Helenium autumn. Gelenium perennial planting and care photo

Helenium autumn refers to unpretentious and fast-growing plants.

Its flowering period lasts from August to early November, until frost begins.

Autumn gelenium is planted in spring and autumn.

Description

Gelenium has straight woody stems, covered with elongated sessile leaves of the next arrangement. It reaches a height of 2 m. The plant strongly branches in the upper part and forms many flowers on each branch. The flowers form large bright inflorescences-shields - red, brown, orange, yellow. The plant is honey-bearing and attracts bees.

Different varieties of autumn gelenium differ in color and height.

Varieties with yellow marginal flowers:

Magnificum (height up to 80 cm),

Gartensonne (height up to 1.1 m),

Meuerheim (height 1.8 m),

Katarina (height 1.4 m),

Superbum (height up to 1.8 m),

Septembersonne (height 1.6 m).

To varieties of geyher with red marginal flowers include Die Blonde (height 1.7 m), Glutauge (height 90 cm).

Growth conditions.

Gelenium prefers raw, rich nutrients soil. He needs a lot sunlight. It can also grow in light shade. The site with gelenium should not be flooded.

Reproduction, features of growth and care.

This plant has a poorly developed root system and it needs in large numbers water and frequent watering. Helenium rhizomes grow rapidly and give many shoots that need to be tied up. Rapid growth leads to rapid aging of the plant.

Already in the third year, the gelenium must be divided and seated. It's best to do it in early spring but you can do it at other times if needed. It is only important that the plant takes root before the onset of winter. After digging, the overgrown gelenium easily breaks up into several plants with basal rosettes of leaves. They are planted at a distance of 80 cm from each other.

At autumn planting at the gelenium, the aerial part is shortened to 10-12 cm. The rhizomes are handled carefully in order to injure them as little as possible.

In the warm season, especially in dry weather, the gelenium must be watered frequently. During the summer, it is fed 2-3 times with mineral and organic fertilizers. The first top dressing is carried out in May with solutions of urea, potassium sulfate or ready-made organic fertilizers (1 tablespoon of dry matter per 10 liters of water). For 1 m2 of soil, 3-4 liters of the prepared solution are consumed. The second top dressing is carried out at the beginning of the flowering of the gelenium. For this, mainly organic fertilizers are used (1 liter of mullein infusion is diluted in 10 liters of water). For 1 m2 of soil, 2-3 liters of the resulting solution are consumed. The third top dressing is carried out after the gelenium has faded (in mid-autumn). For this, mineral fertilizers are used. For 10 liters of water add 1 tbsp. l. superphosphate and potassium sulfate. For each m2 of gelenium plantings, 5 liters of fertilizer solution are consumed. Gelenium rhizomes are located superficially, so the plant is often sprinkled with compost, dry peat or fertile layer soil. In cold and snowy winters, the plant freezes out, so it must be covered for the winter. Gelenium is covered with sawdust, moss or covered with lutrasil. Cut the stems first.

Gelenium planted in spring and autumn. Seeds can be planted immediately in open ground in April or March in seedling boxes. At a temperature environment 18-20 °C seedlings appear in 14-20 days. In May, after the appearance of 2-3 true leaves, the seedlings are transplanted into open ground. A distance of 30-35 cm is left between plants. They will bloom only next year.

Diseases.

Gelenium is susceptible to damage by the chrysanthemum nematode. The diseased plant is removed along with the excavated clod of earth.

Application in landings

Gelenium is planted in flower beds in the background. It is a good background for undersized plants of soft colors. It looks good next to blue-violet asters, verbenas, delphiniums, monards. Good neighbors for gelenium are also goldenrod, marigolds, Cape figelius, despite the same color scheme.

Gelenium is a beautiful and unpretentious perennial plant of the Astrov family, native to North and Central America. It looks like a rather lush shrub, from 80 cm to 160-170 cm high. In fact, the gelenium bush consists of several densely growing independent plants. There are more than 30 varieties and types of gelenium.

The stems are branching, thin and tall. The leaves are small and sharp. Inflorescences are in the form of a basket, and the flowers themselves are shaped like small daisies. The color of flowers varies from pale yellow to dark red, brownish. The special charm of gelenium flowers lies not only in their bright color, but also in their strong pleasant aroma.

