Incarvillea: description, cultivation, reproduction, planting in open ground and care for a decorative guest from Asia (50+ Photos & Videos) + Reviews

Incarvillea is an ornamental plant that has only relatively recently become popular with flower growers in European countries, although it has been used for decoration in its homeland for a long time. By mistake of one of her popularizers, the plant is called "garden gloxinia", although gloxinia and incarvillea not only belong to different families, but also grow completely in different parts of the globe. Incarvillea is native to Southeast Asia, while gloxinia comes from South America. Incarvillea is easy enough to grow, so it doesn't take long to get comfortable with planting and caring for it. Moreover, most varieties of incarvillea are perennials with good, and sometimes excellent, frost resistance.

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Biological description of the plant

Despite the relatively small species and varietal diversity of currently existing representatives of the genus Incarvillea, their choice is quite sufficient to provide most of the design solutions on the site. It can be like border plants, or plants - hedges, and fillers of individual sections flower beds, clearings, flowerpots and rabatok.

The growth of Incarvillea, as well as the shape and color of its flowers, can vary widely, which makes the plant very versatile. And large funnel-shaped flowers can make incarvillea a worthy replacement for plants such as bindweed, freesia, hippeastrum etc.

Delaway incarvillea flowers

The plant belongs to the Bignoniaceae family. Its growth, depending on the species, can vary from 20 cm to 160 cm. Incarvillea stems are smooth, but in some cases may have pubescence. The foliage of the plant has a length of 7 to 30 cm. Usually the leaves are divided twice or thrice. Their surface has a dense texture. Often the leaves are corrugated.

The plant is a herbaceous semi-shrub that perfectly tolerates all the difficulties of a temperate climate. Despite the tropical origin, it is able to winter in our conditions. It endures winter in shelters, but if there are concerns about the fate of incarvillea, flower tubers can be dug up and stored at home in winter.

In the open ground

The plant has tubular flowers, or as it is also called, funnel-shaped. All species have five-petalled flowers fused at the base. The flowers of the plant are formed in inflorescences of the "panicle" type, which includes from 2 to 4 flowers. In some cases, with enhanced feeding of the plant, as well as subject to all the conditions of its maintenance, up to 10-12 flowers can be obtained in one inflorescence.

Their size, of course, will be 10-15% smaller than in inflorescences with four flowers, however, the total amount of flower mass in this case will be approximately twice as large. Flowering occurs most often in late spring or early summer. Its duration is from 3 to 7 weeks, depending on the species and climatic conditions.

The plant can grow on stony soils

Flower sizes can vary greatly from species to species. For example, the outer diameter of the funnel base can vary from 20 to 100 mm, and its length can vary from 30 to 120 mm.
In some cases, in the middle - end of July, the second wave of flowering may begin. It is less abundant than the first, but may be longer, and individual flowers will be on the plant until late autumn. In addition, the number of fruits obtained from the second flowering wave is greater than from the first. And their germination persists for 1-2 years more than the first wave (2-3 years).

The plant has an elongated and slightly branched cylindrical rhizome, reminiscent of a carrot. In general, the plant has a very powerful root system that penetrates to great depths.

Incarvillea tubers

Currently, the genus Incarvillea includes from 14 to 17 species. (depending on the classification system), which have differences in the structure and color of the main parts of the plant - flowers and leaves. The varietal diversity of incarvillea is still relatively small, since relatively few botanists have been involved in the selection of new varieties and hybrids of the plant.

In the last 10-20 years, the plant has seen an increase in popularity. This is easily explained from the point of view of the unpretentiousness of the flower, combined with its decorative qualities. Usually, perennial plants have faded and inconspicuous flowers, however, this cannot be said about incarvillea.

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Plant growing conditions and care features

The plant prefers well-lit areas, however, the time spent in direct sunlight should not exceed 3-4 hours a day. Therefore, the optimal place for planting will be one in which for about half the day it will be in the shade of taller plants or buildings. It is possible to plant in partially shaded areas, however, in the shade the plant will have a faded nondescript appearance.

Formation of young stems

The soil for the plant does not play a special role, since under natural conditions most species grow on poor stony or sandy soils. In order for the plant to reach its full potential, the best option would be to plant it in nutritious sandy loam soil.

The plant does not like stagnant water; for normal cultivation, a well-drained area with a slight slope to the south is required. Drainage can be made from coarse sand or fine gravel; it is not recommended to use too large a fraction for drainage.

Soil moisture should be moderate. The soil should not dry out, but there should also be no stagnant water.

