For many years I tried to acquire good varietal delphiniums of foreign selection. But all attempts to find them in Russia were unsuccessful. One could only dream of pink or fully terry delphiniums.

Perennial delphiniums, which grew from the seeds of the English company "Unwins", often had flowers with one layer of petals (or their flowers were of non-uniform color), which reduced both the size of the flower and its decorative effect. Many grown delphiniums had a loose ear. To get a good decorative delphinium, many seedlings had to be grown, from which a large number of plants were then rejected. As a result, there was a lot of work, but the result did not suit me.

And finally, my search was crowned with success: I received from New Zealand the seeds of varietal delphiniums from the company of the New Zealand breeder Terry Dowdeswell, specialized in delphiniums. Instructions were included with the seeds. English language. Comparing its text with the instructions on the packets of delphinium seeds sold in Russia, I understood why our flower growers often fail when growing these plants. I give the main points from this instruction for sowing seeds of delphiniums, which I tested on my own experience.

Growing delphinium from seeds

I store delphinium seeds before sowing in the refrigerator (at positive temperature) for no longer than one year. I do not soak the seeds before planting!

For sowing delphinium seeds, I use small sterile containers with a transparent lid, filling them with live or steamed earth (I leave a distance of 1 cm to the top edge of the container). I spill the earth with a weak solution of potassium permanganate (foundazol or the drug "Maxim") from the "black leg"; while growing seedlings of delphiniums, I shed the soil with such a solution weekly. On the surface of the spilled earth, I evenly spread the seeds (at a distance of at least two centimeters from each other), press the seeds into the ground, sprinkle with dry earth (a layer of 7-10 mm). I close the lid, wrap the container with polyethylene and put it in the refrigerator (not in the freezer, with a temperature of +3 - +5 degrees). After two weeks, I take the container out of the refrigerator and, having removed the polyethylene, put it in a bright and moderately warm (+ 20 degrees) place.

Some delphinium seeds can germinate even in the refrigerator 10-12 days after sowing - then I remove the polyethylene from the container and, without opening the lid, put it on a bright window. When growing seedlings of delphiniums, I illuminate the seedlings with a lamp, since there is not enough light on the window, and the plants are stretched from this.

I expose the shoots of the white delphinium to a bright window when the first germinated seed appears. The germinating seeds of the white delphinium are illuminated better than the seeds of delphiniums of other colors.

I grow hatched delphinium seeds in a container with a closed lid until the plants fit under the lid. Once a day, I lift the lid of the container for a short time (so that the leaves of the seedlings do not dry out) and air the plants. I water the seedlings of the delphinium carefully, with a small stream, using a medical disposable syringe.

I grow delphinium seedlings on a window with a temperature not higher than 20 degrees Celsius.

Once every 2 weeks I fertilize the plants with a solution of phosphorus-potassium fertilizer (the concentration is half that for adult plants) with the addition of Epin (2 ampoules per 10 liters of water) or zircon (1 ampule per 10 liters of water).

I dive seedlings of delphiniums into small pots when the plants have 2-3 true leaves. When picking, I take the plant only by the cotyledon leaves and bury it in the ground to the point of growth of real leaves. After picking, I grow plants at a temperature not higher than + 20 degrees; I make sure that the earth in the pots does not dry out.

In spring, seedlings of delphiniums are planted in the ground after the end of frost. I shade it from the sun, water it in a timely manner, fertilize it and carefully protect young plants from slugs (they can eat all the young leaves, and then the plants will die). I fight slugs with the help of metaldehyde, scattering it around the plants.

New Zealand delphiniums in Russia

The very first shown flowering New Zealand delphiniums made a splash at the permanent exhibition of amateur flower growers in Kazan. Their level was an order of magnitude higher than the level of delphiniums grown from English seeds. And some plants turned out to be completely double (had 21 petals on each flower). New Zealand delphiniums belong to the group of Elatum hybrids, reach a height of 160-200 cm. They are characterized by a dense arrangement of flowers on a peduncle-ear 60-80 cm long.

These plants tolerate winter and spring frosts well. In June 2004, it rained almost daily, so it was impossible to carry out preventive treatment of delphiniums from powdery mildew - everything was immediately washed away by rain. And at the same time, only two plants fell ill, which stood in dense plantings near the unventilated blank wall of the house. But, cut off at the root, these delphiniums did not die, but bloomed in the fall.

In the third year, I divided the overgrown New Zealand delphiniums and planted them for breeding. beautiful varieties. After digging up each delphinium, I washed the rhizome from the ground, split it to a hollow middle, and then cut into divisions with two or three peduncles, around which several large buds had already formed. Each division had enough roots. I cleaned the old hollow flower stalks from rotten parts.

All parts of the delphinium are poisonous, so when working with it, you should be careful, wash your hands thoroughly after work, and do not touch your face and eyes with your hands.

Delphiniums grow in one place for many years, have a large number of roots and greatly impoverish the soil. Therefore, before planting the divided bushes for each plant, I prepared pits by mixing garden soil with living earth, sand, rotted compost and Kemira fertilizer. He planted bushes, shed the earth well to a great depth and shaded the delphiniums from the sun. New plantings have taken root well.

