Alstromeria – very beautiful culture. Sometimes it is called “Peruvian Lily” because of the similar features. Flowers are the same elegant and spectacular, which is why they are often grown for cutting in bouquets. Also such plants adorn balconies and flower beds. To grow flower, you just need to know simple landing and care rules. About this and talk in the article.
Peculiarities
Description should be started with the fact that culture is many years of. This is a herbaceous plant with tuber roots. Straight-flexible stem. Usually height varies from 80 to 200 cm, although there are low varieties.
Flowers in culture luxury. The diameter of each can reach 5-6 cm. Coloring is different. There are snow-white, gentle and bright pink, yellow, orange, purple, red flowers. There are varieties combining in each flower at once 2 or 3 shade. Characteristic feature of culture regardless of varieties are thin small strips on petals.
Interesting fact – Alstromeria has no smell. Someone may seem deficiencies, but for people with a tendency to allergies such a nuance will only become a plus.
Alstromeria can be grown in the garden to decorate the territory. At home, it can be kept in a pot. Cut flowers standing in water long look fresh (up to 2 weeks).
Varieties
To date, there are many species and varieties of this culture. Consider the most popular.
- “Virginia”. This is one of the most favorite varieties grown for bouquets. Snow-white wavy petals form gentle flowers, spectacularly released against the background of greenery. Grow such flowers up to 70 cm. Blossom starts in June.
- “Beauty”. A powerful bush of one and a half meter height is covered with purple buds, creating an expressive spectacle. Great for garden decoration. Bloom occurs in spring and at the end of the summer.
- “Canary”. Bright colors of the Canary Tone grow up to 1.5 meters. Flowering occurs in two stages (spring and early autumn).
- “White Wings”. Very beautiful white flower can grow to 1.5-2 m. Flowers are large, please the gardeners with their beauty all summer. Break in flowering is observed at the end of July.
- “Alicia”. This hybrid reminds something chrysant. Blooms culture all summer. Petals Color – White Pink.
- Golden. Bright yellow with orange tint Flowers are quite high. Height can reach a meter and more.
- Brazilian. Elegant red flowers can grow up to 2 meters. The name is due to the place of origin of this type.
- “Nano”. This is a low variety. Neat plants reaching only ten-centimeter heights are ideal for home cultivation. Petal Color – Yellow.
- “Nadia”. This variety has burgundy color. Plant height Average (70-80 cm).
- Roma. This variety is characterized by a raspberry tinge of petals. Culture growth – 70 cm.
- “Diva”. This species will appeal to romantic agents. Petals painted in very gentle pink color. Grow flower up to 80 cm.
Optimal dates for disembarking
Time suitable for planting culture in open ground depends on the region. The procedure is carried out after the end of freezers. It is necessary that the soil warms up to 20 degrees and the air temperature also stabilized. In many regions of the country, such conditions appear at the end of May. In some places, landing is carried out in early June.
As for sowing seeds to seedlings, it is done at the end of February. You can transfer the procedure and at the beginning of March. At home, create a medium necessary for full growth and development of colors, too easy.
How to plant?
Plot in the garden should choose well lit. At the same time, it is better to have a light half day in the afternoon. Well, if the place will be protected from wind. The soil should be nutritious, well permeable. Acidity need to choose a weak or neutral.
Packs make a depth of about 30 cm. The optimal width of the landing recess – from 40 to 50 cm. It is important that the roots of the young plants are placed in a fossa free. Drainage layer is stacked on the bottom. Overwhelming compost. The thickness of the layer should be about 7-8 cm.
The plant is careful with the earthlings. Then the smell fall asleep. Soil slightly seal and wipe well. To prevent the evaporation of moisture from the ground, the area around the flower is mounted. To do this, you can use peat or sawdust.
If several colors are planted on one bed, the distance between them should not be less than 30 cm. If the grade is high, this indicator increases to 50 cm.
How to care for?
Consider several important stages of the care of alstromeria.
