Garden flowers are able to please the eye and delight, the tigrid occupies a worthy place among them. This plant got its "animal" name due to the tiger color of the inner part of the bud and earned recognition due to the variety of shades from white, yellow to bright red. This characteristic brightness is characteristic of the plants of Central and South America, where the tigrid come from. Six delicate petals (three external, three internal) and a long, swaying stem - at first sight this garden inhabitant can be suspected of a special whimsy, but this will be a mistaken impression. Tigridia - a flower no more whimsical than other bulbous plants, and planting and caring for the tigrid will not require much effort.
Planting Tigridia
First of all, you need to wait until the weather becomes steadily warm, the optimal time is mid-May. The place of planting should be determined by three factors: light, soil properties, windiness of the territory. Tigridia needed a lot of light, she was not afraid of direct sunlight. However, in the shady area the plant will also feel good, but the brightness of the flowers will decrease in this case. Also, it should be said that growing in the shade will affect the strength of the stems, most likely, they will not be strong enough to hold the buds and need a garter. The soil is desirable to choose loose and damp, you can loosen it by adding sand and sawdust. Tigridia does not tolerate wind and drafts, since the risk of damage to a tall, thin stem is great, so it is worth choosing a secluded windless place, setting up a damper or, again, tie up plants. Bulbs descend into the indentations 10-12 cm, with the distance between them should be at least 15 cm.
Tigridia - cultivation and care
Care for tigridy can not be called difficult. If the soil is sufficiently fertilized, then no additional power will be needed. In the case of depleted soil, it is advisable to carry out two additional fertilizing - three weeks after the appearance of the stems and before the appearance of the buds. Cultivation of tigridia should be accompanied by regular irrigation - irrigation is not enough, the soil must be abundantly saturated with moisture. In especially hot summer days, you need to moisten the plants themselves. Another important condition for proper care is the mandatory removal of dried flowers.
Wintering
In addition to planting and care in the warm season, it is worth mentioning separately about the cold season. Tigridia does not belong to frost-resistant plants, so after the death of the ground part of the plant, the bulb must be excavated and dried for a month at room temperature. After drying the bulbs must be placed in a container with sand or soil. If you neglect the sand, the bulbs will give up moisture, eventually dry up and not live to see the spring.
By the way, it is possible to grow tigridium not only from bulbs, but also from seeds. This should be taken care of in winter - the seeds are planted in a bright room at a temperature of 20-25 °. Such a plant will be in 6-7 months.
Now that we have figured out how to plant a tigrid and how to care for it, it's worth mentioning one feature of this bright plant. The flower tigridii lives only one day, to be exact 8 hours. Despite this, you can admire the flowering for a month, since one onion gives several shoots, each of which grows about 5 buds. Particularly beautiful and original will look like a flower bed with different grades of tigridia. Just imagine this picture: white petals in a red speck of Alba, surrounded by red flowers with golden specks of the Speccy variety and supplemented with yellow buds with red spots of the Aurea variety!