You can make flower beds a beautiful and undemanding plant by mastering the cultivation of alissum from seeds. When to plant seedlings and how to care for them is described in the article. This flower has been little studied, but since ancient times its infusions and decoctions have been used in folk medicine. And the abundance of flowering makes it indispensable in the landscape design of a modern garden.

Description and description of Alissum

Alyssum or, as it is called in decorative floriculture, alissum is common in nature on the territory of the Eurasian and African continents. About 200 wild species are known, a fifth of them grow in the temperate climate of the post-Soviet space.

These are undersized grassy representatives of the flora with fleecy leaves and ground cover shoots. Small corollas of snow-white, yellow or purple color are collected in racemose inflorescences.

Description of some types:

  1. Alyssum of the sea or lobularia - annual spreading bushes up to 30 cm high. Small light purple or snow-white flowers with a pleasant smell look decorative due to their abundance. Flowering is long, from May to October. But if the summer is dry, it may stop (the modern classification classifies this species as another genus).
  2. A. creeping - a perennial flower about half a meter high with gray-greenish leaves with a rosette structure. Intense yellow corollas in elongated inflorescences bloom in late spring. Propagated by cuttings at the end of summer.
  3. A. Gmelina - perennial, developing up to 20 cm with lying stems, flowers are collected in brushes with yellow petals.Flowering occurs in April and May. Similar to this species, the alyssum is sinuous, Savranian, Lensky, calyx, rough.
  4. A. Pyrenees - perennial up to 20 cm in height with white flowers and oblong-round, fleshy leaves, pubescent silvery hairs. Flowering takes place in the summer, when white shields bloom.

Alyssum rocky is a perennial plant with a branched stem and bright yellow flowers, hemispherical bushes up to a quarter meter high, elongated leaves are collected in dense rosettes. It blooms in spring, sometimes repeatedly at the end of summer.

Alyssum marine has several cultural varieties: compact, variegated, Bentham, prostrate.

Popular varieties:

  • “Vice risan” - large white flowers are suitable for cutting;
  • "Violetkeningin" - a bush of no more than 15 cm with purple flowers;
  • "Capet of Choi" - snow-white flowers, very fragrant;
  • "Schneeteppih" - a bush up to 10 cm tall with snow-white flowers;
  • “Rosie O Day” - juicy pink corollas;
  • "Tetra Schneetriben" - snow-white flowers;
  • "Ester Deep Rose" - deep pink corollas;
  • "Ester Bonet Pink" - lilac-pink flowers;
  • "New Apricot" - corollas of a pale apricot color;
  • "Selmun" - salmon-pink flowers;
  • "Secret Time" - a dwarf variety with lush white inflorescences.

“Palletta” is an unusual variety of lobularia, which is characterized by a rich palette of colors: snow-white, pink of various shades, lilac, rich red, raspberry.

Growing plants from seeds

In early February, alissum is sown in a prepared soil mixture of peat, vermicompost, sand and chernozem taken in equal parts. It’s even easier to use a purchased universal substrate or add it to self-prepared soil.

Growing seedlings from seeds:

  1. Seeds are laid out at a distance of 1 cm from each other in small grooves.
  2. Then sprinkled with a millimeter layer of sand and watered, spraying the surface of the soil from the spray gun.
  3. After thorough watering, cover the container with film or glass and place it in a warm place with an air temperature of 22 to 25 ° C.
  4. When young shoots appear, they remove the film and begin to highlight during the first week around the clock.
  5. After the emergence of sprouts, the air temperature must be reduced to 18-20 ° C, remove the shelter.
  6. Approximately 20-30 days after sowing the seeds, the grown shoots dive into separate small containers for further development.
  7. A week after the picking, feeding with complex preparations is carried out (25 g of nitroammophoska per bucket of water).

Do not pinch the seedlings, continue to water and feed with complex fertilizers with a high phosphorus content - 1 time in 2 weeks. After about 2.5 months from the moment of sowing in seedlings, lush, flowering alissum bushes will be ready for planting in the open ground.

How and when to plant flowers in the garden

For sowing seeds or transplanting seedlings, choose a well-sunlit area with neutral or slightly alkaline soil, rich in calcium.

The planting of alissum seedlings on a flower bed begins on the May holidays. Seeds can be sown in open ground in early May, slightly pressing them with your hand. Deepening alissum seeds is not recommended: for seedlings to appear, they need light.

Wells for seedlings are made at a distance of 25-30 cm. If the planting is too thick, the risk of developing fungal diseases increases.