Selection of delphiniums

Besides vegetative propagation which did not give a large number plants, I tried to grow New Zealand delphiniums from seeds that were collected from mother plants. The second generation of delphiniums retained their color purity and gamut, but seedlings different from their parents also appeared.

Seeds of New Zealand delphiniums planted in the ground before winter tended to split more strongly, so I grow these delphiniums from seeds only at home, through seedlings.

The third generation of New Zealand delphiniums (grown from seeds of the second generation) had a stronger splitting. Therefore, I no longer began to grow seedlings of the third generation - I collect seeds only from queen cells.

When I posted photos of New Zealand delphinium seedlings on my website, I began to be asked questions about the names of their varieties. But in order for a delphinium seedling to become a variety and get a name, it must be registered accordingly. On the Internet, I found in England the organization responsible for registering delphiniums, the registration form and the cost of the registration fee. Everything seems to be simple. And the registration fee is low. I just can’t find in Russia a special English album by color codes (R.H.S. Color Chart), released and supplemented in different years English Royal Horticultural Society (R.H.S.).

The color of the delphinium (as well as the color of the flower of any plant) must be described according to this album (of any year of release), and next to the color description, the year of release of the album used and the code of this color must be put down. In the latest issue (2001) R.H.S. Color Chart expanded to 808 colors, codes from 1A to 202D.

Therefore, I decided to register these varieties in Russia for the time being (at the State Commission for the Registration of Varietal Plants), although this requires more documents and is more expensive than in England. I decided to give names to varieties of delphiniums in honor of the heroes of English literature and in honor of people dear to me. The photographs below show the flowers of these delphiniums.

Variety "Lady Rovena (Lady Rovena)" - this is the name of my wife, who received her name in honor of the main character of the novel by W. Scott "Ivanhoe". Light pink flower with darker pink edging on each petal; completely terry. Flower size 7-9 cm.

Variety "Aivengo (Aivengo)" - named after the protagonist of the novel of the same name. Sky-blue flower with a pink tinge at the depth of each petal, at the point of attachment to the trunk; completely terry. Flower size 7 cm.

Variety "Prince Arthur-2003 (Prince Arthur-2003)" - named after my grandson and the year of his birth. Dark pink flower, fully double. Flower size 7-9 cm.

Variety "Doctor Nina (Doctor Nina)" - named after a wonderful doctor and my mother. Semi-double flower of light pink-milky color, with light staminodes in the third row of the flower; staminodes with stripes in the middle of a light pink-milky color. Flower size 7 cm.

Variety "Sean Connery (Sean Connery)" - named after my favorite actor. Dark purple-blue flower with a dark lilac wide stripe in the center of the petal; all three rows of petals are the same length. Fully terry. Flower size 8 cm.

I hope that very soon the names of these varieties of delphiniums will appear in State Register varietal plants of Russia. As I was told in the State Commission, varietal delphiniums in Russia have not been registered for a long time.

This year I am purchasing newest variety delphinium "Coral Sunset", which is considered coral pink in color. It is interesting to try to cross this delphinium with New Zealand delphiniums and get a new beautiful variety.

Growing perennial delphiniums

Delphiniums grow on well-cultivated and fertilized soil (slightly acidic or neutral reaction) without stagnant water and close-lying groundwater.

When planting delphiniums for each bush, I prepare a separate hole measuring 40x40x40cm. The distance between plants should be at least 50cm. The planting site should be sunny and protected from the wind, as the plants are very fragile and break easily.

So that the delphiniums do not break in the wind and rain, I attach each peduncle of the plant (in 3-4 places along its entire length) with plastic holder rings to a pin at least 2 meters high, stuck nearby into the ground. To do this, you can use another similar device; better to paint it green.

I plant delphiniums in spring (at the end of April) or in autumn - from late August to mid-September. I add compost, humus, ash, Kemira mineral fertilizer granulated to the planting pit. After planting, the plant is abundantly watered until rooting.

For lush flowering in spring, delphiniums are fertilized with nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizer with a predominance of phosphorus and potassium.

In the first year, I cover young delphiniums for the winter. You can cover the plants with spruce branches or a small layer of earth, and put a film on top, securing its edges (so that the wind does not blow away).

In one place, delphiniums can grow up to 10 years. But if at the age of 4-6 years the center of the plant rots, and the bush falls apart, then in the spring I divide it and plant it. When dividing on a bush, I leave no more than 2-3 last year's trunks, around which young shoots grow.

In spring, I form large delphinium bushes, leaving 2-4 peduncles. I break out the rest of the shoots, because when more the shoots of the delphinium, its flowers become smaller, their color is less saturated; and in double delphiniums, flowers can grow semi-double.

Broken non-hollow shoots no shorter than 10-15 cm can be used on cuttings for vegetative propagation of the delphinium. Before planting, I keep the cuttings for 2-3 hours in a heteroauxin solution, and then plant them in a peat-sand mixture and cover with a glass or plastic jar. I make sure that the ground under the jar does not dry out. After 1.5 months, the delphinium cuttings take root.