Gelenium does not have perennial roots. In late autumn, they die off, along with peduncles and stems. On the underground part of the stem, a small leaf rosette with a rhizome is formed. From it in the spring a new plant is formed.

Common and popular types and varieties of gelenium with a photo

Of everything varietal diversity in cultural floriculture, only 5 types of gelenium are grown. They, in turn, are divided into many varieties.

Helenium Gupes (Heleniumhoopesii) – This is a perennial plant growing in the mountainous regions of North America, about 1 meter high. The leaves are sharp, lanceolate, gray-green. Peduncles are long. Inflorescences solitary, bright yellow flowers, up to 9 cm in diameter. Blooms in June-July.

Helenium Bigelow (Heleniumbigeiovii) rather rare plant species. The stems are straight, up to 80 cm high, the leaves are whole, sharp. Inflorescences are tubular, about 6 cm in diameter. The flowers are dark brown with yellow tongues. Flowering time: June-July.

Helenium spring (Heleniumvernalis) has straight tall stems (up to 1 m), green lanceolate leaves and large inflorescences. Flowers with thin orange petals and a brown center. It starts blooming in May.

Heleniumhybridum) - This is a species that includes most garden varieties and hybrids, as well as forms of gelenium of uncertain origin. All of them are absolutely different both in size, and in the color of the flowers, and in the timing of flowering.

The following varieties are most common:

• Gartensonne (up to 130 cm high, with red-yellow flowers);
• Rotgout (red-brown flowers, plant height 120 cm);
• Goldclatzwerk (orange-brownish flowers, grows up to 100 cm).

Helenium autumn (Heleniumautumnale) is the most common garden variety. The stems are thin, long (up to 160 cm), the leaves are small, serrated along the edges. Baskets are small, collected in corymbose inflorescences. Flowers with yellow or red petals and a yellow center. Blooms from late July to September. Seeds ripen in October.

Varieties of this species differ in both height and color of flowers.

Popular varieties with yellow petals:

• Solar hill (tall, about 160 cm);
• Magnificum (undersized, up to 70-80 cm);
• Superboom (170-180 cm high);
• Katharina (height 140 cm);
• Septembersonne (up to 160 cm).

Varieties with variegated, red-yellow petals:

• Goldfux (plant height 140 cm);
• Altgold (undersized, up to 80 cm);
• Altgoldrise (about 110 cm high).

Varieties with red flowers:

• Glutauge (up to 90 cm);
• Di blonde (tall, up to 170-180 cm).

All of them bloom for quite a long time, and go well with many plants in landscape design.

Growing gelenium from seeds in open ground

Before planting, the seeds are placed in wet sawdust and refrigerated for two weeks.

Helenium seeds germinate very poorly. But if you follow the rules of planting, then growing a plant will not be difficult. Seeds can be sown both in seedlings and directly in open ground, at the end of autumn. It is worth noting that reckless way planting is best used only in warm, southern regions. In mid-latitudes, the most reliable method of cultivation is sowing seeds for seedlings.

In order for the seeds to sprout faster, they must be subjected to long-term stratification. To do this, the seeds are mixed with wet sawdust and placed in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. Then they can be planted for seedlings. It is better to carry out this procedure at the end of February, and the plant will begin to bloom only after 2-3 years. Soil for planting is better to buy ready-made, with a high content of peat. It is well moistened, and the seeds are sown superficially, without deepening. The container with landings is covered with glass and placed in a well-lit place. Periodically ventilate and lightly spray with water. When two true leaves appear, the seedlings dive into separate containers.

How to plant gelenium

The grown seedlings are sown in fully warmed soil at the end of May. The site is chosen well-lit, with neutral fertile land. In partial shade, only gelenium varieties with yellow flowers can grow. Undersized seedlings should be placed at a distance of at least 35 cm from each other, and tall ones - up to 70-75 cm.

Before planting, the soil is carefully dug up and fertilized with humus or compost. If the ground is heavy, then you can add a little sand. The plant is carefully removed from the container and the roots are lowered into the water for several minutes. Then they are planted in a permanent place and watered well. The land around the plantings is mulched with peat. It is important to remember that for all its unpretentiousness, gelenium is very demanding on lighting, moisture and heat.

