Beautiful and useful echinacea. Planting and care

Echinacea is an amazing plant that has come to Europe from North America. It hides a huge healing power, it is widely used in folk medicine, and in pharmacology, besides highly decorative, has a modest and unpretentious character in dealing with amateur gardeners, has long lived in one place, healing the sores of the soul and body. This is echinacea. Planting and caring for her have long been known as not causing trouble. In the cuts of its magnificent flowers are fragrant to the whole house and do not wilt for a long time, for which not only gardeners love it. The appearance of Echinacea purpurea was introduced into culture in the seventeenth century. First there was an error in the definition, but after forty years it was described as a separate genus. The name comes from the "hedgehog" tsvetoholozha, Echinacea in translation from Greek - "thorn".

Appearance

Perennial herbaceous and a half-meter plant with beautiful large flowers, reminiscent of chamomile, on straight and long rough stems. The multi-headed, powerfully branched rhizome is edible, scalding to taste. Flowering from July to September - two months. Fruitless tubular flowers, between which sit prickly bracts. In oblong faceted seeds, up to three thousand small seeds. This is, at first glance, a remarkable echinacea.

Planting and care

Due to its decorativeness Echinacea occupies the most prominent place in the garden: in separate groups on lawns, shading less tall perennials, and near trees, emphasizing their height. Large flowers, wonderful color and a pleasant aroma - what other requirements can you show to a garden plant? All this has enough echinocery. Planting and care, too, do not bring horticulturists special trouble. The most convenient culture for growing! Breeders derived varieties with color, non-traditional for Echinacea: in addition to the usual pink and crimson, now you can grow and orange, and yellow, and white flowers. Some varieties with a particularly fragrant flavor. To maintain a healthy and decorative appearance, and to prolong the flowering time of the bush, you must necessarily cut faded and withered flowers, and after the day's heat, spray the water completely with water. Much more flowers will thank echinacea. The photo shows the generous splendor of this plant. And if you do not remove the lateral processes from the faded central inflorescence, they will have a different coloration of the petals, as in the picture.

Reproduction

There are two types of reproduction of Echinacea: seeds or vegetatively. Rhizome is divided in early spring or late autumn. Seeds take a long time - forty days. And here it requires quite a lot of moisture and heat echinacea. Landing and leaving (or rather, the difficulty of leaving) only in this and are. It is better to sow the seeds in a greenhouse, and the seedlings already planted on a permanent place. To see the flowers Echinacea in the sowing year, you need to start work in February. Seeds are sown in a box with the earth a centimeter in depth, sprinkled with a thin layer of the same soil or sand, moisturize gently. The heat should not be - a maximum of thirteen degrees. By mid-May echinacea is already planted at will, in an open ground, on a sunny place. In watering you need to be moderate. This plant does not like a lot of water, and suffers from its lack. The sun and well-drained soil prefers echinacea. Planting and care include, as already said, the correct watering and lighting, and, naturally, you need to cover the flower garden for the winter in the northern regions. In other areas, it is already beautifully wintering. We need to protect echinacea from weeds, but with diseases and pests, she manages.