These flowers are truly "folk." They can be seen in almost every area. Tall and very small, red, yellow and orange “suns” unusually adorn the flower garden. And it is not difficult to grow marigolds.
So, marigolds - planting and care in the open ground.
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Types and varieties of flowers
Today, flower growers can acquire dozens of varieties of marigolds.
According to the structure of inflorescences, they are divided into simple, semi-double and double varieties.
But more often marigolds for planting are selected by their size:
- Giant - up to 130 cm.
- High - up to 90 cm.
- Medium - up to 50 cm.
- Undersized - up to 40 cm.
- Dwarf - up to 15 cm.
Lovers stop at a particular variety, depending on where they plan to grow flowers. For example, only undersized and dwarf ones are suitable for balconies. And the giant marigolds planted in the middle of the flowerbed will become her pride and main decoration.
Marigolds are also divided into erect, deviated and thin-leaved.
Upright - annuals, can grow more than 1 m in height, flowers - plain, from yellow to orange shades. The most famous variety is Kilimanjaro.
Rejected - got a name because of their shoots. Lush bushes with small flowers. The most favorite variety by summer residents is Marigold Antoshka.
Thin-leaved - rarely are above 40 cm, the flowers resemble daisies, the decoration is thin carved leaves. A popular variety is Gnome.
How to breed marigolds?
Most often, summer residents buy bags with seeds of certain varieties. Less commonly use seeds collected on their own.
Sowing seeds in the ground
If you live in a fairly warm area, where at the end of spring shoots will not be threatened with frost, you can plant marigolds from April 20 to May 15. Then after about two months you will admire their flowering.
In preparation for planting, it is advisable to germinate the seeds. Take a separate saucer for each variety, put a clean rag there, pour seeds on it and pour a little water at room temperature. Each saucer is placed in a plastic bag and placed in a warm place - for example, on a windowsill near the battery. After 3-4 days, the seeds can be planted.
It must be remembered that each seed will turn into a bush, so when planting you need to observe the desired distance between future flowers.
Then the land in the garden is leveled and watered. When shoots appear - see if they are too close to each other. Thin sprouts if necessary.
Planting seeds for seedlings
Since the warm season in Russia is relatively short, it is preferable to grow marigold seedlings. Usually, flower growers who do this buy ready-made soil at Nature stores. But you can compose it yourself. To do this, take the land, you can forest, peat and some river sand. In this case, in order to disinfect, the soil is calcined in a plate on a baking sheet or watered with a potassium permanganate solution.
It is recommended to put a little drainage in the box so that the moisture does not stagnate and does not harm the roots of marigolds. Expanded clay, polystyrene, just pebbles will do.
Soil is poured on top, grooves are made - if there are no special tools, you can use a stick, a pencil. Seeds are planted at a distance of about 3 cm from each other.
The soil should be moist, watering should be done carefully so as not to wash the seeds from the ground. The container should be located in a well-lit place, but not in drafts.
A few days later, when the shoots appear, the box is periodically turned to the window on one side or the other. They do this so that the plants do not stretch in one direction to the light, do not bend.
Seedlings dive when 3 leaves appear. It is recommended to land on the garden in the last decade of May.
Outdoor Marigold Planting
This is the most crucial moment in growing flowers. You need to determine a suitable place, prepare a bed, grow or acquire strong healthy seedlings.
Selection of planting material
If you are going to grow seedlings yourself, remember that you need to sow seeds at different times. The tall marigolds are the first to plant - in March, in April the turn of undersized varieties comes.
When buying marigold seedlings in a store or in the market, carefully examine it - are the plants healthy, do they look strong? It is better when each plant is planted in a separate container - so there is less risk of injuring the roots when planting.
Soil preparation and site selection
It is advisable to enrich the soil before planting - dig a bed, adding peat, humus, river sand, and mineral fertilizers there.
The distance between the seedlings will depend on the type of marigold. Tall ones need space: plants should be separated by 40 cm from each other, for dwarf marigolds this distance is halved.
At the bottom of the holes, it is advisable to put a little drainage, and then plant the plants. After planting for a couple of weeks, marigolds need regular watering.
Outdoor Marigold Care
Caring for these flowers is easy. It consists in watering, loosening, weeding and periodic top dressing.
Watering and feeding
During the growth period, marigolds need regular watering, with the beginning of flowering, watering can be less common.
It is advisable to use not a hose, but a watering can, and water in advance to defend in the tank so that it warms up. The best time for watering is the evening when the sun is approaching sunset.
If the summer is rainy, drainage will help prevent root decay.
In the case when the bed is prepared according to all the rules, additional dressings can be omitted. Want to pamper a plant, achieve lush flowering? Use any fertilizer other than manure. Add fertilizing 2-3 times before flowering, that is, during the period of active growth of the plant. The best option is to use complex fertilizers.
Loosening and trimming
Marigolds hate when the earth is crusted. It is necessary to provide air access to the roots. This can be achieved with regular cultivation. This must be done carefully so as not to damage the root system. It is also important to remove weeds.
To make the bushes look more beautiful, fading flowers of marigolds are periodically pruned. Then new buds will appear, the general flowering will intensify.
How to collect seeds?
Most often this situation arises. You purchased marigold seeds of a particular variety. In summer, the plants bloomed, and you liked it very much. I would like to decorate the flowerbed with such flowers next year.
There is nothing easier. Wait for the marigolds to bloom and collect the seeds. You can store them throughout the winter in paper bags.
But since most marigolds are hybrids, flowers that bloom next summer may be slightly different from mother plants.
Diseases and pests of tagetes
Marigolds are strong and healthy plants in many respects due to their smell.
Most often, flowers are threatened by:
- Slug. Especially a lot of them happen if the summer is rainy. With a small number of pests, they can be collected manually. If the attack is massive, a drug like Thunderstorm will help.
- Spider mite. To combat it, you can purchase special preparations in the Nature store. According to popular recipes - use onions, yarrow - prepare solutions and spray flowers.
- Gray rot. Occurs in violation of irrigation rules. It is better to immediately remove the affected plant from the garden - otherwise other flowers will fall ill and die.
With proper care, marigolds, as a rule, do not get sick.
The use of marigolds in landscape design
Bright unpretentious marigolds will decorate any site and will long delight the owners with abundant flowering.
Marigolds are planted depending on their size. For example, tall ones can be placed in the center of the flower garden, and stunted ones will be an excellent setting for a flower bed or garden path.
Another option is to take a place for marigolds right on the garden beds. Firstly, beds with vegetables will begin to look much more beautiful. Secondly, the smell of these flowers repels many pests. So, without the use of chemicals, you will protect the future crop.
Dwarf and stunted marigolds can be planted in containers on balconies.
Marigolds are good because they will never disappoint a grower. Almost any soil, minimal care - and all the same, colorful elegant flowers blooming, pleasing to the eye.
