Carnation alpine planting and care. Growing carnation alpine from seeds. Alpine clove diseases

The special charm of flower beds and compositions is given by low-growing flowering plants. Their small bushes, completely strewn with small inflorescences, immediately attract the eye. Take at least the alpine carnation - unlike its larger relatives, it has a compact size and a very docile nature, since it can grow even on poor soils.

What does the plant look like?

Alpine carnation grows in the form of round bushes, consisting of thin stems no more than 25 cm high. They have narrow thin leaves of gray-green color. With the onset of summer, the bushes are covered with small, but very fragrant and beautiful inflorescences up to 4 cm in diameter. They are formed by five serrated petals, slightly corrugated. The plant blooms profusely until August, but even at the end of summer you can see flowers on the bushes, however, already in a single amount. The color of carnations can be very diverse: from snow-white to rich purple.

The root system of a carnation is a long rod that grows laterally. It accumulates nutrients and “feeds” the aerial part of the bush, thanks to which it quickly turns into a large, up to 50 cm in diameter, grass cushion.

After the end of flowering, elongated seed pods form in place of the inflorescences. When they are fully ripe, they open four flaps at the top, and round seeds spill out of them onto the ground. So perennial alpine and reproduces without the participation of a grower. As for the mother bush, its life span is relatively short and does not exceed 4 years.

Wild species of alpine carnation grow freely on limestone rocks among mountain slopes in the Alps, as well as in Austria, Italy and Slovenia. In garden floriculture, its hybrid varieties are most often used - they are more adapted to home cultivation.

Growing Features

The unpretentiousness of the alpine carnation is manifested by the lack of nutritional requirements for the soil, moreover, too “rich” land will only harm the plant, especially with an excess of organic matter. In such conditions, the bushes quickly grow old and endure winter worse.

The best soil for growing cloves is a rocky area mixed with neutral sandy soil.

The abundance of flowering depends on the place of planting. The plant should be planted on the sunny side of elevated areas, where there is a lot of light and moisture does not stagnate.

Alpine carnation care is simple and includes:

Watering as needed.
Weed removal.
Periodic top dressing with mineral preparations, but not more than three times per season.
Introduction before winter.
Pruning bushes after flowering.

The flower is propagated by seeds, cuttings or layering, but the first method is used most often.

Video about sowing alpine carnation seeds for seedlings

Alpine carnation is a low perennial plant with bright pink flowers. Representatives of the family fully justify their name, preferring to settle at an altitude of 1000-2000 meters. In the wild, they are found on the slopes of the eastern Alps, in the mountains of Slovenia and Austria. The natural form of the perennial is more demanding on growing conditions and does not tolerate cultivation, but the varieties and hybrids created on its basis feel great in the garden.

The homeland of the alpine carnation is the mountain slopes of the eastern Alps

Alpine carnation - description of the species

A bright green shrub 20–25 cm high with delicate flowers invariably attracts the attention of gardeners with grace and unpretentiousness. Thin, slender stems with narrow leaves form rather large cushion-shaped clumps that feel great in the extreme conditions of the temperate and northern latitudes of Russia.

The flowers of the alpine carnation are large, about 5 cm in diameter, with a characteristic, indented edge. They consist of five slightly corrugated petals of a bright pink hue with a purple base. The plant blooms from June to October, spreading a delicate aroma around and pleasing the eye with an abundance of colors.

This is interesting. Translated from Greek, carnation means "divine flower" and is considered a symbol of love and a happy marriage.

The root system of the alpine guest consists of a long tap root, which helps the plant to stay on rocky slopes, and many roots that supply water and nutrition. The life span of the flower is not too long. As a rule, it does not exceed 5 years.

In autumn, fruits appear on the carnation, resembling an oblong box with four teeth at the top. When ripe, they open, scattering small spherical seeds around the plant.

Alpine carnation varieties

In nature, alpine carnation is represented by shades of pink and red-carmine. The varieties and hybrids derived from it have a more diverse palette. In addition, they are much more stable and grow well in artificially created conditions.