On this, in fact, recommendations for growing a plant are limited. Some deviations in the composition of the soil and its acidity are allowed, however, the only requirement that must be strictly observed is moderate humidity.

home growing plant in a pot

Top dressing is carried out once a season. It is done when the plant is planted, or every spring, immediately after the snow has melted. Sometimes top dressing is recommended to be applied during the active growth phase of the green part of the plant (April-May). You can use complex mineral fertilizers, or you can use organic matter, for example, mullein infusion. For mineral fertilizers, it is not recommended to exceed the doses indicated by the manufacturer, as this may lead to a decrease in the frost resistance of incarvillea.

Preparing the plant for the winter season consists in sheltering its root system with a layer of mulch from 5 to 10 cm. Frost-resistant species are also desirable to mulch. The composition of the mulch can be as follows: 50% peat and the remaining 50% sawdust, shavings or needles. In the spring, in order to avoid damage to the root system of the plant by a fungus, a layer of mulch should be removed.Plants of the first year of life are recommended to be covered with additional protection in the form of plastic wrap or a tall plastic jar.

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Plant propagation

In terms of growing incarvillea does not require special skills

Growing all types of Incarvillea is not a difficult task, it does not require any complex actions or knowledge of any special skills. The plant can be grown both seed and vegetatively. Each of them has its own nuances and features, and in order to get a healthy and beautiful plant as a result, it is necessary to take them into account.

seed propagation

Incarvillea seeds can be planted directly in open ground. This can be done in spring or autumn, usually, with this method of cultivation, flowering occurs only next year. To achieve flowering already in the year of planting, it is necessary to grow the plant in seedlings. In addition, with the seedling method of growing, in the first season the plant will have a greater resistance to cold and will retain its appearance for a slightly longer time. However, already in the second year of life, there will be practically no difference in plants grown in the open field, and with the help of seedlings.

Incarvillea seeds

Seedling propagation suggests that the seeds used for planting must be stratified. This is done quite simply: two months before planting, the seedlings are placed in a refrigerator in a peat substrate, where they are stored for about two months at a temperature of no more than + 5 ° C. Usually, seedlings are planted in early March, so stratification is done in January.

Soil for seedlings can be purchased at a flower shop; Any mixture for garden flowers will do. You can make the soil yourself, for this you need to mix the following components in equal proportions:

It is desirable to subject the soil to heat treatment in an oven with a temperature above + 100 ° C for half an hour. After that, he needs to “rest” under gauze for 2-3 weeks to restore the microflora.

If the planting time is running out, and there is no way to wait a few weeks, you can treat the soil with a 0.2% solution of potassium permanganate, after which the soil must be dried for 1-2 days.

Incarvillea seeds are laid out on the surface of slightly compacted soil in a seedling box and sprinkled with a layer of sand 1 cm thick. The sand must be evenly moistened from above with a spray gun. A box with seedlings is covered with a film or glass to create greenhouse conditions and placed in a dark room with a temperature of + 18-20 ° C.

Seedling 3 weeks after planting

The first shoots will appear in about a week, however, if the stratification has not been completed, or the seeds had a different degree of germination, the process can take 2-3 weeks. This is normal, you just need to wait until ¾ of all seeds have risen, after which the seedling box is taken out to a well-lit place with the same temperature.

It is best to place the seedlings on the south window, but at such a distance from the heating devices that the temperature does not exceed 18-22 ° C. Caring for seedlings is quite simple: every day you need to water them with a spray bottle and ventilate them for 30 minutes.

Picking plants is done when they have 3-4 true leaves. It is best to carry out a pick in separate containers. It can be both peat and plastic pots, 5-6 cm deep.

Seedlings are planted in open ground in early June. About a month before this, you need to start the hardening procedure. For incarvillea, it is standard, however, it has one peculiarity: in no case should you expose plants outdoors to direct sunlight.This is acceptable indoors, but it is better not to do this outdoors. It is best to do this in partial shade or in areas with diffused sunlight.

Seedlings at the age of one month

The rest of the hardening is carried out according to a simple scheme: on the first day, the plants are outdoors for half an hour, and each subsequent day for half an hour more. The last 2-3 days, seedlings should be outdoors around the clock.

In the case of planting seeds in open ground, the optimal time is mid-April. Thus, the plants will receive maximum hardening and will be much more adapted to cold snaps. Seedlings of such a planting will appear in about two weeks, but active flowering will not occur this season, you will have to wait for the next one.

Which of the planting methods to choose - the grower decides for himself. If you need to get flowering this year, you will have to fiddle with seeds from the beginning of the year. If the flowering period is not critical, you can plant the seeds in open ground and not pay such close attention to them, allowing nature itself to do everything in a natural way.

Vegetative reproduction

Incarvillea can reproduce vegetatively in three ways:

cuttings

The easiest way to propagate, in addition, giving the greatest number of strong and hardy plants. Reproduction in this way is used in the middle of summer (late June - early July).

