Delicate blue snowdrops are a decoration of the spring garden. Blue flowers can also be found in the forest, and for the flowerbed, breeders have bred a variety of varieties of white, pink, purple and blue. Some useful information about the types of sprouts and care for it, it will be interesting to learn for beginner gardeners.
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Description of species and varieties
The scilla or Scilla, as the blue snowdrops are called, blooms in the flowerbed immediately after the snow melts. It has a perennial root bulb and linear root leaves. Flowers solitary or collected in inflorescences. Plant height from 20 to 30 cm. There are about 80 varieties.
The most famous types of forest species:
- Vinogradov;
- Spanish
- Chinese
- sea;
- autumn;
- Siberian
- Violet
- Bukhara;
- double leaf;
- Italian
- Litardier;
- single-flowered.
The blue flowers familiar to the Russian man’s eye, similar to snowdrops with six petals, are a Siberian scrub. Popular varieties in the culture are Spring Beauty (dark purple) and Alba (white).
Landing Scylla in the open ground
For a scrub, choose a half-shaded or sunny place. It is advisable to add organic fertilizer to the land for planting, for example, rotted compost. Flowers grow well, so it is advisable to give them enough space in the flowerbed.
If plants with leaves and flowers are planted on a plot in spring, they need to be buried to the level that they previously grew in the ground, this can be seen by the light color of the stem. It is better to remove all peduncles in such sparses, compact the ground and water well.
Scylla bulbs in autumn should be planted no later than October.
When planting only the bulbs, without the aerial parts, they are buried to the depth of three bulbs placed one on top of the other.
In the prepared hole, humus is poured into the bottom, watered with water, and the bulbs are planted at a distance of 10–20 cm. They are covered with soil on top, compacted, and watered.
Care for blue snowdrops in the garden
Scilla - unpretentious plant, tolerates winter well. Even snow is not afraid of leaves and flowers breaking through in the winter. But in open areas, flowers need light shelter for the winter. As a shelter, leaf humus or oak leaves can be used.. At the end of February, part of the shelter is carefully cleaned.
Top dressing with fertilizers containing potassium and nitrogen in early spring contribute to the abundant flowering of the Scylla. In a dry spring, you can not forget about watering. After watering, it is advisable to loosen the soil and mulch with deciduous humus.
Scylla after flowering
After flowering, seeds are set that are easily propagated by self-sowing. When growing on a flower bed, you need to remember about this property of the sprout, and remove the testes in time, preventing the plants from growing uncontrollably.
The aboveground part dies in the spring, so it is advisable that next to the spills on the flower bed grow other perennial or annual flowers that will protect the bulbs from overheating. The dried leaves of the scilla are carefully cut and removed from the flower garden, the soil for prevention is watered with any fungicide or sprinkled with wood ash.
Scilla: breeding methods
Blueberries spawn onions and seeds. During the growing season, an adult bulb grows 2 children, which can be dressed and planted in the fall.
Blue snowdrops are planted every three years. The bulbs are covered with a thin husk, so storing them without soil for a long time is undesirable.
When propagated by seeds, sow in the soil immediately after harvest. Plants grown in this way bloom only for 3 or 4 years of cultivation.
Pest and Disease Control
Snowdrops do not tolerate stagnation of water.
High humidity contributes to the development of most diseases:
- Bulb Rot - caused by pathogenic fungi. Leaves turn yellow at the base. Infected bulbs are not stored. For prophylaxis during the growing season, plants are sprayed with fungicides containing copper, the bulbs are kept in a potassium permanganate solution before planting.
- Achenheloides - ring rot is visible on a section of affected bulbs. Sick plants are dug up and destroyed.
- Gray rot - the leaf plate and the upper part of the bulb is covered with a gray fluff, and soon they rot, the plants turn yellow and die. Sick spills are destroyed, the land is treated with wood ash.
Pests can damage the scilla:
- Root Onion Mite - penetrates into the bulbs, causing rot. For prophylaxis, bulbs are treated with acaricides before planting.
- Mice - In early spring, young shoots are eaten together with bulbs. To combat them, protective grooves are built around the flower beds, laying poison from rodents there.
The scilla, as the first messenger of spring, pleases with flowering. Knowing what difficulties one may encounter, it is not difficult to grow this plant.
