Content
Planting and caring for the dicenter is a question that is of great interest to lovers of bright perennials. A beautiful pink flower, shaped like a heart, can become a noticeable element of any flower bed, but it must be grown in accordance with all the rules of care.
Features of growing a dicenter
Dicentra in the horticultural market is presented in a huge variety of species and varieties. Perennial varieties differ from each other mainly in shades of color, however, the features of planting and caring for the dicenter remain approximately the same.
- Perennial does not tolerate dry air, but loves shaded places. Therefore, it is possible to plant a dicenter in the country in such areas where other, sun-loving perennials would grow poorly - this allows you to decorate an unoccupied space with bright flowers.
- The dicentra, planted in the shade, blooms rather late, but at the same time it is distinguished by its bright color and long flowering duration. Therefore, the garden in which the dicenter is planted pleases the eye with multi-colored shades until mid-summer.
- Different varieties of dicentra can produce white, yellow, pink, purple or red flowers. Not only perennial varieties are well combined with each other, the dicentra is suitable for joint planting with other flowering plants and for subsequent care. This allows you to create beautiful and intricate flower beds.
Planting a dicenter requires increased care and knowledge of agricultural technology from the gardener. But caring for an established flower is quite simple. An important advantage of the dicenter is that the perennial tolerates winter cold well, unlike many flowers, it has a high level of frost resistance and requires minimal shelter during winter care.
How to properly plant a dicenter
There are several ways to plant a perennial plant. Growing dicentra from seeds at home is popular. Although the effectiveness of this method is lower than that of cuttings or dividing a bush, when planting a plant for the first time, there is often no other option but to use the seed method.
Growing dicentra from seeds
The first stage of seed planting is the correct preparation of the planting material. In order to increase germination, the seeds are first stratified, that is, they are subjected to long-term processing under conditions of low temperature, which increases their endurance.
- For stratification, the seeds are washed, mixed in a small container with loose sand or wet soil and closed for 3 months in the refrigerator.
- From time to time, the seeds need to be checked and, if necessary, re-moisten the soil.
- You need to start stratification at the beginning of winter, then in March the seeds will be ready for planting.
In March, stratified seeds are sown in prepared soil for the dicentra in seedling boxes. The soil for the plant is selected standard - light, nutritious enough and loose. Sod land, sand and peat are ideal as a soil mixture.
The first seedlings will appear in about a month. Care for the seeds of the dicentra is quite simple, the sprouts need moderate watering as the soil dries up. Also, in a room with sprouts, you need to keep the temperature around 25 degrees and prevent drafts, although regular ventilation is needed for the dicenter. The place for the plant should be sunny, but not in direct light.
Around the end of April, the sprouts will become so strong that they can be dived - only the strongest seedlings leave. After that, the sprouts are planted in open warmed up soil. If a sudden cold snap occurs in May, perennial sprouts will definitely need to be covered in the garden with a film or other material. Such care will prevent the flowers from freezing.
When to plant a dicenter in open ground
It is necessary to plant a perennial plant in the soil in the last days of April or early May. It is important to wait for the moment when the last return frosts leave, and the soil warms up in depth. Young perennials do not tolerate cold well and can die in a new place before they take root properly.
Also, the dicenter is allowed to be planted in the fall, but no later than September. Before the onset of the first cold weather, the roots of the plant should develop and harden properly in the soil.
Where to plant a dicenter
The dicentra tolerates well both sunny and shaded areas. However, it is best to plant and care for the dicenter in the Moscow region in places with sufficient light, but good natural shading. So the dicenter will delight you with a quick flowering, but will not be harmed by the direct rays of the sun. The plant can be planted in the shade of small garden shrubs, so the perennial will not only get comfortable conditions for it, but also effectively shade the green of tall plants.
From the point of view of the soil, the perennial is undemanding. Moderately moist, nutritious soil with high friability and good drainage is optimal for it. The plant prefers a soil with a low acidity level.
Landing site preparation
The site for planting a perennial must be prepared in advance - a few months before planting the dicenter in the ground. If the planting is scheduled for the spring, then the site is prepared and fertilized in the fall, if in the fall, then in the spring.
The soil in the selected area is properly dug up to 30 cm in depth and 3 kg of humus are laid per meter of space. It is also necessary to add complex mineral substances to the soil - in a few months the fertilizers will be properly absorbed into the soil and create the necessary microflora in it.
Open ground planting rules
Immediately before planting a perennial, holes are prepared for it in the ground - the depth and diameter should be at least 40 cm, and the distance between individual plants should be in the area of half a meter.