Cuttings planted in the ground

Strong and healthy leaves are selected as cuttings., which are cut with a small part of the stem. The length of this part does not exceed 4 cm. The cuttings are placed for a day in a solution of some rooting agent, for example, Kornevin.

While the cuttings are being processed with a rooter, it is necessary to prepare the soil for their rooting. You can use soil similar to seedlings, but soil from a mother plant from the garden is also suitable. It is necessary to treat it with a solution of potassium permanganate and leave to dry for the same time - 24 hours.

At the end of this period, cuttings are planted in the ground and they are placed in a greenhouse. It can be a stationary greenhouse, a small greenhouse or some kind of impromptu device made, for example, from a large plastic container (plastic bottle 5-7 l).

It is not necessary to water the cuttings daily, it is enough to moisten the soil with a spray gun as it dries. But it is necessary to ventilate the greenhouse daily for 10-20 minutes. The first roots of the plants will appear in about 15-20 days. After that, you can start daily watering, without stopping airing.

Incarvillea Delaway

After another 10-20 days, the plants will finally get stronger, and they can be planted in open ground. It is best to do this together with a large clod of earth so as not to damage the young horse system. Landing in open ground should be preceded by a hardening period of at least one week. After planting, the plant must be fed and watered.

By dividing the bush

It is not carried out as often as propagation by cuttings, and, in fact, is a forced measure when it is necessary to plant an overly thickened bush. It is best to do this in early spring or early autumn - it is not recommended to carry out a similar procedure during the active growing season.

As a rule, the division of the bush is not often used

To do this, the plant is completely dug out of the ground and placed on a special substrate. The root system is examined on it, weak, diseased and dried components are removed from it, and then the bush is divided into several equal parts with a knife or pruner.

Each part should have a healthy rhizome, in addition, each of these rhizomes should have young growth points. After that, the plants are planted in new places.It is carried out to a depth of not more than 5 cm.

It is better not to use the old landing site, perhaps there are traces of fungal infections. This place must be carefully dug to a depth of about 20 cm, removing all old rhizomes and possible foci of the appearance of the fungus.

With the help of tubers

Most often, this method of reproduction is used during the wintering of a plant, or when it is necessary to completely update its root system. In addition, in about a third of cases when a new plant is purchased, the purchase is not of seeds, but of tubers.

Incarvillea tubers

In order not to change the life cycle of incarvillea, tubers should be planted in mid-March. The place chosen for planting should be dug up in the fall.

At the same time, organic fertilizers can be applied to the soil, for example, compost, rotted manure or humus. At the same time, fertilizing in the spring is not necessary.

Immediately before planting, it is necessary to dig the soil again, make holes in it and plant tubers in them, deepening their growth point no more than 5 cm below ground level. Watering is carried out the next day and after that it is done every 3-4 days. After each watering, the soil should be carefully loosened to a depth of 2-3 cm.

At the end of June, the first leaves will appear on a plant that has grown from a tuber, and after about a month the plant will begin to bloom. This flowering will be short-lived and not abundant, however, the next year the plant will come into full force.

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Varieties

In nature, there are about twenty plant species. The varietal diversity of incarvillea is small, since it is rarely cultivated. The first varieties began to appear in large quantities relatively recently, and there are very few Incarvillea on the modern market of flower plants. Therefore, most gardeners use the usual "wild" forms of plants in landscape designs.

Let's consider them in more detail:

dense

Another name for the plant is large incarvillea. It is a perennial with a height of 30-40 cm. The structure of the bushes makes an unforgettable impression - they have large beautiful leaves with a moderately pronounced pubescence. The basal rosettes of the plant have a characteristic central part of a heart-shaped shape.

Incarvillea dense flower

It has been cultivated for almost 150 years. It gained popularity in cultivation due to its frost resistance and the ability to endure even frosts down to -30 ° C under cover.

The budding of the plant occurs in May, and flowering begins in late May - early June. The buds usually appear at the top of the stems. At first they are strongly twisted and do not give the impression of a future flower. However, over time, they begin to gradually open up and change their shape from day to day. A bud in about a week transforms into a funnel-shaped flower of purple, coral or pale pink. The diameter of the outer edge of the flower reaches 6 cm, and the length of the funnel can be from 5 to 7 cm.

The bases of the "gramophones" consist of fused petals, usually bright yellow. Sometimes, if the lighting conditions are not up to par, the color of the "innards" of the funnel may have a pale yellow or pale orange tint.

Flowering lasts about 6-8 weeks, after which the plant forms fruits, with winged seeds, which, like the leaves of the plant, are slightly pubescent.

The plant has several varieties, one of the most famous is Grandiflora, which, while maintaining all other parameters of the plant, has a growth of about 80 cm and flowers with a diameter of 7-8 cm.

