Geichera is a perennial plant belonging to the Saxifrage family. This plant is of North American origin; most of its species in the wild grow in the United States, a small part of them in Mexico. A distinctive feature of geyhera is its decorative properties.
The color of the foliage of the plant can be very diverse: from standard green to extreme colors - red or silver. But that's not all, because there are plants whose leaf color combines several multi-colored shades. Heuchers are very popular with designers because they allow you to get the most diverse colors of the lower level. flowerbeds and flower beds.
Below, planting and caring for geyhera are considered in detail, as well as photos of some plant varieties. The plant retains an attractive appearance from the first months of spring to the end of autumn. Its application in landscape design extremely wide - from continuous cover-type plantings to curb thickets on the sides tracks.
Content:
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Botanical description
Heuchera hairy
Geichera is a herbaceous plant about half a meter high.. The central stem as such is absent, the leaves are mostly basal. The length of the petioles can reach 30-40 cm. The leaves consist of five fused lobes, their size is about 5 by 10 cm.
Bushes of various types of geyhera
Bloody geyhera inflorescence
The modern classification of geyhera does not have a single standard. In fact, there are two classifications of the plant: according to one, the genus has 58 species, according to the other - more than 70. The varietal diversity of the plant is quite large.
For several decades, about 400 varieties and hybrids of the plant have been obtained, differing in leaf color and size.
Some types of geyhera are able to interbreed with related plants of the same Saxifrage family.. An example of such a cross is a hybrid of geyhera and tiarella.
Its distinctive feature is a plant with multi-colored foliage and fairly large inflorescences.
A variety of colors of geyhera leaves in different varieties
Geichera is very unpretentious and can grow even on stony soils completely devoid of soil. In the wild, there are several species that grow in the deserts of California and Arizona.
Obsidian, the darkest variety of geyhera
The plant reproduces in all possible ways - from vegetative to seed.
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Choice of landing site
This is a very important question because there is no single answer to it. Mature plants do not tolerate life in sunny areas, preferring shade and partial shade, but this situation is contraindicated for young plants.
The growth rate in the shaded areas of the young is very low and you will have to wait a relatively long time to get beautiful bushes.
Geichera in the flowerbed
Since the plant tolerates transplanting and root separation well, it is recommended to plant plants in the sun at the beginning of cultivation, and then plant adult plants in shaded areas. Therefore, if a plant with a developed root system is purchased, it sits in the shade.
When planting young animals or the seed method of propagation of geyhera, planting should be carried out in a sunny area.
Moreover, young growth does not tolerate cold wind, therefore, the place of his landing should have protection at least from the north side.
There is another recommendation for choosing a place for a plant, based on the color of its foliage. Varieties with light colored leaves (such as yellow, white or silver) will do well in full sun.
While the darker ones (green, burgundy, crimson and blue) grow much better in shading.
soil for the plant
Geichera comes from mountainous and rocky areas, where the soil has a predominantly neutral or slightly alkaline environment. Most of the soils of the European continent, if they differ from neutral ones, then in the direction of oxidation.
Therefore, the soil for geyhera requires liming. Depending on the acidity, liming with ash or dolomite flour can be used.
Dolomite flour is used for liming the soil
The plant does not like too heavy soils, light and well water-and air-permeable soils are more preferable. The plant also needs drainage. It is made from broken brick or large rubble; The thickness of the drainage layer must be at least 5 cm.
Planting seedlings
It is most preferable to plant seedlings in mid-spring. Seedlings can be purchased or obtained by vegetative propagation of the plant. In both cases, the arrangements for their landing are absolutely identical.
Heuchera seedlings
The order of planting seedlings is as follows:
Planting seedlings of geyhera
Full rooting occurs approximately 40-45 days after planting. It is during this period that the plant can already be transplanted to a permanent place.However, you should not rush - the transplant is best done at the beginning of the next season.
Planting seeds
Heuchera seeds
This is not the most common planting method, but with its help you can get a much larger amount of seed at lower material costs. Growing geyhera through seedlings is quite simple and not burdensome. Moreover, its seeds, subject to storage conditions, have a germination rate close to 90%.