Delphinium pests

Unfortunately, this beautiful and majestic plant has pests - delphinium fly, slugs, nematodes, aphids.

The main pest, the delphinium fly, lays its eggs at the base of plant stems in mid-May. This insect hibernates in the form of a chrysalis, therefore, when transplanting a delphinium, I examine its roots, add "Bazudin" to the landing hole. If insects are found on plants, I spill them in mid-May with karbofos or fufanon.

Delphiniums are susceptible to powdery mildew and viral infections (although new varieties are already immune to these diseases). There is no need to wait for the plants to get sick - it is better to do prophylaxis with a solution of foundationazole, the drug "Maxim", iodine solution (5 g per bucket of water) or the antibiotic "Tetracycline" (1 tablet per 1 liter of water). I process delphiniums three times with a weekly interval, and more often in rainy weather.

When using cut delphiniums to extend the shelf life of flowers in fresh I turn the cut peduncle upside down, carefully pour water into its hollow trunk and then clog it with a piece of cotton wool. In this form, I put the delphinium peduncle in a high vase.

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Delphinium (Latin delphinium) is a beautiful tall flower native to New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand delphinium hybrid. They were created with the help of selection by Terry Dowdswell. This flower grows up to two meters, and the flower itself consists of 21 petals. The flowers themselves are large with a diameter of 8-9 cm, and the petals are semi-double or double.

• Types of New Zealand delphinium
• Soil preparation and site selection for the New Zealand delphinium
• Buying seeds and preparing New Zealand delphinium seeds for planting
• Planting New Zealand delphinium seeds in the ground
• New Zealand delphinium care
• Planting a New Zealand delphinium in a permanent place and caring for a flower
  • Delphinium New Zealand - 15 centimeters
  • Delphinium New Zealand - 25-30 centimeters
  • Delphinium New Zealand - 50 centimeters
• New Zealand delphinium care during flowering
• Disease and pests of the New Zealand delphinium
  • Types of New Zealand delphinium diseases and their control
  • Types of pests of the New Zealand delphinium and their control
• New Zealand delphinium care after flowering
  • The division of the New Zealand delphinium by the vegetative method
  • New Zealand delphinium care in winter
• Making a flower bed with a New Zealand delphinium, photo

Breeding this flower is very painstaking, and to obtain beautiful flowers you will need a lot of patience and effort. Delphinium was bred by crossing perennials and can grow in a permanent place up to 10 years. Then you can divide the bush and plant it in different places.

Types of New Zealand delphinium

Delphinium New Zealand giant hybrid is the most common species. It has excellent properties:

• Cold resistance.
• Perennial up to 10 years.
• Disease resistance.
• It can be used to form bouquets.

Delphiniums can have a variety of colors and shades. The middle of the flower can be black, and white, and even striped. The most popular varieties of New Zealand delphiniums:

• Blue Lace - double flowers of blue color with purple streaks.
• Royal Aspirations - cornflower blue.
• Green Twist - snow white with green veins.
• Sunny Skies - pale blue with a lilac tint.
• Misty Mauves - lilac with double, slightly ruffled petals.
• Deep Sweethearts - dark pink flowers with an unusual striped or bright white eye.
• Morning Lights - multi-colored petals from blue-lilac.
• Dusky Maiden - pink flowers are very voluminous.

Soil preparation and site selection for the New Zealand delphinium

You will have to work hard to find a site. First of all, you need to decide on a place, it should be very sunny, without drafts, and the soil should dry out well.

The land must be:

• 1 part of garden soil,
• 1 part peat
• 1 part compost
• 0.5 parts of coarse sand.

Garden soil, compost and sand are easy to get, and peat can be bought at any garden store. But the preparation of the land does not end there. In order for the earth to acquire the desired looseness and moisture capacity, you will still need to add perlite. It is added in the ratio of 10 kg of earth and 1 tbsp. substances. We also need to destroy weed seeds and fungal spores, for this you just need to warm the ground in a water bath for 40-50 minutes.

Multiply perennial delphinium can be from seeds. You can also use cuttings, dividing the bush or buds.

Buying seeds and preparing New Zealand delphinium seeds for planting

The cost of seeds is very high, so it is profitable to buy through a joint purchase, now there are a lot of active forums that deal with joint purchase from New Zealand.

If you have the opportunity to collect New Zealand delphinium seeds from flowers, you are much more fortunate. In June, you need to mark the most beautiful flower stalks and pinch the top of them. These bushes are not treated with chemicals, and when the seed pods begin to ripen, you need to wrap the bottom with a newspaper, like a glass for seeds, and tie the newspapers at the bottom with a rope. The seed pods will ripen from top to bottom and when the pods open they will fall right into the newspaper. In cloudy weather, it is better to cover the flower with seeds from the rain. From one bush you can get about 200 seeds (1 g). After receiving the seeds, they must be placed in the refrigerator for 3 days or stored there until planting.

To increase the germination of seeds, you must first go through the disinfection procedure, for this they are placed in gauze, and then dipped in a highly concentrated solution of potassium permanganate. The seeds are washed with running water, after which it will be necessary to soak the seeds in a solution of epin. At the final stage, the seeds are dried and laid out so that they do not stick together.

