Delphinium (larkspur, fern) is a popular flower culture of the Ranunculaceae family.
Due to its spectacular bright inflorescences, the delphinium looks good as a long-range plant in group flower plantings.
In addition to its beauty, fern is very unpretentious in its care, drought-freezing and frost-resistant; it blooms again after pruning faded inflorescences.
Perennial delphinium: site selection, planting methods
How to choose a place to plant a dolphinium?
The dolphinium landing site should be well-lit, but with shading from direct sunlight at noon. On a site unprotected from the sun, the flowers of the delphinium will turn pale and lose their decorative effect. Due to the fact that the high shoots of the delphinium can easily be damaged by a strong wind (easily break off at the base), the place for planting it is chosen less blown and open: under the crown of trees or in the vicinity of shrubs, a fence, the wall of the house.
Larkspur grows well on loose fertilized soils. On light sandy loams, flowering will be paler and less abundant. On heavy clay patches, sand and humus must be added. Acid, waterlogged soils are not suitable for growing delphinium.
Dolphinium planting methods
The simplest methods for planting delphinium are planting delenki and cuttings.
Growing delphinium from seeds is a more time-consuming process, as with prolonged storage, seeds lose their germination capacity. This explains the low or even zero results when sowing purchased seeds. It is safer to use seed material of your own collection. However, it must be remembered that plants grown from seeds often do not retain the varietal characteristics of the mother plant (especially with regard to color gamut and terry).
Planting seeds in open ground
In open ground, seeds are sown in May or September (under the film). To do this, in the prepared soil on the bed, make small grooves and sow the seeds, sprinkling them with a thin (not more than 5 mm) layer of sand or earth. If the planting was made in the fall, then the seeds will undergo natural stratification and the percentage of germination will be higher. Shoots appear after 3-4 weeks.
Planting seeds for seedlings
At room conditions, seedlings are sown in March. The soil for this is taken loose and nutritious. After the seeds are distributed on it, they are sprinkled with a 3 mm layer of earth and compacted so that they do not come up during the first watering. Watering must be done carefully, preferably through a strainer.
After that, the planting bowl is covered with a dark film or other covering material, because the seeds of the delphinium better emerge in the dark.
Dolphinium crops must be covered with opaque material
The optimum temperature for germination is + 10-15C. To accelerate the emergence of seedlings, stratification (exposure to cold) can be carried out: a container with seeds is placed in a refrigerator or balcony for a week at a temperature of + 5C. After that, it is rearranged again on the windowsill. During this period, one must not forget to ventilate the crops, remove excess condensate from the film, and moisten the earth in time.
Shoots appear within 1-2 weeks. It is important not to miss this moment in order to remove the covering film. A pick is carried out in the presence of 1-2 real leaves. In open ground, seedlings are planted in late May - early June. Such plants will bloom in August.
Planting root rhizomes
For reproduction of the delphinium with rhizome, bushes 3-5 years old are used. Division is carried out early in spring before the start of active growth or in late August-early September after the end of the first wave of flowering. Rhizomes are divided into parts so that each of them has at least one growth bud. Slices are dusted with charcoal powder.
Divided Delphinium Bush
At the selected site, they dig holes of 50x40 cm. The excavated soil is mixed with humus and peat, and poured back. 50g of mineral fertilizers and a handful of wood ash are added to each hole. When planting, the root neck is left at ground level. After this, the plants are watered, weeds are regularly weeded and the soil is loosened. The distance between the bushes is planned based on the variety and type:
• 50-60 cm - for tall hybrid (height over 1.5m);
• 40-50 cm - for medium-sized (1.2-1.5 m);
• 30-40 cm - for undersized (0.8-1.2 m).
Planting cuttings
For cuttings, young shoots are used, reaching 10-15 cm in height. In spring, the cuttings are broken out together with the “heel” at the base of the plant and rooted in a mini-greenhouse at a temperature of + 25 ° C and bright diffused lighting. After the cuttings are rooted (about 3-4 weeks), they are planted in open ground.
Perennial delphinium: care
Delphinium is unpretentious in the care and cultivation. Care for it is watering, weeding, early thinning, fertilizing and tying.
Watering
The delphinium is quite drought-resistant and does not like excess moisture, however, during the formation of inflorescences it must be watered abundantly so that not only the upper, but also deeper soil layers are saturated with moisture. Here we must act according to the rule: quality is better than quantity. It happens that with abundant watering and intense heat in the inflorescences, bald (without flowers) patches may appear. The use of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers during budding will help minimize such manifestations.
Thinning and trimming
In the second year of vegetation, the delphinium gives a lot of growth, therefore, so that it blooms profusely with large flowers, it is necessary to thin out the bush of the plant. This is done in spring when the stems reach 20-40 cm. 5-10 (depending on the variety) strong shoots are left in the bush. For better air circulation, unproductive stems in the inner part of the bush are primarily removed.
