Every gardener dreams of his flowerbeds blooming from the beginning of spring and blooming only in late autumn. It’s not difficult to select beautiful and easy-to-care specimens for the summer period, but in the off-season the flower garden often loses its brightness. Fill the gaps in the spring with those species that bloom immediately after the snow melts. One of these early flowers is fritillaria.
Appearance
Fritillaria, a common hazel grouse, blooms among the forest edges and in the flower gardens of gardeners in the spring. Its bell-shaped flowers stand out sharply against the background of in some places not completely melted snow and the first bright green blades of grass.
Among the awakening nature, one species of this plant is especially noticeable - Russian hazel grouse. Its flowers are painted in dark shades, but, despite this, they are full of spring meadows.
A variety of fritillaria
Botanical Description
Grouse Russian belongs to perennial herbaceous plants of the Lileiny family, a class of monocotyledons. The plant reaches a height of 20-50 cm, has smooth thin stems and long leaves sharp to the ends. The upper leaflets are shorter than the lower ones, often twisted into spirals at the ends.
Its flowers are collected in racemose inflorescences of 1-5 pcs. either in the axils of the upper leaves, or at the very top of the stem. Perianth has the shape of a bell, from the outside it is painted in maroon with barely noticeable dots. From the inside, the petals have a more yellow tint, a green stripe is drawn on each lobe.
Inside the bud are stamens and a pistil, the column of which is divided into three stigmas with pollen. The seeds of Russian grouse ripen in small hexagonal boxes (up to 4 cm in length).
Note! Flowering of this species occurs in early April, and ends in May. Since the hazel grouse looks dull at first glance, gardeners often underestimate the flower. But experienced flower growers are able to fit it into the overall composition of the flowerbed so as to get the perfect landscape combination.
The upper leaves of this flower often form a tendril.
Distribution and ecology
This flower is found in nature in the European part of Russia, near the foothills of the Caucasus, in Western Siberia. You can also meet him in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Grouse grows in meadows, among shrubs, along rivers and in rocky areas.
Active urbanization and the development of fertile lands hit the population of this plant in nature. In addition, spring fires (due to human faults or due to natural circumstances) often destroy the already rare fields of hazel grouse.
Status and rarity category
Grouse Russian is considered a rare plant of category III. Refers to decorative species, endemic to the flora of the CIS. In 1988, he was in the Red Book of Russia. Also, this plant is protected by the Red Book of Ukraine.
For your information! Another reason for the disappearance of many rare flowers is that in the spring people collect them to create the first spring bouquets, because bright flowers attract attention from afar. To preserve the features of wildlife, each person is obliged to think about the consequences of such actions.
Necessary security measures
According to the law, there are restrictions on the collection of Russian hazel grouse for bouquets, its intentional and unintentional trampling, mowing the meadow with the plant before seed formation, digging bulbs.
Note! This variety of hazel grouse is included in the list of plants growing and protected in the reserve "Belogorye".
Seeing such an unusual flower in nature, do not pluck it
Seed propagation
There are several ways to breed hazel grouse. The first of the bottom of the seed. It is carried out as follows:
- Seed material is collected after the boxes have dried.
- Seeds are planted immediately in pre-prepared soil.
- Furrows are made with a width of 10 cm and a depth of 1 cm, the distance between them is maintained equal to the width of the beds.
- Seeds after planting are watered, then 2 cm sprinkled with peat. Shoots appear next spring.
Important! The method is inconvenient and ineffective in that flowering will have to wait from 5 to 7 years. Seed collection makes sense only for procuring a large amount of planting material.
Bulb reproduction
Vegetative propagation methods for fritillaria are more effective. One of them is the division of one large onion into two parts. It is done like this:
- An adult flower is dug up, its bulb is cut into two parts.
- Sections are treated with a disinfectant solution, dried and sprinkled with ash.
- Each bulb is planted in separate containers with soil.
Flowering of a new plant may occur already next season, that is, after a year.
Note! Not every bulb will give children. To increase the chances of germination, the place of cut after drying needs to be covered with cuts into which chips are inserted. In this form, the bulb is planted in the ground.
Planting stock storage
Hazel grouses are planted in the autumn period, which means that during the summer planting material must be properly stored.
Bulbs should be kept in a dry room with good ventilation. Air temperature must not exceed 30 ° C. Under the right storage conditions, the chances of bulb emergence increase.
What do flower bulbs look like?
Landing technology
Russian hazel grouse is a frost-resistant and drought-resistant plant. It is quite easy to care for him, because in natural conditions it copes on its own. But it is important to create such conditions on the site for growing hazel grouse, which will be as close as possible to its natural habitat.
Place for landing should be:
- dry - spring floods and groundwater should not create stagnation of water in the soil;
- illuminated - the more natural light for a plant, the better it will grow;
- fertilized - properly selected dressings will help to achieve active flowering.
The main enemy of hazel grouse is stagnant water in the soil. Under such conditions, the bulbs of the plant quickly rot, and the flowers die.
Soil preparation
The soil for Russian grouse should be quite fertile, but light. A drainage layer may be needed so that water and air better saturate the roots of the plant. Soil pH should be neutral or alkaline. Acidic medium is not suitable for growing plants of this species.
Important! Upon preliminary digging, humus or peat, as well as ash or lime, are introduced into the soil. To make the earth mixture easier, sand is added to it.
Growing difficulties
In addition to too wet soil, other factors can disrupt the flowering process and lead to the death of hazel grouse. For example, drafts or north wind. It is worth taking care of choosing a site in which there will be a calm atmosphere (for example, behind a wall of a building or a gazebo, near dense shrubs).
Another reason for the lack of flowering in Russian hazel grouse is the onion bulb is too small. The roots should be strengthened in the soil as it should, and the plant gain strength. For this, it may take 1-2 years after planting.
This is how fritillary seed boxes look like
Care
As part of the care, grouse will need periodic weeding of the soil, watering and fertilizing.
Watering the plant is necessary only in the hot summer period so that the soil does not dry out too much. After the growing season, you need to moisten the soil 1-2 times a month, depending on the speed of drying of the soil.
Fertilizing should be started in the second half of April. Dry nutritional mixtures are used. You can make fertilizer yourself:
- 1 bucket of humus;
- 1 tbsp. a spoon of nitrophoska;
- 1 tbsp. a spoon of agricola.
About 5 kg of such a mixture is distributed per 1 m² of land.
Note! After the Russian hazel grouse fades, you need to make top dressing a second time. But for this, a mixture of potassium sulfate and superphosphate (each 1 tbsp. Spoon) is taken.
Diseases and Pests
Under the right planting conditions and timely fertilizing, diseases and pests can be avoided. But sometimes grouse can be affected:
- Fungus that spread on the bulbs. You can avoid the disease only by sorting out all the planting material and separating the infected from the healthy ones. In order to prevent such plants are planted separately from the rest.
- Lilybugs and rattles. They are destroyed by insecticides. But most often there are few beetles on flowers, so they can be assembled by hand, and then destroyed.
During agricultural activities, it is important to inspect each flower for the presence of certain pests. Lesions may not occur immediately, a signal will be a color change in the buds or leaves.
Use in landscape design
Such a flower will look great in a rock garden or rock garden. It is combined with periwinkles, pachisander, stonecrops. It will look good against the background of lush and brightly flowering shrubs, under the trees.
For classical flower beds, hazel grouses of other species are most often used, for example, imperial or chess. The Russian species is well suited for creating natural flower gardens. Having planted it, the flower grower will not regret it.