So, which varieties are worth paying attention to:

Lawn Pink is a hardy perennial with pale lilac or pink flowers and greyish green leaves. Able to grow rapidly into rich curtains with a diameter of more than 50 cm;
Weiss (Weiss) - frost-resistant perennial with white, large flowers. A bush 20 cm high and half a meter wide is decorative from May to July. With good care, it can bloom again in August.
Ruby (Rubin) - buds are raspberry or pink-lilac (depending on the landing site). The height of an adult bush is 20–25 cm, diameter is 40–50 cm. It blooms from May to August;
Albus (Albus) - white-flowered, winter-hardy form. The height of the perennial is 15–25 cm, it grows up to half a meter in width. Blooms all summer.

Among flower growers, the alpine pink lawn carnation is most in demand. It is believed that it is not only decorative, but also unpretentious, reproduces well by seeds and blooms profusely in the first year after sowing.

Features of agricultural technology

Planting and caring for alpine carnation has some features. Since the plant came to us from mountainous areas, for better growth and development, it is necessary to create conditions for it that are close to natural.

The overseas guest prefers sunny, elevated areas with dry, stony soil, flavored with a small amount of humus. The best option would be a rock garden or a Japanese-style slide. When choosing a place, it should be borne in mind that an adult flower does not tolerate a transplant.

Advice. If there is no special area for growing alpine carnations on the site, you can build a small rocky elevation for it.

When planting, do not put humus or other organic fertilizer in the hole. A bush planted in nutrient soil will quickly grow and lose its decorative effect.

Reproduction of alpine carnation

The perennial reproduces in several ways, but the simplest and most convenient option is seed cultivation. At the same time, sowing is possible both for seedlings and directly into the ground. Only adult plants from the second year of life are propagated by cuttings and layering.

Growing alpine cloves from seeds

Sowing at home is carried out in February-early March. If you plant a plant later, there may not be flowering this year. The soil for cloves is prepared from ordinary garden soil, adding sand and ash to it. The main requirement is that the soil should be light and loose, with a neutral pH.

Work order:

The prepared mixture is mixed and poured into boxes.
The soil is compacted and spilled with warm water.
After 1.5–2 hours, grooves 1 cm deep are made in the moistened earth.
Seeds mixed with fine sand are placed in the pits and gently sprinkled with soil.

After the first shoots appear, the containers with seedlings are transferred to a bright windowsill with a daytime temperature of 20 ° C. In the evening, the seedlings are illuminated using special phytolamps or fluorescent lamps for this.

Watering the seedlings of the alpine guest requires minimal watering, otherwise there is a high probability of a black leg appearing. Especially often the disease develops in poor lighting and low temperatures.

Advice. In order for the seeds to sprout faster, the boxes are covered with foil and placed in a warm room with a constant temperature of 22–23 ° C.

In the phase of 1–2 true leaves, the seedlings dive, planting 2 plants in each cup. In the future, a weaker flower is simply removed. When 5–6 leaves appear, the carnation is pinched, thereby enhancing the growth of side shoots.

With the advent of warm, sunny days, the grown seedlings are taken out into the street for hardening. If possible, young plants are placed in a greenhouse, protected from night frosts with lutrasil. The bushes, strengthened in the sun and fresh air, will bloom much earlier than pampered home seedlings. The photo below shows an alpine carnation ready for planting in open ground.

The flower is planted in a permanent place in late May-early June, when the threat of night frosts has passed.

Sowing alpine carnation in the ground

If you don’t want to mess with seedlings or there is no place for her in the house, you can sow the alpine beauty immediately in open ground. The distribution bed is cleared of weeds, dug up and limed. In the third decade of May, they begin sowing.

Landing rules:

On the prepared site, grooves 0.5 cm deep are marked every 10 cm.
Clove seeds, mixed with sand and a pinch of dry complete mineral fertilizer, are scattered sparsely into the grooves.
The bed is leveled and watered with warm water.
The planting is covered with a film on top to retain moisture.

After germination, polyethylene is replaced with lutrasil and left for 10-12 days. Water young bushes directly through the shelter.

Advice. You can not plant alpine carnations next to tulips. Plants have similar diseases and can infect each other.