Gelenium: outdoor care

It is necessary to water the gelenium 2 times a week

Gelenium care consists of watering, fertilizing, weeding and loosening the soil. This plant is very fond of moisture, so watering should be done at least twice a week. In dry and hot weather, it is necessary to water daily. After each watering, carry out a neat shallow loosening of the soil. If the soil is acidic, then it must be limed before planting.

To get a beautiful and lush bush, formative pruning is carried out. To do this, several lateral shoots are cut in mid-June, and in the spring they must pinch the tops of the plant. It is important to remember that every three years the bushes must be divided and seated, otherwise they quickly age. Tall varieties require garters to stakes.

Fertilizer and top dressing

The first feeding is carried out in May. To do this, you can use this solution:

• 1 st. l. urea;
• 1 st. l. potassium sulfate;
• 1 st. l. finished biological fertilizer"Effecton";
• 10 l. water.

per sq. m. spend about 4 liters. such a solution.

The second dressing is carried out at the beginning of flowering. In this case, a solution of a liter of slurry, 1 tbsp. l. fertilizer "Agricola-Fantasy" and the same amount of "Agricola-7" per bucket of water.

The third dressing is carried out immediately after flowering, in early October. For fertilizer take 1 tbsp. l. potassium sulfate and superphosphate per 10 liters. water.

At the beginning of tying buds, foliar top dressing with any growth stimulator helps well.

Pests, diseases and what you need to know to avoid their appearance

If a chrysanthemum nematode appears on the gelenium, it is necessary to cut off the infected leaves

Gelenium almost does not suffer from diseases or pests. The exception is the chrysanthemum nematode, which damages leaves and flower buds. You can cope with it only by cutting and burning the affected areas of the plant. To avoid this occurrence dangerous pest, it is advisable to add a little slaked lime to the soil before planting. To avoid infection with fungal diseases, it is necessary to avoid excessive waterlogging of the soil.

Gelenium in combination with other plants

In bouquets, gelenium flowers will look great with asters and chrysanthemums. But we must remember that you can cut the gelenium only after it finally blooms. Pre-cut flowers do not bloom in water.

Autumn gelenium varieties coexist well with purple asters, monards, delphinium, dahlias, stonecrop and verbena. A flower bed with gelenium, marigolds, goldenrod, phloxes, geyhers, garden yarrow and saplings will look very beautiful. You can plant any perennials with white flowers nearby.

Gelenium in landscape design

Gelenium can be used to decorate ponds, fences or households. buildings. It well masks irregularities and defects in the relief. It will look very nice in the background of flower beds, next to low ornamental shrubs. You can plant several varieties of gelenium on the site at once, with different terms flowering. In this case, it will be possible to admire its beauty from the very beginning of spring until late autumn. It will look great against the backdrop of cascading flower beds.

harvested seeds after the flowering of gelenium, it is quite difficult to grow, so many of them do not collect and buy

To make the flowering lush and beautiful, wilted flowers are removed. When the plant has completely faded, you can collect the seeds. It is better not to propagate varietal gelenium with seeds. To preserve all varietal features, seed material will have to be bought. And growing a plant from your own collected seeds is very difficult.

How and when to collect seeds

Seeds are harvested before the onset of prolonged autumn rains so that they do not rot. The first sign that the seeds are ripe is the blackened center of the flower and dark petals. The collected seeds are thoroughly dried in a dark and cool place.

Helenium reproduction

The simplest and effective way reproduction is considered the division of the bush. This procedure must be carried out in the spring, in May. For this, an adult gelenium is dug up and several leaf rosettes with roots are carefully separated. The dug out plants are placed at a distance of about 30-50 cm from each other. It is necessary to divide the bush every 2-3 years.

You can learn more about this in the video below, we wish you a pleasant viewing.

Helenium in winter

The roots of the gelenium are located very close to the surface, which often leads to freezing and death of the plant. Therefore, before the start of frost, all stems are cut almost at the level of the soil. After that, the area is sprinkled with a thick layer of sawdust or moss and covered with dense lutrasil.

Blossoming at the end of summer and bearing bright colors throughout the autumn until severe frosts, helenium got its name in honor of Helen the Beautiful, the wife of the legendary Cretan king Menelaus. As the legends say and Homer describes in the Iliad, after her abduction by Paris, the Trojan War broke out.

This is how Elena the beautiful embodied in flowers

In the photo you can see a combination of two varieties of gelenium at once: red and yellow shades.