Seedlings are moved to open ground by the method of transshipment without disturbing the earthen lump. If the soil in the clay section is placed on the bottom of each hole, drainage from pebbles so that the water does not stagnate at the roots: the alyssum does not like this.

Young plants are watered and shaded for several days from the bright sun. 2 weeks after planting, they are fed with complex mineral fertilizer on wet soil. For better branching of the stems, the tops of the seedlings are cut or pinched.

Outdoor Care

Seedlings and young plants grown from seeds that have just been planted on a flowerbed need special care.Leaving consists in weeding, loosening the soil, watering and top dressing.

When the bushes grow, forming a continuous green carpet on the flower bed, there will be no need for weeding and loosening.

Fertilizers containing nitrogen are applied only until mid-summer. In dry weather, watered to maintain flowering, 1-2 times a week.

Withered inflorescences are cut off and seeds are collected in autumn from plants left for propagation. Alyssum can easily propagate by self-sowing. And in the spring, the bushes grown out of place, are transplanted to a flower bed. Annual varieties, such as the Snow Carpet alissum, are grown through seedlings to enjoy continuous flowering longer.

Alyssum after flowering

To preserve the decorativeness of alissum for a long time after withering inflorescences, it is recommended to cut them by 5 cm. Rock alyssum is cut to 1/3 of the shoot height in early summer, when flowering ends.

Seeds are harvested from plants left for propagation after flowering. Do this in late September or early October.

Process description:

  1. Choose a dry, calm day.
  2. Under the bushes of flowers spread a piece of fabric.
  3. Inflorescences rubbed with your fingers, removing large debris.
  4. Dried and stored in a fabric bag.

The shelf life of collected seeds from the moment of collection is 3 years. They can be sown in open ground in late autumn or spring, after the snow melts.

Perennial wintering

Perennial alissum is not afraid of winter cold, it winters well in open ground without shelter.

Some species caught in the culture from the southern regions need additional protection before the onset of cold weather.

For example, the Pyrenees alissum suffers from excessive moisture in the winter. So that the flower does not get wet, it is covered with coniferous spruce branches or just fallen needles.

Methods of breeding Alyssum

Perennials are bred both generatively and vegetatively. Annuals are most often grown by seed through seedlings. The right time for dividing the bush and planting a flower in a new place is spring. It is advisable to do everything before flowering, in April.

Seedlings grown from seeds are transplanted to a flowerbed in May, when the threat of return frosts passes.

In autumn, you can sow seeds on frozen ground. Shoots will appear in early spring and will quickly grow.

Perennial species are cut in summer or autumn. Rooted shoots are rooted in a mixture of peat and sand, create increased humidity, covering with a film. When the seedlings take root, the shelter is removed, put in a bright, cool place, and in May they are planted in open ground.

Combination with other plants

The alyssum goes well in the flower bed with low ornamental crops and creeping ground cover plants. It beautifully shades bright expressive flowers and emphasizes the grace of simple grassy annuals.

Suitable neighbors for alissum are such herbaceous plants for open ground:

  • rezukha;
  • gentian;
  • awl-shaped phloxes;
  • stunted irises;
  • primrose
  • a grass
  • the small petel is beautiful;
  • alpine arabis;
  • Shave
  • liverwort;
  • Alpine forget-me-not;
  • pinnate carnation;
  • Carpathian bell;
  • stonecrops;
  • stumps.

Alyssum rocky, pleasing with spring yellow flowers, goes well with tulips and other bulbous crops. In the mixborder, summer-flowering species can be planted with a heicher, immortelle, thyme, geranium, sage, yellow cuff or bright incense.

Diseases and pests

The plant does not like high humidity.

With excessive watering or cold, damp weather, it can be affected by fungal ailments:

  • powdery mildew;
  • gray rot;
  • Fusarium

For treatment and prevention use treatment with fungicides - "Fitosporin", "Fundazolum", colloidal sulfur, Bordeaux liquid.

Insect pests common to all cabbage:

  • cabbage moth;
  • cruciferous flea;
  • turnip whitewash.

Insecticides will help to get rid of them: Iskra, Aktara, Aktellik, etc. For prevention, it is advisable to spray the flower beds with perennials in early spring.

Alyssum for many years will perfectly decorate the landscape design of the garden, suitable for decorating rockeries and rock gardens, framing garden paths. This hardy perennial will delight you with beautiful flowering and wonderful aroma with a minimum investment of gardener labor.

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