Watering
Culture requires moderately wet soil. Watering should be regular, but not excessive. One time a week will be enough. If summer is very roast and dry, you can carry irrigation twice a week. In the rainy periods, flowers cost moisture obtained from precipitation.
Podkord
Fertilizing – Important Point. Culture feed every decade. At the same time alternate mineral compositions and organics. During the development of leaves, plants especially need nitrogen.
During the bootonization they need phosphorus. Also a good addition will be potassium. It can be added to the soil in the form of wood ash. Do it 3 or 4 times in season.
Trimming
If the plant does not cut, many flowers will be formed on it, but small. Therefore, in the spring, it cuts about 1/3 of shoots. Also all the season follow the condition of culture. It is necessary to clean the foliage foliage in a timely manner, dried flowers. This not only allows you to maintain the aesthetics of the garden, but also protects plants from diseases.
On the spot of cut outward buds will appear new. So culture the whole season will be fresh and elegant. Leave dry flowers only if you are planning to collect seeds.
Transfer
Root culture system quickly adds in size. Bushes with numerous shoots bloom not very well. Therefore, every year an adult flower move to a new place. The procedure is carried out in spring or autumn. At the same time produce a division of a bush.
When dividing divided plants is complied with the same rules as when planting seedlings. Do not forget that the size of the fossa must correspond to the gabarites of the root system.
Wintering
Despite the fact that some cultural varieties are resistant to small freezers, wintering in the Russian conditions for them is still a heavy test. therefore To preserve the flower in the open soil until spring should take some measures.
After the first frosts, shoots cut off. Leave a maximum of 10 cm from the earth’s surface. Then the bushes are sprinkled by foliage. Layer should be fat. Leaves are covered with film. Top puts ordinary garden land mixed with humus.
All actions are carried out in dry weather. It is important that the upper layer of the Earth is wet. If in your region, harsh winters, it is better to reinforce. Drop flowers and transfer them to the tanks (pots or boxes). Then take the landing in a warmed basement or a glazed balcony. So you are guaranteed to save the bushes from freezing.
Methods of breeding
Most often, alstromeria is breeding seeds or the division of the bush. We will analyze each of these ways separately.
Seeds
Seed cultural culture method allows you to get healthy and beautiful plants. but they will start blossoming only on the third year of life. In addition, it is worth considering that even with a separate seed collection from species plants, parental characteristics may be lost. This probability increases if the hybrid variety.
But in any case, the flower will turn out beautiful, even if he will be unlike the one from which the seeds are taken. Perhaps you will have a completely new unique variety.
Collect the seed material need carefully: the fruits of cultures are distinguished by fragility. So that the seeds do not scatter, you can cover the flower before harvesting. Before planting the seed material should be stratified. To do this, it is turned around with a damp cloth and put in the refrigerator. Best Place – Lower Shelf. There seeds are stored 2 months.
Sowing produced at the end of winter. Soil mixture for planting is desirable to prepare on the recipe. The turf of the land is mixed with leaf power (1: 3). You can also add some peat and large sand.
Picking for such colors is undesirable. Therefore, it is better to sow immediately into separate containers. Drainage and prepared fertile land are placed on the bottom of each cup. Then there weeping.
The planting material is sprinkled with a layer of soil, about 1 cm. Capacities are covered with polyethylene. This allows you to create greenhouse conditions. Optimal temperature level for landings – 18 degrees. Sprouts can be seen after 3-4 weeks.
Periodically young plants ventilate. Soil moisturizes. When showers, polyethylene is removed. Capacities with flowers put in warm and well lit place. At this stage, a temperature of 20-25 degrees is desirable.
The light should fall on plants at least 12 hours a day. If necessary, use sources of artificial light. Do not forget about moderate watering.
In the process of growing seedlings, it is necessary to make 3 feeding. For the first time, the soil is watered with an organic solution (when the first leaflet appears). The second time makes mineral composition. Do it in the phase of the third sheet. For the third time (after 3 weeks) also fertilize plants with a mineral complex.
