Gardening lovers and gardeners know this beauty with such a soft and fluid name - "common aquilegia". “Yes, we don’t remember something,” you say. Like many garden flowers, this beauty has its own popular name - "catchment". Well, remember? This is the aquilegia. Growing and caring for the hostess of many country lawns will be discussed below, and now let's talk about where this cutie with clover leaves and flyer flowers came from.
Mountain guest
This pretty grass came to our lawns from the lowlands of the Alps, from the mountain landscapes of the Kuril Islands and the Sakhalin Ridge. Wild forms of the watershed also grow in Northern Japan. In general, by its origin it is a mountain flower, but not as inaccessible as edelweiss. And, I will tell you a secret, more beautiful than the hero of numerous legends and myths. Due to their love for the mountains, wild species of this plant do not take root in our flower beds. Unlike them, the hybrid aquilegia is very unpretentious. Growing and caring for it does not require special skills and conditions. She is ready to delight us with her bluish foliage andunusual flowers from April to September. It is during this period that the catchment grows and blooms. True, not very long - flowering lasts only two months - June and July.
Aquilegia flowers are double and simple up to 10 cm in diameter, they are distinguished by huge variability in color - from snow-white and golden yellow to bright pink and bright blue. The color of the sepals (outer petals) is very often radically different from the color of the corolla (inner petals with spurs).
Aquilegia reproduction
Aquilegia can be propagated both by seeds and by dividing the bush. The plant is a minor. Therefore, after 3-4 years, the bushes must be updated using division or replaced with young ones grown from seeds that can be sown in spring or autumn. How long you have scheduled this procedure depends on how it should be carried out. If sowing is planned for spring, then the seeds need to be prepared - give them a cool rest in the refrigerator at a temperature of 5-7ºС for a month. In scientific terms, stratify. Without this procedure, germination can be an order of magnitude lower. It is necessary to divide aquilegia bushes in the spring after the first sprouts appear. They have enough time to acclimatize and bloom in the prescribed summer period.
Preferences and ailments of the flowerbed beauty
Like all cultivated plants, aquilegia prefers timely care and cultivation. The catchment bushes will feel bad in the hot sun without cover, but partial shade will be very happy somewhere under a tree with periodicflashes of sunlight. Watering aquilegia should be sufficient. In the case of dry and hot weather, this cutie must be watered abundantly. With insufficient moisture, the bushes lose their appearance and fade very quickly. It is necessary to feed the catchment, like all plants, 2-3 times per season, preferably with organic fertilizer. The mineral is diluted in a mild consistency. For 10 l. water just 2 tablespoons of flowering plant fertilizer or one tablespoon each of urea and potassium sulfate.
Varietary forms of a plant such as aquilegia, cultivation and care require somewhat special. This feature is to prevent cross-pollination of different species among themselves. Otherwise, hybrid forms degenerate. Therefore, it is necessary to cut the flower stalks after flowering. And if there is a goal to get seeds, pollination must be done artificially - with the help of a brush. Treated flowers should be tied with a gauze bandage in order to avoid pollination by bees or wind.
Aquilegia is not very capricious, growing and caring for which even a novice gardener can do. But there is one point that needs to be taken into account. The catchment is very easily affected by aphids. Therefore, it is better to carry out preventive measures in the form of preventive spraying with insecticidal preparations than to groan and gasp later, trying to save this beauty from the invasion of harmful insects.