An overseas guest sown in the ground will bloom only next year. At the end of August, the grown bushes are planted in a permanent place. To make them more magnificent, pinch the tops after the development of 8 leaves.

Alpine carnation care

Further care for cloves is the same as for other plants. The perennial should not be flooded, it perfectly tolerates heat and drought. Several times during the season, flowering bushes are fed with Agricola.

Alpine carnation does not need loosening and weeding. Usually it forms such dense curtains that not a single weed can break through them.

In late autumn, perennials are cut at a distance of 10 from the ground and mulched with peat or dry leaves. The plant is winter-hardy, so this shelter is quite enough.

With proper planting and proper care, the alpine carnation will delight for a long time with bright flowers and a delicate aroma. And having grown this perennial once, it is already impossible to part with it.

Garden carnation belongs to the genus Clove and includes about three hundred species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous plants. The areas of natural growth of the carnation plant are the Mediterranean: Europe, North Africa, Asia.

General information about the carnation flower

This flower has long been known and appreciated. In the public gardens of ancient Hellas, among other plants, the flower of the god Zeus was also grown. The name carnation comes from the Greek words dios meaning god and anthos meaning flower.

The Greeks have a sad legend about this plant. One day a young shepherd was playing the flute in a grove. The sounds of the flute frightened away the wild animals hunted by the fearless Artemis. Enraged by the unsuccessful hunt, the goddess in anger tore out the eyes of the shepherdess. Tender and fragile carnations grew from the eyes thrown to the ground.

Types of carnation perennial

or bearded The birthplace of this flower is the southwest of Europe. Perennial used as a biennial. Forms numerous straight stems forty-six centimeters high. The leaves of the plant are opposite, lanceolate.

Flowers, depending on the variety, are simple or double cream, white, pink or red, often also multicolored: variegated, with an eye and a border; velvety texture, fragrant, collected in many-flowered corymbose inflorescences.

In the year of sowing, they form a rosette of leaves, flowering begins the next year in the month of May. It bears fruit quite well, endures the winter period without shelter. Several varieties have been bred, differing in flower color, size and height of the bush, size of flowers and inflorescences.

, judging by the name, you can guess that she comes from China, Japan, the Far East. Perennial used as an annual. Leaflets slightly grooved, pointed, lanceolate.

The flowers are solitary, lilac, pink, with a pleasant aroma, the diameter of which is from two and a half to three centimeters. Chinese carnation blooms from June to September. Seeds set well and remain viable for three to four years.

variety Geddewig , is a garden form, characterized by more decorative flowers, up to five six centimeters in diameter, densely double, of various colors: white, dark red, black-burgundy with a white border, fiery orange. Flowering occurs from July until the first frost.

Also a garden plant, quite powerful up to sixty centimeters high, a perennial plant used as an annual or perennial. Long narrow bluish-green leaves form a basal rosette. Stems articulated, straight.

Flowers with a pleasant aroma, three to six centimeters in diameter, in a variety Grenadine And Shabo , larger and decorative, various colors: pink, yellow, white, red. Flowering is long from the beginning of June.

These bright plants that create a joyful mood are used for planting in flower beds, flower beds, in group plantings, for landscaping balconies, for cutting. With the onset of frost, the bushes can be transplanted into pots or boxes and brought into a bright room. Here they will continue to bloom until December, and after a dormant period they will resume flowering in the spring.

Natural types of carnations

Recently, natural plant species have become increasingly popular with flower growers. They are widely used in landscaping home gardens. Usually they are less whimsical than artificially bred varieties, so their care is minimal, any summer resident can do.

Below are the types of carnations that do not require special skills when growing. They are practically not damaged by diseases and pests. They look great in group plantings on rocky hills, in rock gardens, in groups on lawns, in borders.

, a perennial plant up to ten centimeters high, grows wild on the stony limestone eastern talus of the Alps. Flowering occurs in April, my red flowers on short peduncles.

carnation grass or, common in Central and Eastern Europe, Western Siberia, the Far East, and Scandinavia. Forms dense thickets about twenty centimeters high. Stems are ascending. The leaves are small, dark green, narrow-linear.