The next step will be soil preparation (stratification):

• take a piece of light-colored, rectangular-shaped cotton fabric and evenly place the seeds along the fabric,
• gently fold it on both sides and roll it into a roll, making sure that the seeds do not move,
• prepare containers in which your seed rolls will be stored. Pour water at the bottom, put the rolls. The water should cover them by about half,
• place the containers in the refrigerator or on the veranda in winter.

After a week, check the seeds, if they are swollen, then they are ready for planting.

Planting New Zealand delphinium seeds in the ground

• Sow seeds in late March - early April. Delphinium is sown in special containers that need to be filled with our soil. Sowing density 2 seeds per 1 square. cm.
• Then you need to tamp a little.
• Seeds are planted superficially. In order not to confuse where what varieties and when you landed, it is worth signing the containers.
• Many people have a problem - the seeds are black and it is not clear how to sow, this problem is solved simply - they sprinkle the prepared soil river sand and sown with seeds, and in order for the seeds to hold firmly on the surface - when watering, you need to cover them with earth 3-4 mm.
• When you are done with planting the seeds, you will need to water them with boiled water at room temperature.

New Zealand delphinium care

Germination largely depends on lighting, in the dark the seeds germinate better and faster. Therefore, the seedlings need to be covered with a black film and placed in the sun. Periodically, the containers are cleaned in a cool place 10-15 ° C.

The film is removed as soon as the first shoots appear, somewhere in 1-1.5 weeks, and the rest may take up to a month. A place for further growth is chosen very lit, but cool.

New Zealand delphinium seedling care

• Seedling care consists in constant spraying and airing of the plant, as soon as our New Zealand delphinium seedlings get stronger and a few leaves appear, they can be planted in pots of 300 milliliters, temperature regime should be within 20 °C.
• Watering should be scattered, without a clear stream, and constant. An excess of moisture should not be allowed - this can lead to a disease - a black leg, from which plants can die. Starting in May, it is necessary to adapt seedlings to fresh air and sunbeams.
• You need to fertilize the delphinium twice - during planting in pots and at the time of planting in a permanent place. The interval between fertilizers should be about two weeks. Agricol or solute can be used as a fertilizer.
• To understand whether the seedlings are ready for transplanting to a permanent place, you need to inspect the earthen ball, the roots should completely braid it and it should be easily removed from the container or pot.

Planting a New Zealand delphinium in a permanent place and caring for a flower

Growing New Zealand delphinium seedlings in the open field is an easier process. Before planting, you need to prepare holes 50 cm deep, and pour 0.5 buckets of sand there so that it winters well. We mix the excavated earth with peat and compost and fill the seedling to the place where the root forms.

Delphinium New Zealand - 15 centimeters

When the plant reaches 15 cm in height, you can feed it with fertilizer. We take 1 bucket of manure and dilute it with 10 liters of water. The solution should be enough to water 5 bushes. The next procedure is to prevent weed rotting by mulching the ground around the plant. Peat is ideal for this.

Delphinium New Zealand - 25-30 centimeters

You can already start thinning the plant to get larger and more beautiful inflorescences, and this will also help. the best passage air and improve its resistance to diseases. No more than 4-5 shoots should remain on one bush. When thinning, you need to carefully examine the plant, leave the strongest stems, and cut off the thin and weak ones.

Rooting cuttings

The resulting cuttings can be tried to root. To do this, the place of the cut is treated with coal, and then crushed with a tablet, in a month you will have roots. And already 14 days after the appearance of the roots, you can plant in open ground.

Delphinium New Zealand - 50 centimeters

You will already need a support for flowers. Rods are suitable for this, they are needed so that the plants hold well and do not break. You will need 3 two-meter-high rods to tie 1 delphinium bush. For ties, it is best to use shreds of fabric. The next garter plants when they reach a meter height.

New Zealand delphinium care during flowering

New Zealand delphiniums are very fond of water. When the plant is actively growing, it consumes more than 50 liters of water. Where the climate is warm, in hot weather, flowers are watered once a week. One flower requires about 3 liters of water. Flowers are very fond of when they have fluffy ground, so after watering, you need to loosen the ground around the bush, deepening by about 5 cm.

When flowers bloom they need more water and fertilizing. Phosphate-potassium fertilizers are ideal in a ratio of 20 g of the substance per bucket of water. One bush needs 1 liter of fertilizer. Thanks to this procedure, you will get very beautiful flowers and the longest possible flowering.

Disease and pests of the New Zealand delphinium

The biggest concern for New Zealand hybrid delphiniums is proper care followed by. However, no matter how hard you try, plants sometimes get sick and pests can start on them, and then you need to act very quickly.

Types of New Zealand delphinium diseases and their control

• powdery mildew

This is a gray-white bloom, and the leaves themselves become brown-brown.
Treatment: spray with a 0.5% solution of Bordeaux liquid, foundationazole or Topaz.

• Fusarium or stem wilt

Brown watery spots appear and soon the plant dies.
Treatment: affected shoots are cut off and thrown away, but it is better to burn.

