An unpretentious plant soap dish from the clove family is often found in the literature under the name “moon dust” or “saponaria”. In household plots, a grassy, ​​flowering culture is grown as a decorative representative of the flora.

Description of varieties

Mylnyanka up to 1 m high is represented by herbaceous plants with highly branched shoots, covered with narrowed, oblong green leaves. The root system is branched and rich in saponins, with the shaking of which foam is formed. Due to the high content of such compounds, the root of saponaria is a natural substitute for soap.

In culture, there are about 9 species of soapwort, among which are especially popular:

  • Mylnyanka officinalis is a perennial plant with a height of 1 m. Thanks to branched shoots covered with elongated leaves, airy, sprawling bushes grow on the flower beds. During the flowering period, which occurs in July - August, small flowers of white or pinkish flowers with a pleasant aroma bloom.
  • Mylianca vulgaris is a herbaceous plant whose height varies from 30 to 90 cm. It is represented by lowered, bare shoots and a branched root system. The aroma of small flowers intensifies with the sunset.
  • Basil-leaf Mylianca is a stunted perennial plant whose height does not exceed 30 cm. The natural habitat extends to the highlands of the Alps and the islands of Corsica, Sardinia. Compact bushes are distinguished by elegant, woven shoots and abundant flowering, in which pink or reddish inflorescences are noted.

Optimal conditions for growing

Mylnianka is an unpretentious plant that tolerates frosts pretty well.

To ensure the lush flowering of a flowering culture, it is necessary to create optimal conditions that are close to natural:

  • The soil. Mylnianka grows well on loose, calcareous, infertile soils rich in calcium. When preparing the soil, bone meal can be added to maintain the decorativeness of the culture.
  • Lighting and location. In order for the bushes to grow rapidly, for the saponaria, you should choose sunny or slightly shaded areas of the garden.

Planting soap dishes in open ground

At the end of May, when the threat of freezing frost passes, you can plant stronger and hardened seedlings in the flowerbed or in the front garden. On the site, small holes are prepared with a distance of 25-30 cm, where a little sand and bone meal are added. After planting seedlings, the beds are watered.

How to care for a plant

Caring for a saponaria is very simple and consists in following standard procedures.

  1. Watering. Mylnianka is a drought tolerant plant. Water the crop should be moderate, avoiding overflow and stagnation of moisture. If winter was snowy, and spring with a lot of rainfall, then additional watering is carried out only 1 time per summer season in conditions of severe drought. Caution! In systematic bays, the soapwort root can rot.
  2. Soil treatment. Systematically, beds should be loosened to ensure breathability of the soil, and weed to maintain cleanliness. Since the soap dish in the natural environment prefers stony soils, it is possible to cover the beds with gravel or small gravel, which will make it possible to preserve the looseness of the soil structure and prevent the intensive growth of weeds.
  3. Fertilizing and fertilizing. A culture that develops well on scarce soils does not need additional nutrition. If desired, phosphorus and potassium can be added under the bushes during flowering, which stimulate prolonged flowering and strengthen the plant's immunity.
  4. Pruning. After flowering is complete, in order to maintain the neat shape of the bushes, it is necessary to shorten the shoots by ⅓ of the length.
  5. Preparing for the winter. A frost-resistant culture does not need shelter. In very wet winters, soapwort can vypryvat. But because of the large number of seeds that disperse on their own, with the establishment of stable spring heat, new shoots appear.

Disease and Pest Prevention

Saponaria is resistant to pests and diseases.

However, during the intense summer of the net garden scoop, egg laying and subsequent feeding of butterfly caterpillars can be observed on the shoots. To cope with the pest, it is necessary to timely process the plantings with the appropriate preparation according to the manufacturer's instructions indicated on the package.

Of the diseases in the soap dish, gray rot and spotting can develop, which should be combated with fungicides.

As a preventive measure, it is recommended to timely remove fallen leaves from the beds in the autumn and to carry out preventive spraying of the soapwort bushes in the second half of spring with a tank mixture, including insecticide and fungicide.

Plant propagation methods

For greater reliability and effectiveness, it is recommended to grow soapwort using seeds in a seedling manner.

To obtain high-quality planting material:

  1. In March, seeds are distributed over the prepared substrate, prepared from peat and sand, previously disinfected in the oven by 20 minutes of calcination.
  2. The container is covered with glass or plastic film, which should be removed after emergence.
  3. When the seedlings develop 2 pairs of true leaves, the seedlings dive into separate cups, in which they are quenched before planting at a constant place of growth.

In addition to the seed method of reproduction, the soap dish plant is also bred by vegetative methods.

The cuttings are carried out in spring or summer before flowering as follows:

  1. Cuttings with 3 internodes are cut from apical shoots.
  2. The lower leaves are removed, after which the planting material is buried in the sand.
  3. Cuttings before rooting are contained under a film or caps from plastic bottles, which are periodically removed for ventilation.
  4. Rooted plants are planted in open ground.

If there are mature, well-grown bushes on the site, then you can divide the bush.

To do this:

  1. Remove the soap box from the ground.
  2. Then divide the root into delenki, each of which is immediately planted in prepared wells.
  3. To provide new plants with the necessary calcium, a little bone meal should be added to each planting hole.

Useful and healing properties of soap dish

Such types of soap dishes, like ordinary and medicinal, contain many useful substances, due to which they are often used in the treatment of diseases:

  • kidney and urinary system;
  • respiratory tract;
  • skin
  • associated with metabolic disorders;
  • spleen and liver.

Due to the high content of saponins, the root of the plant is used in soap making.

Thus, the soap dish, aka saponaria, is a spectacular decorative culture that combines unpretentiousness, grace and utility.

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