It seems like someone in the garden has spread a white lace coverlet, fragrant with a honey aroma. So blooms alissum "Snow carpet". This plant is easy to care for, but requires compliance with the growing rules described in the article.
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Characteristic and description of perennial
Alyssum maritime or lobularia is a groundcover annual, this is the variety Carpet of Snow. The height of the shoots is from 8 to 15 cm, dense hemispherical inflorescences consist of white small flowers with a yellow center. From the end of June to the beginning of frosts, plants are densely covered with flowers so that bright green small leaves are almost invisible.
Flowers have a pleasant honey aroma, attracting beautiful butterflies and bees to the garden. Beekeepers grow alissum as a honey plant. This plant has long been used in folk medicine, as evidenced even by its name.
Translated from Greek, “a” - denial, “alissum” - canine rabies. Our ancestors knew a potion recipe that helped heal rabies. Modern phytotherapists use the plant as a diuretic and diaphoretic to strengthen immunity, cosmetic procedures that remove stains and freckles on the skin.
Seed cultivation
Alissum seeds can be sown in a container with light fertile soil in mid-April. In about a week, friendly shoots will appear. When the seedlings grow 2 true leaves, you need to dive into a large container, deepening the sprouts to cotyledonous leaves. Then the seedlings are placed on a sunny windowsill and watered as necessary.
Young plants are planted in open ground at the end of May.Alissum is watered in advance so that it is more convenient to remove from the seedling box and transplant it into the open ground.
Seedlings are placed on the flowerbed, maintaining a distance of about 20 cm. After planting, watered. Further care is simple: it consists in weeding, loosening, watering. When the alissum grows with a continuous carpet, weeding is not needed.
Outdoor Care
The flower responds well to soil moisture. It is advisable to water it regularly in dry weather. This can be done by sprinkling in the evening, before sunset. In wet, cold weather, it is better to refrain from watering.
During the season, “Snow Carpet” is fed with complex mineral fertilizer 2 times - in spring and summer, before the appearance of flowers. If you do this more often, abundant flowering can not wait.
Planting alissum in open ground seedlings is carried out in May. Sometimes the bushes bloom already in seedlings, and soon after being placed on the flowerbed, they grow rapidly, forming a continuous flowering carpet.
Flower propagation methods
Alyssum (alyssum) can propagate by seed or vegetatively. The annual grade "Snow Carpet" is most often propagated in the first way. When buying seeds, it is important to look at the bundle of producer information on how tall an adult plant will be. It is desirable that it was about 10 cm, then you get beautiful, compact bushes.
For vegetative propagation, cuttings cut in autumn are used. They are rooted in clean water or a loose substrate of sand and peat. So that in winter the plants do not stretch out, they are kept in a cool room, illuminated with phytolamps. In the spring, they begin to temper, taking them to fresh air, cut off the tops so that the bushes do not overgrow. However, it is difficult to maintain the compactness of plants with this method; it is better to grow new seedlings from seeds in a container with loose soil.
Alyssum after flowering
After flowering, it is advisable to collect plant seeds in order to sow seedlings next year. It is convenient to do this by spreading fabric under the faded bushes and shaking off the ripened seed pods on it. You can sprinkle seeds directly on the flowerbed in November, when the ground freezes, then seedlings will appear not in autumn, but in early spring. Some gardeners allow the Snow Carpet seeds to propagate by self-sowing. Then last year's dry stems are cut off in late autumn or spring, and in their place shoots of young plants from crumbled seed appear.
Pests and diseases
Provoke the development of fungal diseases can excessive wetting of the flowerbed. Most often there is late blight, it can be recognized by brown spots on the leaves and rotting of the root system. Heavily affected plants must be dug up and destroyed, the rest treated with copper-containing preparations - Ordan or Thanos fungicides.
Powdery mildew appears on leaves and flowers in the form of white powdery coating in wet weather, with a thickened planting. The pathogenic fungus is destroyed by Bordeaux liquid or Topaz, Flint Star fungicides.
The plant attracts pests characteristic of the cabbage family - cruciferous flea, cabbage moth, whites and caterpillars. In the fight against them, traditional methods or insecticides Fitoverm, Aktaru are used. The spark. Home remedies can be used if there are few pests. For example, cruciferous fleas are afraid of pungent odors. Therefore, the infected flower garden is sprayed with soapy water with the addition of vinegar (100 grams per 10 liters of water), infusion of chamomile, tobacco, garlic.
Use in landscape design
Alyssum is unpretentious, even a beginner can grow it. This is a wonderful border plant with a pleasant honey aroma and abundant flowering. "Snow carpet" can be grown not only in flower beds and flower beds, but also on balconies and verandas. It grows remarkably in hanging flower pots, balcony drawers and ordinary flower pots.
The snow-white cover of the alissum blooming in the summer will beautifully tint the larger, bright flowers in the flowerbed.It can be planted along garden paths, around ornamental shrubs and trees in the garden. Flowers will decorate multi-level flower beds and street stone flowerpots, in a large flower garden they will be appropriate in the foreground.
Growing alissum is a fascinating activity. An unpretentious plant can transform a boring garden, filling it with honey aroma and airy clouds of white flowers.