Delaway

The homeland of this shrub is the western part of Indochina. This species has been used in floriculture for over 100 years. It is a fairly large plant, up to 120 cm high, with elongated leaves. The length of the leaves reaches 30-35 cm, they have a saber shape. Traditionally for incarvillea, the leaves at the stem are collected in a basal rosette.

Delaway incarvillea bush

Flowers in the outer part are usually monotonous, they have all shades of pink: from white-pink to purple. The inside of the funnels is yellow, with parts of the petals fused at the base. Sometimes there are flowers in which the petals fit snugly together without splicing almost the entire length. This is considered a sign of degeneration of the plant.

The outer diameter of the flowers is 5-6 cm, the length of the funnel is up to 8 cm. The flowers are collected in racemose asymmetrical inflorescences of 3-4 pieces. Flowering occurs in the first decade of June and lasts almost until the beginning of August.

Variety Snow Top

Particularly popular among flower growers are varieties whose colors are the “diametrical opposite” for this species: either bright white or rich purple. The first include the Snow Top variety, bred in the USA. The form, which is its "antipode" (variety "Purple Heart"), was bred in Europe.

Frost resistance of all varieties of Delaway Incarvillea is low, however, even when sheltered under a layer of leaves of 15-20 cm, they are able to tolerate frosts down to -15 ° C.

Chinese

This species is not particularly known in Europe and America, however, it is very popular in Asian regions, especially in China. The history of growing this species for decorative purposes has more than one century. During this time, many varieties and hybrids of the plant have been bred, differing in size and shape of flowers and leaves.

Incarvillea sinensis, original view

Most varieties of this species have a small growth. It is rare that a plant reaches a height of 50 cm, usually the height of the bushes is 25-30 cm. The leaves are mostly short, pinnate in shape.

Flowering begins about 2 months after sowing the plant. This usually happens towards the middle of June. Due to the fact that the plant is constantly forming new shoots, its flowering lasts almost until the beginning of October.

Flowers are formed in the axils of the leaves, as a rule, are solitary. In rare cases, a kind of inflorescence of two, and sometimes three flowers, grows from one sinus.

The size of the flowers is relatively small: almost all varieties have a flower diameter of about 3-4 cm, and a funnel length of about 5 cm.

Variety White Swan

A popular variety of the Chinese variety of Incarvillea is the "White Swan". Despite its species origin, its flowers are collected in inflorescences. The number of flowers in the inflorescence is almost always 4. The height of the plant is 50 cm, and the diameter is about 30 cm. The diameter of the flower is about 5 cm. The foliage has a fern-like shape, it is attached to the stems exclusively at the base.

Olga

Another name for the plant is pink incarvillea. The homeland of the plant is the foothills of the Pamirs. Grown in decorative floriculture since the end of the 19th century. The features of the plant are its growth, reaching 150 cm, as well as a very large number of flowers that the plant is able to tie. Despite their small size, their number can reach dozens on one stem.

Incarvillea Olga or pink

The feathery foliage of the plant, which has a pronounced dissected appearance, covers only 15-20 cm from the beginning of the plant stem near the ground. The rest of it is completely occupied by flowers, buds and emerging fruits. An interesting fact is that the upper part of the stem, on which shoots with flowers are formed, often becomes woody.

The leaves of the plant are opposite, but the flowers and inflorescences are formed alternately on the stems. Usually the flowers at the top of the stem gather in panicle-type inflorescences, but those located in the middle part of the stem are usually solitary. The flowers are about 20 mm in diameter. Colors are represented by all shades of pink. Some varieties have a light purple color.

Flowering occurs in the first decade of July and lasts until early September. Under shelter, the plant is able to tolerate frosts down to -25 ° C.

Myra

Come from the northwestern part of China. It is a low-growing frost-resistant perennial.The height of the plant rarely exceeds 15 cm. The leaves of the plant are oval in shape and are located on long petioles. The leaves are dark green in color, they are collected in a basal rosette. Due to the shape of the petioles and stems, the plant bush has a very compact structure.

incarvillea myra

The flowers are large in size: the diameter of the outer part can reach 10 cm, and the length of the funnel is 12-15 cm. The funnel of the flowers has approximately the same diameter along the entire length, which distinguishes this type of plant from its fellows. Traditionally, the inside of the funnel is yellow, and the petals themselves can have different shades of pink. The petals have a pronounced texture and a slight doubleness.

The plant begins to bloom in June, the duration of flowering is about 2 months. It tolerates winter frosts well. At temperatures down to -15°С, it hibernates without shelters, with shelters it can be grown even in the northern regions.

Unpretentious flowers for the INCARVILLE garden Features of cultivation, the best varieties

Incarvillea: description, cultivation, reproduction, planting in open ground and care for a decorative guest from Asia (50+ Photos & Videos) + Reviews