• black spots

Cover the flower from top to bottom along the stem. You can treat only in a non-running state.
Treatment: 1 tab. tetracycline is dissolved in 1 liter of water. And spray the plant, repeat until it is completely cured.

• ring spot

The leaves are starting to turn yellow. Treatment is useless, only the destruction of damaged processes. For prevention, you can treat with actellik or karbofos.

Types of pests of the New Zealand delphinium and their control

• Delphinium fly (phorbia)

Very dangerous insect for the New Zealand delphinium, which lays its eggs on the flower, and when they hatch, they begin to eat the flower.
Treated with insecticides. It is also useful to add dry mustard, wood ash and ground pepper to the flower beds.

• Slugs

Slugs eat young plants, and during the night they can destroy all seedlings. We put lime next to the plant, it will scare them away. You can set traps for slugs. Spread the cabbage leaves, and in the morning collect and throw out or destroy the creeping slugs.

The aphid loves delphinium leaves very much. Prevention should be carried out in the spring - spray with tobacco or process laundry soap.

New Zealand delphinium care after flowering

After the flower has faded, you need to cut off all the inflorescences, of course, if you do not need seeds. After pruning, new shoots will begin to grow. If everything is done correctly, they will bloom again closer to autumn.

The division of the New Zealand delphinium by the vegetative method

In the period between flowering, it is possible to carry out the division of bushes of 3-4 years of age. To begin with, the bush is dug up and carefully, without affecting the kidneys, sharp knife we divide it into parts. The places where we cut off need to be treated with wood ash. And plant them separately. And after the flowers of the hybrids wither again, when their leaves dry up, you need to cut all the stems at the level of 30 cm, and the sections of the stems are covered with clay, these procedures will protect the roots from decay.

New Zealand delphinium care in winter

Cut to 30 cm from the ground.
New Zealand delphiniums are very hardy, regardless of age. Before winter, they are covered with straw or spruce branches.

Making a flower bed with a New Zealand delphinium, photo

Plant them in the background. Smartly delphinium looks along walls and fences, which gives it additional protection from the wind. Looks very good if made from delphinium hedge or disguise an ugly barn with it.

It is very convenient to use these flowers for making bouquets, they can stand cut from 5-10 days. If you change the water daily and trim them, they will last much longer.

A flower bed can be made from their single plantings, or you can make a background for a flower bed out of them. They look picturesque with a rose, a lily or a beautiful yucca.

The New Zealand delphinium is familiar to almost all gardeners. This plant is striking in its beauty and luxury. The flower is often used in landscape design. With its help, flower beds are made, decorative flowerpots are made. The article will tell about what a culture is, what types and varieties of it are most common, and how to grow a New Zealand delphinium.

The New Zealand delphinium is distinguished by high shoots and large inflorescences that cover almost the entire stem. The diameter of the opened bud is 9-10 centimeters. The brush can reach a height of 70 centimeters. Flowers are simple, double and semi-double. It all depends on the cultivar. The classic look has 5 petals. There is a spur on the top petal. Because of what the plant is often called spur. There are pink, white, violet, red, cornflower blue and purple specimens. There are also varieties of black, burgundy and brown tone. The middle is usually white, black or striped. The bud is green in color. But after full disclosure, it changes color. A faint greenish stripe is visible in the middle.

The height of the bush is about 2 meters. The bottom of the culture is abundantly covered with greenery. The foliage is dissected, painted in a bright green tone. In one place, the perennial delphinium grows from 5 to 8 years. The bush blooms at the end of June and pleases with its attractiveness until the beginning of August. After cutting off faded brushes, re-flowering is observed, which begins in August or September.

V wild nature you can meet the New Zealand terry delphinium in America and Europe. The culture is widespread in Africa and Asia. The plant quickly adapts to any conditions. The main thing is that the climate is relatively warm and the soil is light. So it is realistic to grow this crop in almost all regions of the country.

Crop varieties and their characteristics

Today, thanks to the work of breeders, different varieties of delphinium are presented on the shelves of flower shops. So without any problems you can choose the most suitable variety for decorating a personal plot, winter garden or greenhouses. There are many types of this culture.
The most common hybrids of New Zealand delphiniums, which are distinguished by larger inflorescences. Hybrid forms are often chosen for cultivation not only by professional gardeners, but also by beginners.

Delphinium New Zealand giant is considered the standard of quality. After all, it has the following characteristics:

1. High frost resistance.
2. Long flowering.
3. Unpretentiousness in content.
4. Decorative.
5. Durability. At good care the flower will delight with its beauty for about 10 years.
6. Having immunity to many diseases.
7. The ability to use when creating bouquet compositions.

When choosing a spur variety, it makes sense for a beginner to pay attention to the following varieties:

But professional flower growers most often choose such varieties of New Zealand delphiniums as Sunny Skies (pale blue bud with a lilac tint), Royal Aspirations (cornflower blue color), Deep Sweethearts (dark pink flowers with a bright white or striped eye). It is also popular multi-colored variety Morning Lights, snow white Green Twist and lilac Misty Mauves.