Biological characteristic

Geleniums are annual or perennial flowering plants of the Compositae family. They come from North America, where there are 32 species.

Some of these species are decorative, such as autumn, whose garden varieties and species forms are called gelinium hybrid. It is about these plants that bloom in late summer and autumn that we will tell today.

The range of shades of the gelenium garden flower is striking in its breadth: starting from light yellow to dark burgundy. These flowers are usually from 30 centimeters to one sixty meters high, although ten-centimeter dwarfs are also found in the wild.

The flower of gelenium is a large convex center, framed by petals like chamomile. The leaves of the plant are oblong, sedge-shaped.

It is worth noting that, depending on the type, geleniums are annual and perennial.

If we consider a gelenium bush in a flower bed, we can see that this is not one plant with many branches, but a whole bunch of separate stems. Supporting each other, they create blooming splendor.

Ripening gelenium seeds fall off, rising the next year and increasing the size of the bush. Also, reproduction goes by shoots that have budded from the stems, leaving in the winter.

Varieties and types

There are a lot of varieties of gelenium, let's try to describe the most popular of them.

Helenium Rubinzwerg, as the name implies, has a dark red or ruby ​​​​color of its buds with a diameter of three to five centimeters, the central part of the flower is darker with a yellow border. The plant is about sixty centimeters high and belongs to the autumn species. This popular variety blooms from late July to October.

Helenium varieties Rubintsverg

Ruby Tuesday

The burgundy color is also inherent in the Ruby Tuesday variety of helenium. This variety is one of the shortest, its height rarely reaches half a meter. The flowers are also smaller than those of Rubinswerg, only up to three centimeters in diameter. Blooms for two months: from early August to early October.

Ruby Tuesday

Canaria

Gelenium Canaria is a typical representative of the hybrid species of this plant. Its straight and strong woody stems rise 110-120 centimeters above the soil. The tops of the stems branch, forming inflorescences forty to fifty centimeters in diameter with pale yellow petals around an orange core. The fragrance of these flowers attracts many insects, especially honey bees. The duration of flowering is short, only about forty days: from early August to mid-September.

Helenium Canaria - sunflower in miniature

autumn jazz

Helenium Autumn Jazz is similar to Canaria in the form of a plant and a flower, only it differs in a brighter color of both the core and the petals.

autumn jazz

Sunrise

Gelenium Sunrise is distinguished by its increased growth of its stems up to 130 cm and a red-brown tint of the central part of the flower with lemon-yellow petals. But sellers often call a mixture of several varieties of this flower plant that way.

Helenium Sunrise

Helena Gold

The petals and the middle of Helenium Gold are yellow with a flowering time of up to two months.

Elena golden

Hupa

Helenium Hupa, or Gupes, is a separate species of this genus. Unlike the others we have considered, this is a rhizomatous plant up to 90 centimeters tall with early flowering. The species blooms in June and blooms for a month and a half. As you can see in the photo, in the structure of the flower, it differs from the autumn hybrid gelenium.

Helenium Hupa

Agricultural technology

Growing gelenium consists in planting and caring for it in open field. Agrotechnology of this plant includes the following stages: reproduction; landing; care Each of them is important for the plant and requires some knowledge.

reproduction

Reproduction of gelenium is carried out in two ways:

• seed;
• vegetative.

Seed propagation is carried out in two ways. At the first time, the seeds are sown before winter on a prepared bed in September before the onset of stable frosts. Placed in the ground, they overwinter well.

The second way is seedling. Seeds are sown in February superficially in the snow, while stratification is carried out: they are put in the refrigerator for a month and a half. After that, the container is transferred to the light for germination at a temperature of 18-20 degrees. In the future, they are grown, like seedlings of other plants. For example, after the appearance of the third true leaf, the seedlings dive into separate pots. Plant out outdoors after the threat of a return frost has passed.

Attention! Gelenium seeds have low germination, in the first season only 60-70 percent, over time it drops even lower!

Vegetative propagation is also carried out in two ways: dividing the bush and basal rosettes. The division of the bush and the transplantation of parts are carried out in one day. Gelenium transplantation can be carried out both in the fall after flowering and in the spring after germination.

Advice! After four years, transplanting the bush to another place is required. Otherwise, the plant thickens too much and loses its qualities, in particular frost resistance. In addition, a long stay of the plant in one place depletes the soil.