It is believed that the viability of seeds stored outdoors or in a paper bag is six months. The use of sealed packages or foil packages that prevent access to seeds not only for moisture, but also for light, extends this period to one and a half years.
After these periods, almost all seeds become unusable, so it is recommended to carefully check the dates of collection and packaging of seeds.
Sowing seedlings usually occurs in late March or early April. Therefore, you should check the compliance of the expiration dates of the purchased seeds with the planting dates.
Seedling planted in a box with drainage holes. The height of the box must be at least 5 cm. Any plastic container can be used as a growing container, even the cut off lower parts of large plastic bottles.
The main thing is to make drainage holes in them. It is also allowed to grow a plant using peat tablets diameter 27 or 36 mm.
Seedling after germination
For seedlings loose soil is required. Its composition is of fundamental importance. It can even be ordinary garden soil, or a mixture consisting of equal proportions of peat, garden soil and sand.
If ordinary soil is used, it is recommended to mix it with a small amount of sand or perlite to improve its air and moisture permeability. The volume of sand or perlite is taken from 1/5 to 1/3 of the total volume of the soil mixture.
The soil must be thermally treated in order to kill the fungi that are in it. To do this, it should either be poured with boiling water, or kneaded for half an hour in the oven with a temperature of + 110 ° C. After that, the soil must be dried for a day and only then proceed to planting seeds.
Heuchera seeds are very small, sometimes it is recommended to mix them with sand when planting. The small size of the seeds does not imply their penetration into the ground. Therefore, after preliminary preparation of the soil, its surface should be leveled and the top layer should be moistened with a spray gun.
Sowing is carried out directly on the surface of the soil. After that, the seed box should be covered with glass or film.
Seeds require a lot of light to germinate, so it is recommended to immediately put the box with them on the windowsill of the south window. At the same time, it is necessary that the temperature in this place be in the region of + 18-20 ° C and there are no drafts.
Every day, the seed box should be ventilated by removing the film or glass for 15 minutes. Watering should not be carried out daily, but as the soil dries. After about 15-20 days, the seeds will sprout.
The film or glass should not be removed. They need to be raised a little; in some cases, several small holes are made in the film.
Seedling picking is done when three true leaves appear on it.. Seedlings dive at a distance of 4 to 6 cm between them. All this time it is necessary to maintain a moderately moist state of the soil.
Seedlings, pickled in a separate container
Further, there are two options for further growing seedlings. Continue growing plants indoors or transplant them outdoors to a sunny area. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Since it takes approximately one year for a geuchera to develop a normal rosette, it is best to continue growing indoors. At the same time, around June-July, seedlings should be transplanted into larger boxes.
In summer, they can be taken out into the open air, or even stay there continuously until the end of the season, but with the onset of cold weather they are again placed in room conditions. The final planting of seedlings in open ground is carried out in the spring of the following year. This method of cultivation is applicable in areas with severe winters.
If the cultivation takes place in milder conditions, it is possible to plant the plants in a sunny area in the garden already in the middle of summer, corresponding to the year of planting. In this case, the plants will be better adapted for further cultivation.
However, in this case, they will need to be covered for the winter with a layer of mulch about 10 cm thick. Peat, sawdust or compost should be used as mulch material.
plant care
Mulched geyhera bushes
Directly maintaining a geyher in a healthy form does not require practically any action from the owner, since a flower accustomed to growing in desert conditions perfectly tolerates both summer and winter of a temperate climate.
Watering should be seriously limited, since in fact even the level of natural precipitation in a temperate climate is excessive for geyhera.
To maintain the required level of moisture in the soil for a long time, it is recommended to mulch the soil around the plant with sawdust or needles with a layer of 3 to 5 cm. For mulched plants in the shade, the amount of natural precipitation will be quite enough. Watering should be carried out only in case of excessive drying of the soil.
Plants in open sunny areas should be watered at an average frequency of 1-2 times a week. To maintain soil moisture, mulching of such plants is mandatory.