How to grow a New Zealand delphinium in a summer cottage?

To on garden plot the delphinium plant flaunted, it must be properly planted and taken care of in a certain way. It is important to understand how a flower reproduces, when to sow delphiniums for seedlings, what conditions to create for good growth. Beginners, due to lack of knowledge and experience, sometimes have difficulty growing spurs.

Flower propagation methods

Such a luxurious flower as a delphinium is unpretentious. It tolerates seasonal frosts with firmness, does not require systematic care. Does not need shelter for the winter. It is propagated by dividing the bush. The event takes place in the spring. The bush is divided into parts, each of which should have a pair of healthy branches. The cut parts are immediately planted in a permanent place of growth. But this method is rarely used by gardeners. Much more popular is the method of growing from seeds. You can buy seed in any specialized store.

Sowing delphinium for seedlings

Delphinium New Zealand has several names and may be familiar to the reader as a spur, sometimes called larkspur. This ornamental herbaceous is plentiful flowering plant belonging to the large Buttercup family.

Among there are more than four hundred varieties. They are represented by both annual flowers and perennials. This plant is native to China southeastern part Asia, as well as tropical areas of Africa. The king among all representatives of the species is the New Zealand delphinium, which differs from its relatives in its high stem and huge inflorescences, the double flower of which reaches ten centimeters in diameter and can have a corrugated shape. It is difficult to find a color that would not be represented in the delphinium color palette. These are not only standard: red, pink, violet shades, but also exotic and rare ones: burgundy, brown, black. In this case, the entire brush can reach up to seventy centimeters, and the stem can reach two meters in height. But the most important quality of this plant, so beloved by our gardeners, is its good survival rate in various conditions and unpretentiousness in care.

In order for a beautiful plant to take root in the garden without any problems and please the eye with an abundance of flowers, you need to choose the right planting site for it. Delphiniums are suitable for well-lit areas protected from wind and drafts, not prone to stagnant water. For five to six years, the plant can grow in one place, then it must be transplanted, divided into daughter bushes. The delphinium blooms in several stages. The first flowering begins in June, it is the longest and most massive, the second wave comes in recent weeks summer or early autumn. All hybrids of this group are characterized by: frost resistance, disease resistance, durability. Most often, they are grown for subsequent cut and sale.

The plant propagates with the help of seeds, by dividing an adult bush, as well as by cuttings and young buds.

Self-cultivation

Even taking into account the fact that the price of delphinium seeds is significant, growing a flower in this way is the most reliable. It is important to know that when kept warm, they lose their germination capacity, so freshly harvested seeds are recommended to be sown immediately after collection or stored in the refrigerator.

Do I need to pre-treat seeds for planting? Before sowing seeds in the ground, they must go through several preparatory stages: disinfection, soaking, drying.

For the purpose of disinfection, delphinium seeds are placed in a gauze bag and immersed in a highly concentrated solution of potassium permanganate or fungicide. Then, directly in gauze, they are washed in running water.

For the subsequent soaking of the seeds, an Epin solution is prepared by diluting two drops of the substance in a liter of water.

For seed germination, it is best to use a soil mixture consisting of compost, ordinary earth and peat, taken in equal parts and half a part of coarse sand. And by adding perlite in the amount of one glass per soil volume of ten liters, you can increase its moisture capacity and make it loose. After that, the soil mixture must be calcined in a water bath for forty to fifty minutes to deactivate weed seeds and fungal spores.

Planting seeds is carried out in containers small size filled with soil with slight trampling down. The grains are located superficially. And on the container indicate the date and variety of seedlings. In order to avoid raising the seeds to the surface during the initial watering, they must be sprinkled with a small layer of soil, no more than three to four millimeters. Further planting is irrigated with boiled water close to room temperature. Knowing that darkness improves seed germination, the container with sowing should be covered with a transparent container, and then with black polyethylene.

Further care for seedlings consists of maintaining the optimum temperature for seedlings in the range of ten to fifteen degrees Celsius. To speed up this process, the container with seeds can be put in the refrigerator for several days. Temperatures down to minus five degrees are well tolerated by the plant. After one or two weeks, the crops of hybrids are again taken out to a well-lit place. Such stratification of seeds contributes to the fact that after two weeks the first shoots are already hatching. At this point, you need to be in time and remove the dark film.

Care of young seedlings

Young shoots of the delphinium most of all need airing and frequent moistening - spraying. This is the main care. When the seedlings get a little stronger and contain several leaves, they should be planted in separate containers with a volume of no more than three hundred milliliters.

Watering young plants should be carried out regularly and be moderate in volume. Excess moisture is dangerous for the development of a disease called "black leg", leading to the death of plants.

Further care of the seedlings includes getting used to the fresh air and the light of the sun. In the month of May, they are taken outside for a short time.

Before landing in garden soil plants need to be fed twice with an interval of two weeks. For this, fertilizers Mortar, Agricola are used.

Planting seedlings

Plant seedlings grown independently from seeds in open land it is possible at the stage when the roots of the young shoot completely cover the earthen ball. Then the seedlings are effortlessly evacuated from the tank and damage to its roots can be avoided.