The beginning of flowering teaches in June July with dark red or white flowers, which are one and a half centimeters in diameter. The duration of flowering is forty-sixty days, the plant does not require shelter in winter.

, grows in the subalpine zone on granite and limestone rocks. This is one of the shortest species, which forms sods from two to ten centimeters high. Red, usually solitary, flowers are arranged on a straight stalk, with one or two pairs of pointed subulate bracts.

, in some sources the carnation is Hungarian. It grows in Western Europe, in particular in the alpine and mountainous zone of the Carpathians. Forms a loose bush twenty-five thirty centimeters tall. Leaflets are numerous, sharp, linear, with a bluish bloom. The flowers are simple or double, very fragrant, up to two and a half three centimeters. Flowering occurs from May.

There are various garden forms that differ in flower color: red, white, purple, pink.

, originally from the Eastern Carpathians. Forms thickets ten fifteen centimeters high, with blue-greenish foliage. Flowering occurs in June-August with small pinkish-red flowers that cover the plant profusely.

Turkish carnation planting and care

For planting carnations, choose a sunny, sheltered, well-drained area.

The soil is required loose, not acidic, fertile enough. Varietal carnations respond well to fertilizing with mineral fertilizers. Particular attention should be paid to trace elements: zinc, boron, molybdenum.

The introduction of fresh manure causes undesirable thinning, so organic fertilizers are applied only in a rotted form. Wild-growing species are generally fed very carefully so as not to stimulate the growth of the vegetative mass at the expense of flowering. But they need calcium in the soil.

Terry carnations require uniform and careful moistening, suffer from excessive watering and stagnation of water in the soil, especially in winter, which leads to the damping of plants. The species used in rock gardens are more drought-resistant.

It is impossible to allow the formation of a crust on the soil surface, therefore it is necessary to carry out frequent, but not deep loosening.

Perennial species grow for quite a long time in one place, without requiring transplants. In winter, shelter is not required.

Turkish carnation growing from seeds or cuttings

Seeds of carnations collected in the autumn period can be sown in the period of late April and early May directly into the ground. Carnation Shabo, Chinese Geddeviga for earlier flowering are sown in February in greenhouses, dive, seedlings are hardened and planted in May in open ground.

Carnation pinnate, glacial, alpine and others are propagated by dividing the bush into parts in the spring or autumn.

Large types of carnations can be propagated by layering. To do this, the shoot should be incised from the bottom side at an angle, and then pinned so that the incision is on the fold and the edges of the incision cannot touch. Roots will develop from the wounded tissue.

Cuttings can be carried out for all types of carnations. They take the top and middle part of non-flowering shoots on cuttings, cutting them off under the node, slightly shortening the leaves. The cuttings are planted in boxes filled with a light earthen mixture.

Boxes are installed in a greenhouse, greenhouse or under a film shelter. After rooting and hardening, the plants are planted in open ground. Carnation pinnate can be cuttings even in winter: frozen shoots from the bushes after a very slow thawing can be cut and rooted, as usual, in the sand. During the winter, they will grow up and bloom by spring.

Alpine slides and rockeries give a special decorative effect to any garden. Planting alpine carnations, done correctly, will help decorate them. After all, it is on hills open to the sun that it grows best. Although both feathery and grass are also suitable for this. It is distinguished by graceful peduncles and a weak, but very delicate aroma. Growing a plant and caring for it is not difficult.

Where to grow cloves?

The carnation will find its place in every garden, there is also a room one. After all, it can be used for:

Framing borders and rock gardens.
There are varieties that bloom so profusely that they form a carpet. They look great on.
Stair and wall decorations.
Decorating the path from tiles: the plant is grown between them.

Carnation looks especially impressive on areas decorated with stones. Before flowering, it looks like a green ball, which in itself looks like an ornament. After bright colors please the eye. She, like a grass or cirrus, loves the sun's rays. Therefore, it is not recommended to plant it in the shade, where it will not be able to fully show itself. You also need to avoid lowlands in which water stagnates. The room also does not like excess moisture.

