Multicolored lupine, planting and care in the open ground, which even inexperienced growers can do, is quite unpretentious. It multiplies easily, perfectly winter in the ground, drought-resistant. This decorative plant is a popular decoration for gardens and flower beds. Its seeds and stems are used not only for the manufacture of hand-made articles, but also in medicine.
Types of lupine
The lupine plant attracts colorful inflorescence brushes, which in size can reach one meter. The color of the coronas are very different: white, yellow, red, cream, pink, lilac, blue and all shades of violet. The lupine variety has single-, two-, perennial, horticultural or fodder. You can see and low 10 cm and large to 1.5 m plants. The serrate leaves are collected in a basal rosette.
Lupine 1 year old
If you want to have a colorful flower garden in unpretentious plants in the garden, you can use one-year lupine, planting and care in the open ground behind it do not cause trouble. It looks decorative and is a useful siderate for the soil. How does the annual lupine look like:
- stems erect, branched, bush height up to 1.5 m;
- the leaves are elongated, covered with villi, they are put in the rosette;
- high inflorescence has the form of a long candle or cob, it consists of butterfly fringes.
Popular types of annual lupine:
- Yellow. The plant has a size of up to 1 m, one-year-old, flowers are painted in lemon color, have a flavor of reseda. Stems have few leaves that grow on petioles, equipped with 6-9 lobes.
- White. Tall, erect view with fleecy silver leaves. It blooms with pale blue or pinkish rosettes, without a smell.
- Lupine angustifolia. Annual, grows up to 80 cm tall, stem erect, sparsely pubescent. Flowers occur violet-blue, pale pink and white, odorless.
Long-Lupine Flower
The plant is winter-hardy, self-pollinating and unassuming, lives about 8-10 years. The height reaches 50-150 cm, the flowers are collected in carp rosettes. In lupine perennial cultivation from seeds begins in April, the first flowers will be dissolved next year. The most popular decorative view:
- Lupine multilayered. Perennial, frost-resistant and undemanding in care, size - up to 120 cm, inflorescences 35 cm long. Almost bare straight stems have leaves on long petioles. The variety of subspecies of this variety is extensive - it is found in snow-white, dense lilac, blue, lemon, brick-red, two-tone color.
- Silver. The leaves on the stems reach 16 cm, the flowers are from dark blue to white, have a reddish middle.
Sowing lupine
Plant lupine photophilous, planting and care in the open ground should be carried out on a sunny and windless place. On such a site, its bloom will be longer and colorful. The plant needs a weakly acidic or neutral soil. For lupines, when planting in an alkaline substrate, it is desirable to add peat, in acidic - dolomite flour, 5 kg per 1 m 2 . Do this in the spring before digging the site, fertilizer will last for 3-4 years. At the roots of the plant, nitrogen-containing bacteria are formed, so the culture is a siderata and improves the condition of the soil.
How to plant a lupine?
Propagate the flower seeds directly in the open ground or seedlings. The first method attracts simplicity, and the second one is more reliable. But for garden lupines growing from seeds is the most popular method of cultivation. After flowering on the legs, pubescent pods are formed, which in time turn brown, seeds are sown in them - beans. Depending on the variety, they occur in different sizes and colors.
Before sowing, grains are often scarified-they specifically damage the peel. This greatly improves the germination of seeds. Then they are mixed with powdered roots of the old plant to stimulate the growth of nitrogen-containing bacteria. Seeds are planted in moistened grooves to a depth of 2 cm, chaotically or in rows at a distance of 30-50 cm between plants. Shoots will be carried out a week later. Seed reproduction does not guarantee the preservation of the maternal color of plants (especially white). In the spring of next year, the shoots break through, so that there is no thickening of the planting.
Also grains can be germinated as seedlings in small containers or boxes. For planting take a mixture of turf, peat and sand in a combination of 2: 2: 1, the containers are covered with film after sowing. Saplings are cultivated without picks. Sprinkle seedlings should be moderate, keep at + 20 ° C. After the first 2-3 leaves appear on the shoots, they can be rooted to a permanent place. To delay with a transplant is not advised - more adult plants are less tolerant of "moving".
When to sow lupine?
Germination seeds of this plant last 5 years, they can be sown in April, after the snow completely comes off the site. Still acceptable for the flowers of lupines planting in the winter - in October or early November they are placed in an open ground and sprinkled with peat. In spring the seeds will begin to grow, in August buds will appear. If a seedling method of reproduction is used, then the seeds are planted in containers in early March.