The first top dressing of the dilphinium in the open field should take place when the seedlings reach a height of fifteen centimeters. To do this, a bucket of manure must be diluted with ten buckets of water. This amount of fertilizer will be enough for five bushes. After the ground under the flowers must be loosened and cleaned of weeds. Then it is mulched with peat, scattered in a small layer.

To achieve larger and more frequent flowers, the delphinium must be thinned out. This is done when the flower reaches a height of 25-30 centimeters. After thinning, each of the bushes should contain four to five shoots. Such actions provide good air circulation and strengthen the plant against many diseases. For further growth and flowering, the most healthy and strong shoots are selected, the rest are removed, cut to the ground. Some of them, where there is a heel, it makes sense to try to root. In this case, the cut is processed with coal, and then sprinkled with crushed heteroauxin. The shoots prepared in this way should be lowered into sand mixed with peat and covered with polyethylene. With the correct fulfillment of all conditions, the shoots can take root in a month. After two weeks of rooting, the seedlings can be transferred to open ground. This method is the cultivation of dilphinium from cuttings.

When the plants grow up and reach half a meter, they must be tied up. They can be supported by two-meter rods dug in next to the flowers. Moreover, three rods must be placed near each bush, and the stems are fixed with woven patches. The subsequent garter of plants is carried out when they grow up to one meter.

Water the dilphinium once every seven days, using three liters of water for each bush. Such watering should end with loosening the soil around the plants to a depth of 5 centimeters.

During the budding period, the plant needs additional care. It consists in abundant watering and fertilizing with a phosphorus-potassium composition. To do this, twenty grams of fertilizer is diluted in a bucket of water. The resulting composition is used for irrigation, at the rate of one liter for each bush. This allows you to get massive and beautiful flowering, which will maximize the decorativeness of the plant.

Diseases

most common illness these flowers can be considered infestation. This usually happens in the middle of summer. This disease of a fungal nature is manifested by the appearance of a whitish coating, which after a short time becomes brown. To prevent the plant from dying, immediate measures must be taken at the first sign of the disease. To do this, the hybrids are sprayed with foundationazole or a special drug Topaz.

If black spots appear on the stems of the plant, starting from the bottom and spreading upwards, then one can think of black spotting. It is possible to cope with it if the disease has not passed into a neglected form. To do this, regular frequent irrigation of damaged plants with a solution of tetracycline is performed, it is enough to dilute one antibiotic tablet in a liter of water.

Aphids are often carriers of a dangerous viral disease of plants, in which ringspot appears, and the leaves turn yellow and die. There are no methods to combat this scourge; in order to avoid the total defeat of the entire plantation, infected specimens of the delphinium are destroyed. For prevention, planting is sprayed with karbofos, actellik.

Care in preparation for winter

At the end of flowering, all wilted inflorescences must be cut off. In addition, this is the most favorable time for collecting seeds. Shrubs that have been pruned will release new shoots and will be ready to bloom again closer to autumn. This period between two flowerings is the most favorable time for dilphinium propagation by dividing its bush. For this, plants that have reached three to four years of age are suitable. Such bushes are carefully dug up and divided into parts so as not to harm the growth buds. Injured areas - sections, sprinkled with wood powder. The resulting delenki are planted in the intended places. Growing delphiniums in this way is a vegetative method of their reproduction.

In the fall, after flowering is completed and the leaves dry out, the stems must be cut at a height of thirty centimeters from the ground. To prevent water from entering the stem, and rotting of the root system does not occur, the cut point must be covered with clay.

Despite the fact that all varieties of New Zealand delphiniums different ages they tolerate winter frosts well, with insufficient snow in winter they must be covered with spruce branches or straw. To reduce the sensitivity of the flower to sudden changes in temperature, the planting should take place in a hole, partially covered with sand, in the amount of half a bucket.

I have been growing delphiniums in my garden for about ten years. Having collected a small collection of these plants of various colors (from white to dark purple), I dreamed of a pink delphinium. More than once I bought the seeds of the pink delphinium of the Astolat variety, but the seeds did not germinate. And after reading an article in one of the newspapers about the New Zealand delphiniums of a collector from Russia, she immediately wrote him a letter. But the long-awaited answer never received. In search of pink terry new zealand delphinium did not miss a single flower show in Kiev. Delphiniums from New Zealand are distinguished by the fact that they have been growing in our flower beds for more than a dozen years, and also, mainly, by larger double flowers of unusual colors. In addition, they perfectly tolerate our winters and spring frosts.

Only in 2011 I became the owner of three adult bushes of these wonderful plants. Two bushes were with double flowers of bright pink color, the third was two-colored (blue with lilac stripes), also double. In the photo, my New Zealand sweetheart delphiniums on the day of purchase.

Growing from seed

The most common breeding method for the delphinium is seed propagation. You can sow the delphinium in spring or autumn - immediately after collecting the seeds. Often used winter sowing delphinium seeds. In the summer I collected seeds from my pink delphiniums. Since I already knew that the autumn sowing of seeds contributes to a strong splitting of varietal characteristics (that is, seedlings with a dominant blue color can be obtained from pink delphinium seeds), I decided to start the “sowing” in the spring. Although, until spring, the seeds partially lose their germination capacity: up to 50-70% compared to freshly harvested ones.