The second way vegetative propagation is a transplant of basal rosettes. The fact is that, as mentioned in passing above in the text, a gelenium bush is a lot of individual shoots with their own roots. So, in the root zone on the stem, some buds give life to new plants, they look like small rosettes. During the winter, the stem, along with the root, die off, and the tiny replacement shoots overwinter well under the snow. Separating them from the shoots, and laying a new bush.

Landing

Further cultivation of gelenium occurs in open ground in a flower bed or as a tapeworm in the middle of a lawn. If you plant them in composition with other flowers, then it is best to place these flowers in the background due to their elevation above their neighbors. When choosing a solitary location, be prepared for frequent watering of the bush, as such a placement is more illuminated and dried by the sun.

Advice! Gelenium knowingly has one root with Helios - the god of the sun. You need to place it exclusively in a place illuminated all day long! In some shade, geleniums grow longer to the detriment of the size of the flowers.

The distance between the bushes with a continuous planting of gelenium is maintained from 50 to 80 centimeters, depending on the variety. best time landings for middle lane Russia is the end of May or the first decade of June, in other regions the dates are moving in one direction or another, the main thing is that there are no frosts. If cold matinees are likely, the plants should be covered with a film or covering non-woven material.

Geleniums prefer neutral and well-fertilized soil. When preparing the pit, keep in mind that it is impossible to deepen the seedlings below the pot level.

Advice! When planting seedlings in a permanent place, pour abundantly with an earthen ball for faster plant survival.

Care

Helenium pretty undemanding plants and they are easy to care for. It is necessary to monitor the condition of the soil, not allowing it to dry out. Soil mulching is used to reduce evaporation of moisture. This is best done with fine-grained materials, such as peat or compost.

In the dry period, if necessary, rare but plentiful watering is carried out, bringing at least 10 liters of water under the bush.

During the season, it is desirable to make three top dressings:

• Spring. It is carried out after the snow melts, it serves to enrich the soil nutrients during the initial period of growth. It is best to carry it out in a dry form, by adding compost or humus to the root zone. You can use dried chicken manure or mullein.
• Summer. It is carried out with herbal infusion before the flowering of the bush.
• Autumn. After cutting off old shoots, the soil is covered with a layer of organic matter. It, rotting, will provide food for soil microorganisms, and at the same time it will cover the rosettes of new helenium sprouts that have appeared.

pruning

When growing geleniums, pruning is carried out every autumn, completely cutting out all faded shoots almost flush with the ground, while trying not to damage the young rosettes.

In addition, partial pruning of faded buds is carried out, this event brings new flowers to life and prolongs the flowering period of the bush.

Shelter

In snowless frosty winters, ground rosettes of gelenium can freeze out. to prevent this from happening, you should cover the bush. For this, materials such as:

• sawdust;
• needles;
• nonwoven material.

Highly interesting video about geleniums with an interesting commentary logically completes our today's story about this plant:

There are more than 30 types of geleniums in the world today, growing mainly in North and Central America. These annuals and perennials belong to the Compositae family. Geleniums are invisible on the site almost all summer, and only at the end of summer, when the bright colors of their neighbors gradually fade, do they (which seemed invisible before) enter the arena - moderately bright and colorful, with golden baskets of warm shades.

An interesting feature of this plant is its "perennial". In fact, by winter, the roots and peduncles die, however, from the underground buds remaining on the one-year-old stem, a leaf rosette with new roots is formed, in which a peduncle will grow next year. It seems to us that an overgrown gelenium bush, which we planted earlier, is growing in the garden, but in fact it is already independent plants growing close to each other.

The length of the gelenium stem can reach 1.5 m, the leaves are alternate lanceolate. Baskets can be either single or collected in corymbose inflorescences. These flowers, depending on the specific variety, are purple, red, yellow, brown or orange colors(the central part is usually yellow or brown). After flowering, pubescent achenes of an elongated cylindrical shape are formed.