A drainage layer of crushed stone or other material is poured onto the bottom of the prepared pits, special attention should be paid to this stage of planting and care if the soil at the landing site is highly moist. Fertile soil mixed with compost is poured on top of the drainage layer, up to half of the pit. When planting dicenters in the spring in the ground, the sprouts are lowered into the hole and covered with earth to the end. The initial care of planted plants is that they need to be watered and the soil near them slightly crushed.
How the dicenter rises
Since the seeds of dicentra germinate with difficulty, mainly in horticulture, they are first planted in a seedling box, and then in open ground - this allows you to slightly increase germination. In this case, the first shoots of the planted dicenter appear within about a month after planting.
However, sometimes you can plant the dicenter with seeds directly in the open ground.It is customary to plant in autumn, in September, in which case the seeds will sprout in 30 days, after which the sprouts will need to be thinned out. Immediately after diving, the young dicenter is mulched, and then covered with a film or fallen leaves. Under cover, seedlings wait out the winter, and with the onset of spring they start to grow actively, although some of the plantings may die during the winter period.
Dicenter care
Planting dicentra with seeds is considered the most difficult stage of growing a plant. But in order for the perennial to please with a beautiful and abundant flowering, as in the photo of planting and care of a perennial dicenter, it is required to properly take care of the plant.
How to water
According to the rules of care, the flower needs moderate moisture, it is important not to allow the soil to dry out or waterlogging. Therefore, the dicenter is watered after planting as the soil dries up - the earth must constantly remain slightly moistened. A perennial does not react well to hard water; before watering, moisture must be defended so that it becomes softer.
It is important to remember that the roots of the dicenter need oxygen to develop normally. After each watering in the process of leaving, it is recommended to loosen the ground around the flower a little, and at the same time remove weeds from the soil in a timely manner. During a drought period, watering and loosening is carried out more often, but without undue zeal, if the water begins to stagnate in the ground, the root system of the plant will rot.
How to feed the dicenter
For abundant flowering, a perennial plant must be fertilized regularly after planting. Care consists in the fact that in the spring, nitrogenous fertilizing is annually introduced into the soil for the dicenter - this contributes to the abundant development of the green part of the plant.
During the flowering period, the dycenter requires superphosphate, and in the fall it is recommended to fertilize the soil with organic matter, spill it with mullein infusion and mulch abundantly with humus. It is enough to feed each species once a season, such an amount of fertilizer will be sufficient for the dicenter and will contribute to its healthy and rapid growth.
Pruning
A blooming perennial does not need strong formation. The stems of the dicentra naturally bend to the ground thanks to the large buds; it is also not necessary to tie them up during the care process, although it is advisable to plant the flower in a place sheltered from strong winds.
Perennials need minimal pruning only to maintain a beautiful flowering. It is very simple to perform it - you need to promptly cut off wilted buds from the plant in order to free up space and resources for the growth of new flowers.
Dicenter transplant
The root system of a perennial is prone to rapid growth, and at a certain stage, rotting processes may begin in the entangled roots. Therefore, from time to time, the dicenter needs to be transplanted, the rules of care recommend doing this about once every few years.
- It is necessary to transplant in April or early May; transplantation of the dicenter is also practiced in the fall after the end of flowering.
- A perennial flower is carefully dug out of the ground, trying to injure the roots to a minimum, and left in the air for a short time so that the roots dry out.
- After that, the overgrown perennial is divided into several parts with healthy roots, making sure that several shoots remain on each part. Places of cuts can be sprinkled with ash to avoid infection.
- Sections of the dicentra are planted in new holes and watered, and then the ground is slightly mulched at the roots.
It is possible to plant dicenters with rhizomes in a single order, or you can form small groups from perennials for subsequent care. In the latter case, 2-3 parts are planted in the hole at once, separated from the main plant.
Preparing for winter
Dicentra is a fairly cold-resistant plant, but in the winter season, the ground part of the flower freezes out completely. Therefore, in the fall, it is customary to cut off the leaves and stem of a perennial almost flush with the soil, at a height of 3 cm from the surface. It makes no sense to preserve the above-ground parts, they will not survive the winter in any case.
Caring for the dicenter in autumn and preparing for winter consists in building a shelter for the flower before the onset of cold weather, completely covering the remaining plant hemp with a peat layer of about 5 cm.If the layer is thinned, the earth may freeze too much. At the same time, it is also not recommended to throw a flower with peat more abundantly, otherwise the roots will begin to grow out, which will lead to their decay.
With the onset of spring, the layer of covering material is removed; this must be done immediately after a stable thaw has been established. Otherwise, under the shelter under warming conditions, excessive moisture may develop, which will harm the health of the plant.
Protection against diseases and pests
Planting and caring for a Heart Broken Dicenter includes the obligatory protection of the plant from diseases and pests. In general, perennials are highly resistant to diseases, but some of them are still dangerous.