It is very important to properly store delphinium seeds. They like coolness, so I store the seeds in the refrigerator until sowing. Bought at the beginning of March good soil firm "Fart" (it is very light), you can take "Terra Vita" and sowed the seeds of New Zealand pink delphiniums in several shallow containers. From above, the seeds were sprinkled with the same soil, mixed with sand with a layer of 0.5-1 cm. To maintain the humidity, the containers must be closed with transparent lids or polyethylene. I put the pots with crops on the coldest window sill in the house with a temperature of about 15 ° C. It is very important not to overdry the crops, otherwise nothing will sprout. The first delphiniums began to emerge on the tenth day. Seedlings appeared within a month. At first, young plants grow very slowly. Since I didn’t have many plants, at the beginning of May I picked them out into separate pots. In June, she planted seedlings in open ground on a separate bed on sunny place. Further care for the seedlings was reduced to regular watering and fertilizing.

In September, my seedlings began to bloom. Contrary to my fears, all the flowering plants, to my great joy, turned out to be pink. There was not a single delphinium among them with blue flowers. Young plants repeated the color of the mother plants and bloomed with the same bright pink flowers, only one young plant bloomed with a pale pink-milky color. Although the color of young delphiniums repeated 95% of the mother plants, the shape was different.

Mother New Zealand delphiniums were fully double (i.e. had three rows of petals on the flower), and their seedlings were semi-double (two rows of petals). In addition, the centers of the seedlings were also different: lighter and darker. Unfortunately, not all of my seedlings had time to bloom before frost. She concluded that in next time I will sow earlier (in February), using the backlight.

For the winter, I lightly sprinkled young plants with sand so that the melted snow did not stagnate in the root zone. From above I covered it with dry needles brought from a pine forest.

Delphinium Care

The agricultural technology of delphiniums is not at all complicated: they usually do not cause trouble for their owners. They bloom in June-July and again in autumn. It is better to plant plants in a sunny, calm place, since the delphinium has rather fragile stems. They grow well on cultivated and fertilized soil without stagnant water. I add some sand to the planting hole. I can't stand the distance between the bushes less than a meter. The best time for planting - spring. When planting, the root collar of the delphinium with replacement buds should be at the level of the soil surface. In no case should plants be buried! In the spring, when the shoots grow to a height of 10-20 cm, it is necessary to feed the delphiniums with complex mineral fertilizer. When the stems reach a height of 30-40 cm, you need to thin out the bushes: for this I cut out all the weak, thin shoots, leaving no more than seven in the bush. After thinning, it is necessary to tie up the plants.

With growth, delphiniums need a second garter at a height of 100-120 cm. In hot, dry weather, the bushes must be watered once a week. After flowering, if you do not need seeds, cut the stems, and in the fall the delphiniums will bloom again. To do this, the plant must be fed again.

Shelter delphinium for the winter

For the winter, delphiniums are pruned, but not short - it is necessary to leave stumps 20-30 cm high, since water can enter the rhizome through the hollow stem and cause it to rot. For the purpose of prevention for the winter, plants need light shelter with needles. But basically, delphiniums tolerate our winters well, and under a layer of snow they are not even afraid very coldy. Usually these beauties do not die from frost, but from excess moisture in winter. They are also afraid of the alternation of long thaws with frosts. In this regard, it is necessary to provide plants with a dry wintering. Above particularly valuable varieties, we build shelter from rain and snow or plant delphiniums on raised beds. Delphiniums of New Zealand selection without shelter can withstand frosts down to -25 ° C. However, in the first winter it is necessary to cover young plants.

Delphiniums can remain on the site for 8-10 years, but the lack of fertilizers and moisture causes aging and death of plants. It is better to renew delphiniums by annual sowing of seeds collected from the most beautiful plants. You can rejuvenate adult 4-5-year-old bushes by dividing and transplanting to a new place. I prefer to carry out this procedure in late April - early May. To do this, it is necessary to dig out the rhizome, cut it into separate parts (delenki) with renewal buds and roots. So I got 8-12 divisions from six-year-old bushes. At first, planted plants must be protected from the sun and watered abundantly, avoiding overdrying. It is also possible to divide delphiniums in August-September, but, nevertheless, it is preferable spring division and transplant.

Delphiniums look great both in mixborders and in single plantings. You can make a flower bed, which will consist exclusively of delphiniums. To do this, tall hybrid delphiniums are planted in the background, and lower annual field delphiniums are planted in the middle.

In the foreground, an undersized large-flowered delphinium will look great. You can create a flower garden in a “calm” white and blue range, or you can pick up delphiniums of a wide variety of colors: blue, pink, white, red, blue ... To create such a multi-colored flower bed, it is enough to sow the seeds once, and then they will be sown themselves and delight you year after year.

Delphiniums look interesting next to the queen of flowers - a rose, lilies, coreopsis or a beautiful yucca.

Olga Ostapenko, Borispol, Kiev region