Types of helenium

As noted above, there are more than 30 varieties of gelenium in the world, but only 5 of them are suitable for growing in Russian dachas:

1. Gelenium autumn - the most common variety on summer cottages our country. Lignified stems are strong and tall (up to 160 cm in height). The leaves are small in size with a characteristic serrated edge. 3-5 cm baskets are collected in corymbose inflorescences, which can be up to 30 cm across. Reed flowers are yellow or yellow-reddish, tubular flowers are rich yellow (like egg yolk). The flowering period lasts from July to September.
2. Gelenium Gupes - plants up to 90 cm high. Grayish-green leaves are whole lanceolate. Peduncles are long. Single yellow inflorescences have a diameter of about 9 cm. Flowering lasts from June to July.
3. Gelenium spring - flowering plant, the stems of which reach a height of about 1 m. The leaves are whole lanceolate. Inflorescences have a diameter of up to 7 cm. Reed flowers are yellow-orange, and tubular flowers are painted in Brown color. Flowering occurs in mid-May and continues until the end of June.
4. Helenium Bigelow is quite rare to imagine. Straight stems reach a height of 80 cm. The leaves are lanceolate, entire. The diameter of the inflorescences is up to 6 cm. The reed flowers are yellow, and the tubular (median) flowers are brown. Flowering begins in June and lasts until the end of July.
5. Gelenium hybrid combines the characteristics various varieties, however, autumn gelenium acts as its basis.

The best varieties for giving: "Moerheim Beauty", "Cockade", "Rubinzwerg" (aka "Ruby Dwarf").

Helenium reproduction

Gelenium is propagated most often by leaf rosettes and dividing the bush (separation of 2-3-year-old bushes is performed in the spring; this The best way for propagation of varietal gelenium, characteristics parents are preserved). Less commonly, the seed method is used (suitable for propagating the species gelenium, when the varietal characteristics of the parents are not required to be fixed). In the latter case, seeds can be sown in open ground in autumn or spring, or in late February - early March - for seedlings.

With the seedling method, it is necessary to perform stratification. The planting container with seeds is wrapped in a plastic bag and put into the vegetable section of the refrigerator for 1-1.5 months. At the end of this period, the container is taken out and placed in a warm place (+18…+22 C) with artificial lighting. At the stage of 2-3 true leaves, the seedlings dive into separate cups. Landing in open ground is carried out no earlier than the end of May, when the threat of night frosts has completely passed. The site should be sunny or slightly shaded. It is best to prefer light, nutrient-rich, well-drained soils with a neutral pH. Before planting gelenium seedlings, the site should be dug up along with compost to a depth of about 25-30 cm.

The landing pit should be about 2 times larger than the landing ball. Before planting, the roots of the plant (together with a clod of earth on them) are immersed in water for several minutes so that they “get drunk” properly. It is necessary to plant seedlings of geleniums so that they are approximately at the same depth as before transplantation. The optimal distance between adjacent plantings in a row is about 30 cm, the rows themselves should be removed from each other by a distance of 35-40 cm. Upon completion of planting, the ridges are mulched with humus or peat. A seedling-grown gelenium blooms only in the second year.

By the way, the seeds need to be collected before the start of the period of prolonged autumn rains. Harvesting is done after the reed and tubular flowers turn black.

Gelenium Care

The main thing to remember when growing gelenium is that this plant does not tolerate dry soil. In particularly dry periods of summer, watering should be frequent and plentiful. However, the rest of the time it is not recommended to fill these plants. Loose soil saves from overflows, which does not allow water to stagnate for a long time. Therefore, loosening, combined with weeding from weeds, are important measures in the cultivation of geleniums. In order not to waste time on weeding - perform soil mulching.

Geleniums are fed three times per season:

1. The first top dressing is carried out in May, 1 tbsp is diluted in a bucket of water. l. urea, 1 tbsp. organic fertilizer"Effekton" and 1 tbsp. l. potassium sulfate. For processing 1 m2 spend about 3.5 liters of the resulting solution.
2. The time of the second feeding comes during the flowering period. Take 1 liter of liquid cow dung, add 1 tbsp. l. "Agricola-7" and 1 tbsp. l. Agricola Fantasies. Dilute the resulting composition in a bucket of water. For processing 1 m2, use about 2.5 liters of the resulting mixture.
3. Towards the end of October, in a bucket of water, dilute 1 tbsp. l. potassium sulfate and 1 tbsp. superphosphate. Spend 5 liters of the resulting fertilizer per 1 m2.

Also, at the very beginning of the budding period, spray the plants with the Bud growth regulator (10 g of the drug per bucket of water).

To maintain the splendor of flowering at the proper level, wilted flowers should be removed in time.