If the plants were still planted in one big box, the picking is carried out when the third leaf appears. 2 weeks before the movement of flowers in the open ground they start hardening. Landing regularly put out on the street, gradually increasing the time of their stay in the air. Landing on the site is produced in the end of spring.
Culture seeds can be stored 3 years. All this time they will be suitable for landing.
Dividing bush
This method gives a guarantee of preserving maternal characteristics. Besides, The plants obtained in this way are pleasing to the colors in the year of landing (if the procedure is carried out in spring) or in a year (if the division is produced in autumn).
Specialists advise to divide the plants in the fall, immediately after the end of flowering. So dear flowers will be able to adapt and root before the onset of frosts. Each delena must have a minimum of 6 sleeping kidneys. For cutting use a sharp knife. Sections sprinkle powder coal. You can also use colloidal sulfur. The obtained plants immediately distribute on new places.
Growing at home in pots
Room alstromeria is better to put on the southern windowsill. There she will be all the time except summer. In hot weather, the flower should be removed into the shaded cool place. The maximum temperature that plant can withstand without loss of decorative is 28 degrees.
Though Culture of thermal lodge, close placement of convectors in winter is also undesirable. Heaters dried air that negatively affects colors. If you decide to decorate a balcony or loggia plant, remember that the minimum allowable temperature level is 10 degrees. In the cold, the culture will not bloom, and if the size of the thermometer falls too low, the flower may die.
Soil for indoor plant should be nutritious. A mixture of peat, humoring, leaf land and perlite is perfect. Don’t forget about drainage. Watering plants you need pure stretched water. Perfect option – drinking non-chlorized liquid.
In summer, watering produces as the upper layer of soil. In winter, water procedures are spent less. Pull flower can not – Roots can start rot. If the flower is standing next to the battery, and heating works for all power, it can be sprayed from the sprayer every 3-4 days.
Much attention should be paid to the fertilization of culture. At the beginning of the first bloom, you can enter an aqueous solution of ash. For 1 liter of water take half the tablespoon. Then the flower is feeding with periodicity 2 times a year. Phosphoric preparations are recommended.
Useful for culture and potassium. And here Fertilizers with a large nitrogen content is better not to use. Such formulations may adversely affect the development of buds.
Transplant alstromeria better in spring. Capacity should be several centimeters wider than the dimensions of the root system. The procedure should be done very carefully not to damage the roots.
Diseases and pests
Culture can hit fungal infection. Typically, this happens with excess watering. The most common inconsistencies – root rot and phytoofluorosis. In the first case, foliage begins to yellow. You can also notice rotting at the base of the stem. In the second case, foliage loses the complexion of color and swept.
In both situations, the processing of all parts of the flower (including the root system) fungicides is necessary. For this, the culture is digging. However, treatment can only help at the initial stage of the disease. If the situation is launched, the plant will have to destroy.
As for pests, there are several dangers for alstromeria. Presence Custom tick You can identify in bright spots and web on the green part of the plant. In case of such trouble, the flower is 3 times treated with acaricides. Between the procedures, the gap in the decade is observed.
TRIPS struggle with the help of the preparation. You can determine the presence of a problem by silver footprints on the foliage. Prevention attack Slug It is carried out by scattering around the flower crushed egg or wood bark.
Combination with other colors
Low varieties of culture are often used to decorate walking tracks, flower beds. The lowest varieties grown in the pots are carried in the garden for the summer period. They put them at rest sites, in open arbors. High alstromeries become a spectacular background for other blooming and just green crops.
In the Gardens, Alstromeria is often placed next to roses. Align these flowers and bouquets. They look luxurious together, emphasizing the advantages of each other. An expressive combination is obtained with chrysanthemums, gerberas, iris. Another successful partner for culture – Eustoma.
The combination of shades can be the most different. Mostly white color is combined with pink, red, purple, blue. Beautifully look at the combination of red and orange. Romantic bouquet can be made of pink and red colors.
About how to plant alstromeria in soil, look in the video below.