Instead of thinning in the fall, you can cut off extra growth buds. As a result of this procedure, nutrition in the spring will go to the remaining kidneys, which will develop at an accelerated pace. If the shoots are removed with the heel (a piece of rhizome), then they can be used as cuttings for the reproduction of larkspur.
In order not to stimulate the growth of new shoots this year and thereby not weaken the plant before wintering, in the summer, inflorescences on the shoots are cut off as they bloom. In the autumn, after the plant fades and the leaves dry, the stems are cut completely at a height of 30 cm from the ground. If you cut them shorter, then the likelihood of rotting of the roots increases - the stalks of the delphinium have a hollow structure and after pruning in the spring, melt water flows easily to the rhizome. To prevent this, experienced gardeners cover the top of the cut with clay.
Garter
The delphinium has its own Achilles heel - this is the junction of the stem and rhizome, which easily breaks with a strong wind. Therefore, as they grow, the bush is tied in 2 places: at a height of 0.4-0.5 m and 1-1.2 m. Varieties with heavy inflorescences are also tied in the middle part (0.7-0.8 m).
As a support, rings on racks are well suited.
Wintering
Delphiniums easily tolerate winter, keeping frosts under snow to -40 ° C. The alternation of thaws and frosts has a detrimental effect on this culture - its root system is located close to the surface of the earth and easily vypryvaet. In the absence of snow cover, dolphinium bushes can be covered with spruce branches.
Perennial delphinium: top dressing
Over the entire growing season, delphiniums feed three times.
The first dressing is carried out in early spring, when the shoots reached 15-20 cm in height: 1 sq.m. it will take 10-15 g of ammonium nitrate, 20-30 g of potassium chloride and 30-40 g of ammonium sulfate. Fertilizers are mixed and scattered around the bushes of the delphinium. Instead of these fertilizers, you can use mullein infusion (1:10) as a source of nitrogen - 1 bucket per 5 adult bushes. When forming buds, plants need potassium, but the nitrogen content should be reduced.
With the second top dressing per 1 sq. m of soil, doses of superphosphate and potassium are doubled compared to the first application. For the third time (at the end or after flowering), only phosphorus-potassium fertilizers with trace elements without nitrogen are applied under the fern bushes.
Perennial delphinium: pests and diseases
Delphiniums are particularly affected by various diseases under adverse weather conditions: prolonged rains, prolonged drought. Therefore, the fight against pests and pathogens begins at the first sign of their appearance.
The prevalence palm is powdery mildew. It progresses rapidly with increased humidity and low air temperatures. Its signs are a powdery whitish coating on the leaves, which subsequently turns brown. To combat this disease, spraying plants with fungicidal preparations (copper sulfate, colloidal sulfur, Fundazole, Profit Gold, Topaz, Fitosporin-M) is used.
Another common disease of fungal etiology is ramularis. It is characterized by the appearance of a large number of brown spots on the leaves of the delphinium.
The manifestation of ramulariosis on the leaves of delphinium
With the further development of the disease, the spots become light gray with a dark rim along the edges and merge, forming extensive necrotic areas on the foliage. As a result, the leaves die prematurely, the plant is inhibited. The pathogen spores winter on plant debris, so they must be collected and burned.
If various black spots appeared on the fern bushes, then these are signs of a bacterial disease - black spotting. Spots form first on the lower tiers of the leaves, gradually "rising" up the plant. At the same time, the stalks of larkiness turn brown and dry.
Black spotting on the lower leaves of the delphinium
Early treatment will save the plant. It is sprayed three times with copper-containing preparations: Oksikhom, Bordeaux liquid, Previkur, Fundazol, Topaz. Between treatments, the ground under the bushes can be shed with Fitosporin-M solution, and the ground part of the plant with Baikal-M.
Of the viral diseases at the delphinium is often found ring spottingthat looks like yellowish spots in the shape of irregular rings. Leaves become chlorotic.
Delphinium leaf-stained
This disease is not amenable to treatment, so the diseased plant is removed and burned. The carrier of ring spotting is the aphid. To combat it, insecticides are used (Spark, Fitoverm, Intavir, karbofos, biotlin, etc.).
Another malicious pest of this culture is delphinium flythat lays eggs in buds. Hatching, the larvae spoil the flowers, eating stamens and pestles. Damaged flowers prematurely crumble and do not bear fruit.
As a result of parasitism delphinium (fern) tick Swelling appears on the leaves of the plant, they are deformed and die. The delphinium takes on a “curly” appearance, no inflorescences are formed on it, growth stops.
Seedlings and juicy young shoots of a dolphinium are badly damaged slugs and snails. To combat them, traps are used, mechanical barriers are arranged around the beds, granular metaldehyde is used from chemical preparations.
