We are used to seeing the original flower hearts of this plant in the flower beds, but it is also perfect for distillation in the room. If planting and caring for a broken heart are carried out correctly, in February, delicate flowers will decorate the windowsill.
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Types and varieties of plants
The birthplace of the flower is North America and the mountainous regions of Asia. In Europe, it appeared in the 18th century. It was described by the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus, and very quickly conquered flower growers with the decorativeness of carved leaves and the originality of flowers. Many wild species, and there are about 20 of them, gave rise to beautiful garden varieties. Most often in the culture you can meet the dicenter magnificent, beautiful, vagrant, excellent and climbing.
The dicenter is gorgeous.
It fully justifies its name with powerful bushes and abundant flowering, which occurs in late spring and early summer. It fills a gap between the flowering of spring onion and bright summers. If you cut off the faded inflorescences, the plant can please with repeated flowering in late summer - early autumn. The height of the bush in this species can reach 1.5 m, the flowers are large: pink, red and white.
The most interesting varieties:
- Valentine - has purple flowers, decorated with a white center;
- Pearl Drops, which means pearl drops. The variety blooms with delicate flowers of a creamy pink hue, the foliage has a beautiful bluish tint;
- Alba - a low bush with snow-white flowers;
- Gold Heart and White Gold.The common feature of these varieties is the yellow color of the leaves, brighter at the Golden Heart, it blooms with bright pink flowers, in the second grade the flowers are white.
The center is beautiful.
The bushes are more compact than that of the magnificent dicentres, and the flowers have an original elongated shape. Flowering in this species is longer - June-September.
The most decorative varieties:
- Spring Magic with unusual downy silver leaves and white flowers.
- Bacchanal is a true bacchanalia of raspberry flowers and gray-green leaves.
- King of Hearts with attractive and vibrant purple colors and beautiful carved green leaves with a bluish tint.
The wandering center or foreign.
It grows wild in the foothills of Altai and Tibet. It spreads on the ground and resembles a vine. In the conditions of the Russian climate, it cannot survive the winter, therefore it is grown as an annual. But the room has a chance to save the plant until next season. The most famous varieties: Rudolph with flowers of pastel pink color, Hien with purple-cherry, with a white border and Alba with white inflorescences.
Her bushes are compact, convenient for growing on a windowsill. Species forms are unstable and die quickly. Thanks to the work of Japanese breeders who crossed this species with an exceptional dicenter, more resistant hybrid varieties of Love hearts, Candy hearts, Dragon hearts were obtained.
The dicenter is excellent or exceptional.
It has a height of only 25 cm. It pleases with its bloom for almost the entire growing season - from May to frost. The color palette is limited to pink and white. The plant is frost-resistant and heat-resistant.
Climbing dicenter.
Liana climbing up to a height of 2 meters. Her leaves also have a form uncharacteristic for this flower: they are triple petiolar and not dissected. This species is sensitive to frost, therefore, in the conditions of our climate it is an annual, but it is well propagated by seeds. The most popular variety with yellow flowers is the Golden Vine.
All these plants are rhizome. There are tuberous dicentres: Hood, Canadian, low-flowered and single-flowered. Their tubers contain bicucullin poison, which is dangerous for humans and animals.
Broken Heart Flower: Growing Features
Wherever a flower is grown, in a flower garden or a room, for its comfortable existence it is necessary to observe certain conditions:
- loose, well-aerated and fertile soil;
- plot without stagnation of water or high-quality drainage in room culture;
- timely, but not excessive watering;
- half-shaded position;
- top dressing with organic or mineral fertilizers in accordance with the various stages of plant vegetation.
Soil preparation, timing and planting rules
Plants are planted in the garden both in autumn and spring. For room distillation, only autumn planting is suitable. We choose rhizome varieties so as not to endanger the poisoning of people and pets. For growing in the room, rhizomes are dug up after the end of the growing season, as evidenced by the browning and death of the leaves. Choose the strongest plant. Shake the ground off the rhizome and let it slightly fade. After 3-4 hours, it will be less brittle, and will not break apart when divided. The rhizome is divided into several parts with a length of at least 10 cm, on each of them there should be 2-3 sleeping kidneys.
Prepare the soil for planting by mixing the following components:
- 2 parts of garden land;
- 2 parts of sheet land;
- 1 part of sand.
For greater loosening of the soil and to prevent root rot, you can add a little charcoal to the mixture.