Best of all, grass and other species grow on neutral soil, previously well fertilized. But they do not like heavy. Even if you make it less saturated by mixing it with sand, it is difficult to say how successful the cultivation will be. Dolomite flour should be added to acidic soil to increase the amount of magnesium.

Reproduction methods

Reproduction is possible in three ways: using seeds, cuttings or layering. Most often, carnation, grass or pinnate, is grown using seeds. This is a fairly simple method that does not require special skills. Care is also simple. Moreover, it is possible both sowing in pots for seedlings, and immediately in open ground.

If a decision is made to grow seedlings, then planting should be done in the first half of March. It is necessary to prepare a suitable soil mixture, not forgetting it. Place it in a container, sow the seeds and cover with a film. Place the pots in a room where the room temperature is about 18 degrees. After the emergence of seedlings, you need to rearrange them in a cooler place, room temperature - 12 degrees.

Lighting must be good. In March, it is recommended to highlight seedlings using fluorescent lamps or fitolamps. If they are not, then watering should be done minimally. Otherwise, there is a high probability of such a disease as a black leg. If it was nevertheless noticed, then the affected sprout should be removed.

The plant needs a pick, this is the care. In April, the sprouts are transplanted into separate containers; the root neck should not be too deep. A little later, they will need to be pinched to make the bushes lush. Landing in open ground requires some preparation. To do this, the seedlings are taken out to fresh air. Just choose a place without drafts. The transplant is carried out in the second half of May, keeping 30 cm between the bushes.

If the feathery carnation is planted directly into the ground, then this should be done towards the end of May. By this time the spring frosts should be over. When sowing, it is recommended to maintain a distance of about a centimeter between seeds, and 10 cm between rows.

Advice! Do not plant carnations near tulips. These plants have similar diseases. They will not be easy to cure, as different drugs are needed.

In cases where several varieties of carnations grow in the garden, they can interbreed with each other and produce hybrid types of seeds. To avoid this, cuttings or layering are used for propagation. Grass grass and feathery carnation are particularly well propagated vegetatively. To do this, cut the stalk at an angle, 4 leaves should remain on it. In the lower part, it is necessary to make an incision for a third of the thickness. Root it in a damp substrate, not forgetting to cover it with a jar or plastic wrap.

How to care?

Further care for alpine carnation is the same as for other plant varieties. Do not forget about feeding. The grass will bloom even more luxuriantly and abundantly if it is fed with organic fertilizers once or twice a month. The room also needs feeding. After flowering is completed, the bushes need to be fertilized with special mineral fertilizer and humus. But fresh manure is not suitable for this.

In the summer, especially on hot days, the carnation must be watered every day. A moderate amount of water is needed, waterlogging of the soil should not be allowed. You also need to make sure that moisture does not get on the buds. How much loosening is necessary depends on the variety. The grass can grow so densely that no weeds are afraid of it. Yes, and loosening without damaging the bushes is problematic.

Inflorescences that have already faded should be removed immediately. It makes sense to leave them only in cases where seeds are needed. Their removal contributes to the emergence of new flower stalks in greater numbers. So in the future, flowering will be even more magnificent. If the care and watering is correct, then the plant can re-bloom at the end of summer.

What problems can there be?

Quality care does not always guarantee protection from disease. Alpine carnation is prone to such diseases:

Alternariosis. It manifests itself as follows: the plants begin to wither, brownish spots and an olive-black coating are noticeable on it.
Fusarium. This disease leads to the fact that some parts of the bush begin to grow more slowly than others.
Rust. It is easily recognizable by the brown-yellow spots that affect the stem and leaves.

If any signs of these diseases have been noticed, then the damaged areas on the bushes should be destroyed, and the cloves should be treated with a fungus remedy.

The grass can also suffer from pests. If this happens, then you need to treat with an insecticide. In some cases, for example, when it is nematodes, it is necessary to remove the infected leaves. loosening will help.

Alpine carnation can be a decoration of the garden, and especially if it has a rockery. The plant will take root perfectly on it, and its bright flowers will harmoniously look against the background of stones. Growing it is simple, especially with the help of seeds.