- In particular, tobacco mosaic poses a threat to the dicenter. Symptoms are that stripes and spots appear on the young leaves of the flower.
- With ring spot, and on adult foliage, pale elongated rings are formed, resembling oak leaves in shape.
- Also, the dicenter can become ill with mycoplasmosis, as a result, the growth of the flower slows down, the peduncles are bent, and the color of the flowers themselves becomes yellow or green.
Dicenter ailments occur most often due to improper care and an excess of moisture, therefore, for the prevention of perennials, you need to water it correctly, follow the recommended care and prevent waterlogging of the soil. If the plant is already sick, then the soil around it needs to be shed with fungicidal solutions. Also, careful sanitary control of the site helps to protect perennials from diseases. It is recommended to cut off and destroy wilted flowers of the plant in time, prevent the development of weeds, regularly loosen the soil and remove plant debris from it.
The bleeding center demonstrates high resistance to pests. Of the insects on a perennial plant, only common aphids are found. For the purpose of care and prevention, the leaves of the plant should be periodically examined for infection, and if aphids are found, they should be treated with Biotlin or Antitlin.
How to propagate a dicenter
The seed method of reproduction and cultivation of dicenter is used mainly in order to plant a perennial in your garden from scratch. But to further increase the plantings of dicenters, it is wiser to use other breeding methods, they bring more reliable results.
Propagation of dicentra by cuttings
Cutting is the most elementary method for breeding dicentra in the spring on the site.
- Young shoots of a plant and root shoots up to 15 cm long are used as cuttings, if root shoots are taken for planting, then their length can reach 20 cm.
- Immediately after cutting the cuttings, it is advisable to stand for about a day in a root-forming solution - the dicenter will germinate without it, however, the solution will speed up rooting.
- It is possible to plant cuttings of dicentra directly in the ground in spring or summer, but most often the plant is placed for care first in a greenhouse or a box for seedlings at home. Greenhouse conditions for germination allow you to maintain the desired temperature and prevent drafts during the period when the cutting is especially sensitive to external conditions.
- When growing at home or in a greenhouse, the cuttings must be buried in a soil suitable for a perennial, create a stable temperature of about 25 degrees and regularly moisten the soil over the next 3-4 weeks.
When sprouts appear on the cuttings, the care of the dicenter will need to be continued. The plant is transferred to a permanent place in the ground only for the next year, regardless of whether it is a greenhouse or home cuttings.
Reproduction of dicentra by dividing the bush
Planting and caring for a magnificent bicentennial includes regular transplanting and planting of the bush - the bush grows rapidly and its roots begin to interfere with the healthy development of the perennial. Simultaneously with the transplant, the division of the bush is usually carried out, this allows you to rejuvenate the mother plant, facilitate its care and at the same time increase the planting of the dicenter in its area.
- It is quite simple to divide the bush of a flowering perennial - for this, the plant must be completely dug out of the ground and left for a short time so that the roots dry out a little and wither.
- Then the bush is carefully divided with a knife into several so-called divisions, each of them should have 3-4 healthy shoots.
- In a new selected area, several small holes of a standard size are dug, about 40 cm in diameter and in depth, with a mass planting, a distance of about 50 cm is left between them.
- Sections, or delenki, are planted in holes in a new place, watered and mulched in the same way as with a conventional planting in open ground.
What to plant next to the dicenter
A perennial plant looks beautiful in single plantings, but it acquires an even more spectacular look when combined with other plants. Other perennials that prefer similar conditions - fertile soils with low acidity and light shading are well suited for joint planting with the dicenter and further care.
In a flowerbed next to the dicenter, you can plant for easy care:
- tulips and irises;
- anemones and corydalis;
- primroses;
- ferns and bergenia;
- hosts and lungworms;
- Heuchers and Brunners.
Tall, spectacular peonies and roses are also suitable for joint planting with perennials and joint care. The bleeding center looks good next to astilba and delphinium, anemone and hellebore. You can use the dicenter for monotonous or multi-colored flower beds, in any composition the flower will not get lost.
What flowers should not be planted with a dicenter
A feature of planting and caring for the dicenter is that the plant prefers shaded areas of the garden. This means that planting a perennial is not recommended near sun-loving flowers, for example, phlox and chamomile, lavender and chrysanthemums, monards and asters.
Perennials that prefer maximum sunlight will not be able to grow safely in places that are favorable for the dicenter; they will not be able to provide proper care. In turn, the Broken Heart flower when planted in full sun can also grow much worse, despite good care.
Conclusion
Planting and caring for the dicenter allows you to decorate your garden with bright, attractive and unusual perennial flowers. The only difficulty when planting a plant is that it is difficult to propagate by seeds, but it is quite easy to care for an adult dicenter.