Lupines - cultivation
Bright lupine, planting and care in the open ground behind which are produced competently, will please with flowering already in the first season. Colorful bud buds appear on it in June-August. Lupines are the right growing and care:
- Adult plants need to be hilled to protect the root collar, which rises every year over the surface of the earth;
- in 4-5 years bushes - long-livers are removed, new specimens are planted;
- tall specimens must be tied up, so that the stems do not break from the wind;
- To prolong flowering, faded rosettes can be cut before the appearance of seeds;
- To prevent diseases in the open ground, wood ash is introduced;
- if it is necessary to collect the seeds, the fruit should be ripped off as soon as it begins to dry, so that the seed does not scatter to the sides spontaneously;
- perennial bushes for winter are sprinkled with sawdust, otherwise the frost plant below -8 ° C may not survive.
Lupine - transplant
The root system acquires a root system, powerful and deep - leaving up to 2 m into the ground. Therefore, it is better to move young specimens, since it is harder to transplant lupine at a later age - it may be painful after the procedure. This is because long rod roots easily break off and are poorly restored. If you still need to move the bush to another place, it is best to do it in the fall after flowering. Such perennials are better to renew every 5-6 years by seeding, because the old plants are no longer blooming.
Lupine in the Garden - Reproduction
Garden lupine, planting and care in the open ground, which is carried out according to the rules of agricultural technology, is multiplied by dividing the bush. In the spring of the kidneys, located near the root neck, there are small rosettes of 5-7 leaves. They can be used for cuttings. The sprouts are cut off together with a piece of the root neck. They can be planted in a shaded place in sandy soil. After 25 days they form a root and the flower can be planted on a permanent place.
Basal rosettes develop and by mid-summer, they can also be used to expand plantations of bright colors. 3-4 years old plants are ideal for division. Vegetative reproduction of lupine rhizome allows to preserve the full color of flowers. When planting cuttings in the summer (after flowering) for germination, you can take and side shoots, formed in the axils of the leaves.
Diseases of lupine
Sometimes lupines, planting and caring for which in the open ground were carried out in violation of agricultural techniques, can be exposed to disease or pest attack. At the stage of budding the plant is damaged by aphids, later - larvae of a sprout fly or nodule weevils. Quickly get rid of them will help spraying a bush with insecticides "Aktellik", "Apollo".
Of diseases, the danger for the flower is rot (root and gray), mosaic, spotting, rust, fomopsis. As a result, brownish spots appear on the foliage, fruits, and damage to the root part. In this case, it is advisable to treat bushes with fungicides, cut the diseased bush completely or remove the affected parts of the plant. New shoots quickly appear from the remaining root in the open ground and are healthy. Sometimes an autumn digging and liming of the substrate will be necessary.
Knowing how to grow lupines, observing the rules of crop rotation and care, you can achieve that the plant is almost not hurt. It is important to know: to place the plant repeatedly in one area can be after five years, otherwise the soil under it intensifies begins to overgrow with weeds, accumulates phytotoxic microorganisms, leading to different diseases.
Lupine - care
Garden lupine - unpretentious plant. He is provided with moderate watering, makes complex mineral fertilizing in the ground. In the first year of life near the plant you need to loosen the soil, remove the weeds. For the winter, the stems are cut off, they get rid of the yellowed leaves, they can be used as a mulch for hilling the plant before the onset of cold weather.
Lupine in the garden - watering
The amount of moisture that a plant needs depends on the period of planting and the composition of the open ground. Flower lupine - planting and competent care in terms of watering:
- an abundant moisturizing culture is required in the spring, after the seeds are only planted. Lack of moisture will lead to low productivity of the green mass, leaves droop, even fall to the ground;
- still the plant needs generous watering, after it is fastened with buds. When there is a shortage of water, the rosettes of the culture are not as sumptuous as ever, but the fruits form a small size;
- the rest of the time the bush is watered moderately;
- old plants need less moisture - their long roots absorb water from the lower layers of the earth.
How to feed the lupines in the spring?
After wintering in the second year of life, you can begin to feed the plant with mineral fertilizers that do not have nitrogen in the composition (its culture is produced independently on the root increments): 10-20 g of superphosphate plus 5 g of potassium chloride are applied per square meter of area. Top-dressing of lupines in spring is carried out regularly every year, until it is time to cultivate new flowers.
Lupine in landscape design
If you need to decorate the garden with a bright flower, you can use lupine, planting and care in the open ground behind it will not bring hassle, and the application in landscape design is easy for him to find. It looks beautiful in combination with perennials - lilies, gladioluses, irises, delphiniums , hosts in tapeworms and mixed groups. A lush composition forms a lupine in the garden in combination with peonies.
Use a bright flower, as in numerous plantings, and in solitary compositions. In mixborders, the lupine looks better next to the fast-growing, low, lush crops - they close their stalks by the middle of summer by their foliage. And in the background a stately high lupine in a large combination will help create a charming landscape.
In addition, the plant is an excellent fertilizer for the garden. Due to the nodule bacteria that accumulate on the roots, the siderate saturates the soil with nitrogen. The same microorganisms transform hardly soluble phosphates with an easily digestible form. Green fertilizer lupine nutritional parameters is equivalent to manure. It is one of the best siderates for increasing the productivity of the soil.