Approximately 1 time in 2-3 years, in spring, geleniums should be transplanted to a new place. Usually this procedure is combined with vegetative propagation.

Diseases and pests

Of the diseases, geleniums can “attack” rot. To prevent this from happening to your flowers, try to maintain the optimal water balance soil.

Helenium wintering

At the end of autumn, the gelenium stems must be cut almost to ground level (stumps about 10-15 cm high are left). At the end of the pruning, the surface should be mulched with sawdust or moss, and covered with lutrasil on top, which will reliably protect the plants during severe frosts, as well as in case of a little snowy winter.

Helenium is a genus herbaceous plants, both annual and perennial, belonging to the Compositae family. Includes 32 species native to North America. It is believed that the flower was named gelenium in honor of the beautiful Elena.

General information

This plant is valuable because its flowering falls at the end of summer, when there are not so many colors in the garden. Gelenium has lanceolate leaves. Double flowers of rich warm color, from yellow to purple.

In a perennial gelenium, the roots die after the peduncles, but new leaves appear from the underground buds at this time, from which there will be a new flower next year.

Varieties and types

Only five types of gelenium are cultivated, which gave rise to different varieties.

Little is grown. It has tall stems, almost a meter long, lanceolate leaves and flowers with yellow petals with a brown interior, inflorescence diameter up to 6 cm. Flowering occurs in early or mid-summer.

It also grows up to a meter tall, the flowers are slightly larger than the Bigelow species, they are orange in color, the middle of the flower is brown. Flowering falls on May-June.

Or chuppah has large yellow flowers with an orange center. Flowering occurs in the first or second months of summer.

The species that is most often found in our gardens. The stems of this gelenium grow above one and a half meters and become ancient. Flowers are large, yellow. Tubular inner flowers of a darker color. Blooms in late summer.

Created from different types, but autumn is considered the main one. The most popular variety of this species is Rubinzvert with ruby ​​flowers.

Other names you may have heard such as, red charm , phaeton , Biedremeier are varieties derived from the above species.

Gelenium planting and care in the open field

Helenium is garden flower and therefore its care and planting is carried out in the open field. When growing gelenium, the most important thing to remember is that it does not withstand a dry substrate, so the flower must be well watered, especially on hot days.

But helenium also does not like too damp ground, so it is necessary that the soil be permeable. It is also sometimes worth loosening the ground a little and weeding.

You need to fertilize gelenium at least three times. The first is nitrogen fertilization in the spring, during the melting of snow. The second at the end of spring. This time it is better to feed the gelenium with organic matter - humus or urea. Third time during flowering. Here they use liquid mullein, as well as Agricola-7, a tablespoon per 10 liters of water.

In autumn, potassium sulfate and superphosphate are bred for feeding, also a tablespoon per ten liters.

For good flowering and a beautiful bush, it is important to get rid of sluggish inflorescences and remove the tops of the shoots. A couple of years after planting, you need to transplant the gelenium. At this time, you can carry out its reproduction by dividing the bush.

Helenium seeds are collected in autumn, but before the rains. You can understand whether the seeds are ripe by inflorescences - if the seeds are ripe, then the petals will begin to darken, and the centers will turn black. But, unfortunately, the seeds you have collected may not sprout, so it is better to buy them in stores.

Before wintering, the plant is cut to ten centimeters in height. At the place of cultivation, mulching is carried out with sawdust and covered with lutrasil.

Helenium reproduction

It is necessary to plant a plant when the frosts are completely over, that is, not earlier than May. The planting site should be sunny, but a shady spot will do.

The soil needs to be drained, the acidity is neutral. Some time before planting, the site is dug up with compost. The recess for the plant should be 2 times more root. Flowers, before planting, are placed in water for several minutes to replenish moisture. The distance between the flowers must be observed in the region of 30 cm. Following planting, the soil is mulched with humus or peat.

If seedlings are obtained from seeds, then in the first year the plants will not bloom. And remember that when propagating by seeds, varietal characteristics are lost, so it is better to propagate varietal flowers vegetatively.

Diseases and pests

Gelenium almost does not get sick, but sometimes there is a defeat by chrysanthemum nematodes. At the same time, small holes appear on the leaves, and then they dry out. Sick areas are cut out and burned, and slaked lime is added to the site, if there have already been cases of plant disease.