Dicentra - planting and care, practical tips for growing

A perennial and annual plants are called dicenters, the petals of which resemble the heart in shape, with a contrast "droplet" in the center, as if dividing it in two. An exotic plant that grows in East Asia and North America can easily decorate flower beds in countries with a more severe climate.

Dicenter in landscape design

The shrub is loved by garden decorators for their versatility. Low-grown varieties are suitable for mixed planting on a hill. Plants with medium height planted in flower beds and curbs, and tall look good in a separate bush. Given the season of flowering dicenters, it is desirable to combine it in one composition with plants:

• hellebore;
• a bathing-place;
• an anemone;
• the daffodil;
• tulip;
• hyacinth;
• primroses;
• phloxes.

Dicentra - species and varieties

There are only two types of shrubs - perennials and annuals. The latter grow in the wild, but are not cultivated in gardens, unlike perennial bushes. Varieties dinets differ much more: there are about 25 species, but only a small part of them are cultivated. These include:

1. Magnificent dicenter. The growth of an adult plant is at least 1 m, it blooms in May, but blossoms only for one month.
2. Beautiful dicenter. This is a dispensary, planting and caring for which directly affect the life of flowers: with the help of fertilizers, it can "stretch" from May to the end of September.
3. An excellent "broken heart". Gray-blue leaves of the plant resemble ferns, decorated with white, pink or dark purple inflorescences.
4. The Cowboy. The shortest variety, reaching 15-20 cm, is known in pharmaceutics.

Dicenter - landing

The plant prefers to grow in the shade, so the optimal areas for it are the flowerbeds under the tree or near the garden buildings. Planting and caring for a dicentre in the open field in a sunlit area presupposes frequent leaf moistening with a spray gun. Preparation for planting is carried out in two stages:

1. In the autumn, the flower bed is dug by turning over layers of at least 40 cm deep. The soil is fertilized with humus and mixed with sand or peat if it has a loamy texture.
2. Before winter, a "pie" is built on the flower bed - shelter from dry straw or reeds, alternating with layers of soil.

How to put the dispensary?

Autumn planting is carried out under a film, which is removed with the establishment of stably warm weather. In spring, seedlings are transferred to the ground after removal of the remains of the shelter, if it did not have time to turn into humus. The further landing mechanism includes three steps:

1. Digging a hole, the depth of which takes into account the volume of the root system. The smaller of possible variants is 40 cm.
2. Laying on the bottom of the hole mixture of rubble and broken bricks. On top of it lay out the garden ground with the addition of compost .
3. After placing the root of the dicenters in the ground, it is thrown by the ground to the level of the stem stem.

When to plant a dicentre?

The plant likes soft soil, warmed by the sun's rays, but it does not survive well in the frozen ground. The choice of the landing time is carried out with special care precisely for this reason: the bush should not die due to late snow or heavy rains. There are two options for selecting the suitable date for digging into the ground:

1. If the planting centers are held in the spring, cuttings are dug into the ground in mid-April-early March.
2. If you need to transfer cuttings or parts of a large bush in the fall, the procedure is carried out in the first half of September.

Dicentra - cultivation

If the shrub is planted in accordance with all the rules for a suitable place, then the cultivation should not bring any troubles. Flower centers are well tied up and long pleases the eye under certain conditions:

1. Removal of diseased leaves. Rot or other diseases provoked by parasites can spread to neighboring shoots. The leaves are removed, and the remaining "wound" is treated with a garden fume .
2. Sprinkling of leaves. At least once a month, leaves should be sprinkled with water mixed with mineral fertilizers.
3. Loosening. To ensure access of oxygen to the roots, the top layer of soil is periodically required to loosen up with a shovel.

Care for the center

The content of the plant varies depending on the region where it grows. Initially, the heat-loving dispensary needs special care when planting in a temperate or cold climate. In the latter case, it will be able to blossom and not die purely in hothouse conditions. Care for the center should take into account some of the nuances:

1. With growth in the southern band, flowers appear on it early, which quickly open the cups. Extend flowering almost to late autumn with warm weather possible, if you remove already discolored inflorescence. The bush requires abundant watering under the roots, so that they do not dry up.
2. In the climate of the middle belt, care for the center is in moderate watering (there is a serious risk of excess moisture) and sheltering the roots in case of frost. Mulching is carried out with the help of sawdust, pine needles or humus, mixed with the old roots of the bush.
3. In colder regions, the flower lives in a greenhouse, since no matter how unpretentious the dispensary is, planting and caring for it at low temperatures will be completely useless. The plant is heavily fed with nitrogen, and when the last inflorescences depart, the wilted leaves and shoots are completely cut off, leaving little hemp. They are covered for winter with a peat layer 5-9 cm high.

Plant densentra - top dressing

Since the plant likes a shadow, it needs an enhanced nutrition of the soil. In addition to regular loosening, the perennial dicenter needs fertilizers. Feeding for it is issued in the form of a liquid product, which is mixed with water for irrigation and capsules immersed in the ground in proximity to the root system. Preferred types of fertilizer, such as:

• manure infusion;
• humus;
• superphosphates;
• nitrogen-containing complexes.

Transplantation centers

"Broken heart" can be transplanted from place to place because of changing the location of the flower bed or reducing the number of flowers formed on the bush. To strengthen the root system and rejuvenate it, resort to a transfer to a site with nutrient or fertilizer-enriched soil. Decide when to transplant the center, the advice of experienced gardeners will help: they recommend doing this in late April or early September. The transfer of the plant is carried out according to this principle:

1. The plant, which has reached a minimum of 3 years of age, is carefully excavated, following fragile roots.
2. The root system is saturated with air - for this purpose the dicenter is left with bare roots for 5-6 hours.
3. The plant is divided into 2-3 parts: for this, gloves are put on, because the juice of the stems and root strongly poison.
4. Bushes dig in the ground and fertilize the usual mineral fertilizing.

How to propagate the dicentre?

All varieties of this plant reproduce exclusively vegetatively. They are unpretentious when transplanting into the ground, quickly take root and give new sprouts. Propagation of the perennial calendars can be carried out in one of the following ways:

1. Seed sowing. This is the most laborious option possible, because most varieties form an extremely small number of seeds, and some are completely deprived of them. If you get the seeds still get, they are planted in the ground freshly collected before the fall.
2. Division of the bush. After planting, caring for the center and its flowers remains unchanged for 4-5 years. After this period of time, the roots of the plant grow so much that some parts of the shrub begin to die, and flowering stops. An ideal time for the reproduction of the bush comes - it must be performed before or immediately after the growing season. A part of the roots is dug out and cut off from them by an shoot length of 10-15 cm. It should be taken into account that on it there must be 3-4 strong branches. Each such piece of the branch is called a plot. They are planted on a permanent growth site, in a well moistened with water.
3. Cuttings. Dicentra, planting and caring for which involves pruning as needed, can multiply by cuttings. Young shoots and lengths of roots 20-25 cm long are suitable for their role. Cuttings are immersed in a nutrient soil mix for 10 cm and slightly tamped with hands. If the landing occurs in the cold season, the dicentre is placed in a greenhouse and covered with a film. After 2-3 weeks, new leaves will appear on the stem, giving a signal that the plant can be transplanted to a permanent place.