Among the inhabitants of the flower garden you can find not only beautiful specimens, but also useful ones. One such is the perennial flower of medicinal echinacea. Pink camomiles with drooping petals are familiar to us from childhood, but not everyone knows about their medicinal properties.
How to apply Echinacea?
To increase the body's resistance to various infections, it will require plant juice, which is collected from the green mass during the summer season. But even more useful substances contain roots, especially at the end of the summer before fading. The ground raw materials are mixed with alcohol, insisted, and the extract obtained is taken according to the age dosage.
Throughout the summer, you can brew healing tea from the inflorescences of Echinacea - the benefit of their removal is stimulated by the laying of new buds and the plant becomes even more magnificent.
Methods of reproduction and fineness of care
Planting a perennial echinacea, as well as caring for it, does not require special knowledge. That the plant blossomed in the first year, it is necessary to sow seeds in February, and in May to plant them in the soil. If the soil is poor, then it is worth adding to it a little organic - reparted manure and ash, although it can grow absolutely everywhere. If everything is done correctly, then by mid-summer, powerful shoots up to 80 centimeters high with bright flower heads will be displayed in the flower garden.
To collect the seeds, it is necessary to wait for the plant to budge - this will happen closer to the autumn. When the petals fall and the hedgehogs are left on the peduncles, you need to wait for them to dry out, and then just shake out the small seeds and keep them until winter.
In addition to the seed method, the plant can be multiplied by dividing the bush. It is not difficult to do this, but you should know that the echinacea after this procedure is long ill, and therefore it is necessary to carry out the division very carefully.
From what a plant needs for good development, regular and generous watering should be noted. Without it, the flower will be weak and underdeveloped. This is especially true in the dry season, because echinacea grows in the sun.
To prevent the plant from becoming harsh in the winter, it should be cut in autumn, leaving a stem 5 cm high. It should be bored and covered with leaves or any natural material. During the whole winter, the sheltered roots of the plant should be covered with snow from time to time. From the varieties of the long-term Echinacea, Purple is distinguished as the most common medicinal variety, the White Swan - similar to chamomile and Echinacea Strange - with petals of yellow color.