bear fruit for 20-30 years. The first harvest of berries can be obtained after transplantation no earlier than two to three years later. Therefore, do not hope for quick fruiting.
Preparing the soil for planting a plant
Before planting honeysuckle, it is necessary to properly prepare the soil, since much depends on its quality and type. Not all personal plots can boast of black soil.
At the site of the future planting of the bush, drainage should be prepared, which will contribute to the nutrition of useful substances and normal aeration. In sandy soils, a mixture of loam and peat must be added. And in clayey sand and peat. In addition, it will not be superfluous to apply fertilizers to any soil. It is good to use manure or peat compost in such cases.
As for liming, its necessity can only be judged by the place: whether it suits the given soil or not.
Purchasing seedlings and planting
When purchasing crop seedlings, you should definitely choose plants with a height of at least thirty centimeters. At the same time, the bush must be older than three years and have a good root system. Pay attention to the fact that the plant was without signs of disease. Of course, the most acceptable option is to purchase seedlings grown in pots.
Edible honeysuckle (photo shown in the article) can be used on your site as a hedge. Shouldmaintain a distance between the bushes of at least half a meter. The depth of the hole during landing should be no more than forty centimeters, and sixty centimeters in diameter will be enough.
Each hole should be fertilized and sprinkled with lime, if the soil is acidic, then cover with a fertile layer and compact. After planting, the plant must be watered.
Care after landing
Edible honeysuckle Bluebird needs care after planting. The bush must be watered abundantly. During the growing season, the plant is moistened four to five times. For an adult plant, you will need three to four buckets of water. Watering is best in the evening to avoid significant evaporation.
It is recommended to loosen the soil until about mid-summer. Only young bushes need such care. You need to loosen very carefully to avoid damage to the roots. You can mulch the soil near the trunk to prevent rapid moisture loss.
Pruning bushes
Edible honeysuckle (photo shown in the article) needs pruning. This is done primarily to obtain a good harvest. Pruning makes it possible to provide sunlight to the branches and get rid of problematic shoots.
Pruning plants of the Blue Bird variety has its own characteristics:
- The most suitable time for pruning shoots is March, April, when the buds have not yet woken up.
- The shoots of honeysuckle are shortened so that they branch better in the future.
- Separately growing branchesshould not be shortened at the very ground, it is better to leave them about half a meter long.
- Sick shoots are subject to immediate pruning.
- As one of the measures to increase yields, you can use the thinning of shoots that spread to the ground.
- As for young twigs, you need to leave the strongest, even and he althy ones.
- To rejuvenate old bushes, they are thinned out annually.
- Unnecessarily, do not cut the tops of the shoots.
Reviews about Blue Bird
Among experienced gardeners there are many fans of the variety. What is good honeysuckle Blue Bird? Reviews of this species indicate that the plant is quite unpretentious to the soil and undemanding to climatic conditions. The main advantage of the variety is the dessert taste of the berries. The plant is resistant to shedding and frost, little susceptible to frost. The disadvantages of the variety gardeners include insufficient yield, which you always want to increase.
You need to understand that fruiting directly depends on the quality of care and pruning. So there is always something to strive for.
Gardeners also note the decorative properties of the plant. It has beautiful greenery, looks especially impressive during the fruiting period. Bushes can even be used as hedges.
The Blue Bird variety is chosen by those gardeners who strive to get the earliest berries on their site. It is this type of honeysuckle that has an early ripening period. This means that it bears fruit before its fellows.
Diseases
We have already mentioned that the Blue Birdquite resistant to various diseases. However, over time, old plants can be recruited from other inhabitants of the garden of various diseases. Therefore, experienced gardeners prefer to treat honeysuckle with Bordeaux liquid after fruiting, which is a good preventive measure against fungal diseases.
Projection of the crown of the plant should be cleared of weeds, which also prevents damage to the bushes.
Useful properties of berries
Honeysuckle is not just an ornamental plant. It has long been valued by people for its beneficial properties. In folk medicine, honeysuckle has been used for centuries as a medicine for the treatment of various diseases. Berries contain B vitamins, glucose, fructose, vitamins A, P, C, as well as organic acids.
As for vitamin C, it is no less in fruits than in strawberries and lemons. And in terms of mineral composition, few can compete with honeysuckle. The berries contain: copper, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, potassium.
An interesting fact is that the composition of the fruit is affected by the place of growth. If, for example, a bush grows in a dry climate, then the acidity decreases and the content of sugars and tannins increases, so the berries become bitter.
And growing in humid conditions increases the content of vitamin C. It is for this reason that honeysuckle grown in temperate continental climates is so rich in monosaccharides and vitamin C.
Instead ofafterwords
Honeysuckle is a good plant for the garden. It will not only decorate it, but also, with proper care, will give you a good harvest of berries rich in useful substances and vitamins.