A large pot is needed - with a diameter of at least 30 cm. Drain from fine pebbles is laid on its bottom. Pour the planting mixture and plant 1-2 delenki in each container to a depth of about 12 cm.
Dicenter: home care
For a flower to rest before flowering, it needs a period of winter dormancy. By expelling plants in the room, this period is reduced by almost 3 months.Care during artificial winter and during the period of active vegetation is very different.
Optimal conditions
At rest, the plant does not require light. The temperature is maintained at a level of 1 to 3 degrees. In early January, they begin to raise it, preparing for awakening. They are placed in a bright room with a temperature of about 10 degrees. When sprouts appear, it is gradually increased to an optimal value of 20 degrees. It is necessary to keep the dicenter on a light windowsill, but without direct sunlight in the afternoon. In bright sunshine, the flowering period is much shorter.
Watering a flower
During winter dormancy, it is watered extremely rarely, only so that the roots do not completely dry out. With increasing temperature, watering is carried out regularly, stimulating germination. Dicentra loves moist soil, but does not tolerate stagnation of water, so you need to pour out excess water from the sump.
Fertilizer and fertilizer
As soon as the first sprouts appeared, they start feeding. They are carried out regularly with a frequency of 14 days. Any fertilizer mixture suitable for the proportion of flowering houseplants.
Loosening and weeding
As a rule, weeding in room conditions is not required, but loosening is mandatory. The roots of the dicentres are very sensitive to a lack of oxygen, so the soil is loosened loosely the day after each watering.
Transplant and pruning
When the flowering is completed, the plant is taken out into a cool dark room, where it is kept until warm. The flower can be planted in the garden or transplanted into a larger pot. On the balcony or loggia, he will feel fine until the fall, when he will again need to be sent for the winter.
During the growing season, dried leaves and faded flowers are removed. After flowering, all dried flower stalks are cut, leaving only small stumps.
How to care in autumn, winter?
After the end of the growing season, a flower is trimmed in the fall. In the open ground, the plants are mulched with peat, coniferous litter or pine lapnik. A pot center is not required. It is only necessary to minimize watering and completely remove fertilizing. After the growing season, flower pots are cleaned in a cold basement or cellar for wintering.
Reproduction dicentres
Varietal plants in our climate rarely set seeds, and they ripen even less often. Some species forms cope well with this and sometimes even propagate by self-sowing. If you are lucky and managed to collect your seeds or buy them in a store, it is advisable to sow them in the same season in the fall, so that they undergo a natural stratification.
Seeds of a broken heart lose their germination after 1-2 years.
When sown in late February in moderately moist soil, seedlings will appear after 3-4 weeks when kept on a lighted window sill and at a temperature of about 20 degrees. Young seedlings need a pick in the phase of 1-2 real leaflets. Plants are planted in the garden after the end of spring frosts. They will delight in flowering only in the third year.
But the main methods of reproduction are dividing bushes and cuttings.
Adult plants are usually divided after 3-4 years. This procedure is required when the bushes reach the age of five. In a too thickened plant, the central part of the roots begins to rot and after a year or two the unshared bush will simply die. The division is combined with a transplant, carried out either in the early spring or in the fall. You can just separate part of the plant. But it’s easier to separate the dug up plant. Then, on each dividend, there will be guaranteed from 3 to 4 shoots or sleeping buds and well-developed roots.
A broken heart is cutted only in the spring before flowering begins. To do this, cut off a young twig from the bush with a piece of rhizome and a root. The length of the handle is about 15 cm. It is rooted in a pot with light soil or in a shoot. After rooting, the plant is carefully planted in a permanent place.
The main problems when growing a flower
When distilling in a room, the main problems are associated with improper care.You can not overfill the flower, it is fraught with decay of the roots. With insufficient feeding, flowering will be sparse, and with too bright lighting - plentiful, but will quickly end.
Plant pests and diseases
The main pests of the dicentres - slugs and bears in indoor conditions do not annoy her. But aphids can appear in the process of forcing a flower. They are saved from it, arranging souls for the plant. It is problematic to wash the cut leaves with a soap solution, but it is quite possible to spray them with the infusion of onion husks, garlic or tobacco dust. If this measure has no effect, resort to the help of insecticides.
Of the diseases, the plant is most often affected by viruses and mycoplasmas. They cause ring spotting and tobacco mosaic. When affected by mycoplasma, the flowers acquire a green color. Unfortunately, in the case of these diseases, it will not work to help the flower - there are no radical ways to combat them. It is necessary to destroy aphids, which are carriers of infection.