Even poor soils for mature plants have a sufficient level of fertility. However, feeding should not be completely ignored: once a year, at the end of the season, after autumn pruning, it is recommended to mulch the plants with a layer of peat or a mixture of peat and humus in a ratio of 1 to 1.
The above applies to decorative leafy varieties of geyhera. There are also several dozen decorative flowering varieties. They require fertilizing with complex fertilizers for flowers before and after the flowering period.
Of all the procedures for caring for a plant, the procedures for trimming and loosening the soil remain the most relevant. The need for pruning in temperate climates is greatly increased, as abundant vegetation rates cause vigorous leaf growth. This leads to a strong thickening of the bushes and the plant simply becomes cramped.
Watering the plant before loosening
Usually pruning is done at the beginning and end of the season. The plant is actually evergreen and many of the leaves that appear in the second half of the summer may well endure the winter.
Pruning at the end of the season consists of removing diseased and damaged parts of the plant., as well as pruning extra side shoots and petioles that have lost leaves. But at the same time, even old leaves are not removed during autumn pruning.
Removal of too old, as well as diseased and injured leaves, is done in early spring. Also at this time, shaping and stimulating pruning of the bush is performed.
Loosening the soil is important because the root system of the plant needs a lot of air. The stony soils of the plant's homeland allow this process to proceed without problems, but in the heavy soils of the temperate zone, the plant may have certain problems.
Usually loosening is done every 2-3 weeks. At the same time, the soil in the area with geyhers is watered with a very small amount of water (to moisten only a layer of 2-3 cm at the surface) and loosened to the same depth.
Simultaneously with loosening, it is imperative to carry out the procedure for hilling the bushes, since the core of the bush constantly sticks out of the ground. However, it is also not worth being too zealous in this.
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Plant propagation
There are three main ways to reproduce geyhera: two of them are vegetative - by dividing the bush and cuttings, and one is seed. The latter was discussed in detail earlier in the landing section. Now let's pay attention to the vegetative propagation of geyhera.
By dividing the bush
Overly thickened geyhera bush
Once every 3-4 years, the plant must be seatedto avoid excessive thickening of its root system and leafy rosettes. Usually, the operation to separate the bush is carried out either in early May or in mid-August. For this purpose, the bush should be dug out of the ground without damaging its root system, and its structure should be carefully examined.
It should be said right away that large groups of outlets should not be left, since the next year the bush will have to be planted again. It is necessary to correctly divide the bush, leaving 2-3 deciduous rosettes in each plot.
The separation should take place in such a way that the sockets that fall into each plot are located on the same rhizome. When separating, they use a knife or secateurs disinfected in alcohol, and sprinkle the cut points with crushed charcoal powder or cinnamon.
Also, during the separation of the bush, its root system is sanitized. - excessively long, dry and damaged roots are removed from it.
Further work with seedlings is described earlier. One has only to recall again that for the first year of independent life, the seedling is best planted not in a permanent place, but in a special bed for young animals, located in a sunny area. Thus, the plant will be able to quickly form new rosettes and leaves in one season.
cuttings
Heuchera root cuttings
This method is simpler and not as radical as dividing the bush. It can be applied to plants of almost any age. The essence of this method is that only a rosette with a small part of the root is cut off from the mother bush, after which it takes root in ordinary soil, in which young seedlings are planted.
To ensure the guaranteed appearance of roots in such a cutting, it can be placed in a nutritious sand and peat substrate.. In extreme cases, you can place the cutting in ordinary water, diluted with rooting agents and stimulants like Epin.
Usually, the roots of the cuttings appear in 3-4 weeks.. Then they are transplanted to a sunny area. Plants that were immediately planted in the ground should be protected at the time of rooting with impromptu greenhouses made of plastic bottles.
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Geichera in landscape design
Heuchera is a plant with very beautiful foliage, widely used in various solutions. landscape design. Its leaves have a rich selection of colors. Using geykhera, you can make your own flower beds unique. The plant is very unpretentious and has a simple agricultural technique, so even a novice grower can handle its cultivation.
Favorite hosts, geykhera and astilbes. Plants for partial shade.
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