There are many legends about phloxes. In them, flowers awaken passions, make you love and hate, feel keenly and richly. They say that they will certainly bring happiness if grown with their own hands. And traditional healers advise drinking a decoction from the petals of white phloxes, so as to always be collected and calm.
Plant description
In the culture, about 40 species of phlox are grown as annual or perennial beautifully flowering herbs and shrubs. They belong to the family Polemoniaceae (Cyanosis). The Swedish botanist C. Linney, who studied in the 18th century. description of wild flowers, gave them the Greek name φλόξ, comparing it with a bright flame.
Multi-colored phlox
For your information! Phlox flowers can be painted in various shades: from white to purple. Coloring is monophonic and with the addition of halftones, strokes, dots, spots.
Inflorescences of flowers are collected in various configurations - panicles, pyramids, cones. Plants have strong stems erect, lying or ascending, with a height of 30 cm to 1.8 m. Strongly branching roots penetrate deep into the soil. Due to this, perennial phloxes well tolerate wintering in open ground. Some types of phloxes bloom from early spring, in mid-summer phloxes belonging to plants of medium flowering bloom, in August there comes a turn of late species.
What you should know about phlox reproduction
Many flower growers do not attribute phlox to plants, which can cause some difficulties when reproducing. Indeed, these flowers, with careful attention to the matter, can be bred in several ways, and all of them give positive results.
Seed propagation
This method is used by breeders to grow plants with new characteristics, as there is a change in color and shape of inflorescences. Seeds are collected from ripe fruit bolls and in the same year in September-November they are sown in containers that are dug in the garden for the winter. During the winter, the seeds undergo stratification (sleep in the cold), in the spring they germinate. Shoots are transplanted into the soil when the plants reach a height of 8-10 cm.
Note! Between the seedlings, it is necessary to make spaces of 10-15 cm.
Bush division
The method of dividing the bush is used either in the spring at the beginning of the development of the bush, or in the early autumn. Thus, plants are propagated at the age of 5-6 years, having well-branched large roots. Phlox rhizomes are dug up together with a lump of earth, which will protect the plants from severe damage. Then you need to shake off the ground and carefully separate the root necks that go to different stems from each other.
Bush division
On each new part there should be eyes, rudiments of shoots and several root processes. Separated bushes are best planted in the ground immediately. If this is not possible, then prepare a clay mash. Delenki stand in it for 3-5 minutes. and placed in a plastic bag or sprinkled with damp earth, this will allow the roots not to dry out.
Shared bush
Propagation by cuttings
For the formation of cuttings, shoots are used without signs of disease, traces of pests or simply phlox leaves. Shoots and leaves should be well developed, they are cut from healthy plants. In the spring before the start of budding, the method of stem cuttings is used; in the summer, propagation is carried out with the help of leaves, which are cut together with the axillary bud on a small piece of the stem. The leaves are planted in moist soil with an admixture of sand and vermiculite to a depth of 1.5-2 cm. The axillary bud and stem should be in the substrate. Boxes with cuttings are covered with glass, which is daily lifted and moistened with soil.
Stalk Phlox Shanks
For stem cuttings, green, strong shoots are chosen and only from healthy plants. The shoots are cut into several parts so that each has four leaves located opposite each other, that is, two nodes. 2 cm of the stem are left above the upper leaves, the lower cut is made directly under the knot. The upper leaves are completely removed, the leaves of the lower node are cut off in half. Cuttings are rooted in fertile soil. Use crates or trenches in open ground. Plants create greenhouse conditions.
Propagation by layering
This method is very simple. It is most often used for growing new perennial phlox. The lower parts of the plant are covered with moist soil at 1/3 of the height of the bush. The earth is constantly moistened. When the roots appear on the stems, the layers are freed from the soil, cut from the bush and planted at a permanent place of cultivation.
Propagation by layering
How to choose the right place to land
Among the various phloxes, there are still a lot of wild species. One of them grows in Siberia, this mountain flower is named after the place of origin - Phlox Sibirica. This fact once again emphasizes how unpretentious phloxes, planting and caring in the open ground for them do not require many efforts, material costs and some impossible conditions.
Kidney requirements
The soil in the flower garden should be fertile and light with a neutral level of acidity. If necessary, lime and sand are added to the planting wells for deoxidation. To increase fertility, peat, mineral fertilizers, highly diluted slurry, and compost are used.
The effect of sunlight
Phlox really needs enough lighting. Only in well-sun-lit plots of land the phlox will have powerful roots, and bright sunlight will accelerate the processes of photosynthesis, prevent the stems from becoming thin and elongated, and allow plants to tie in dense large inflorescences of bright colors.
Temperature
All types of phloxes (both annuals and perennials) do not like shade, in it they form small loose inflorescences, but they tolerate heat well. Phlox bloom until late autumn - to frost. Small negative temperatures will cause the plants to drop flower petals, but the phlox stems will remain green.
Air humidity
Increased air dryness will have little effect on the appearance of flowering shrubs if the roots of the plants do not suffer from a lack of moisture. In this case, tan marks can form on the leaves, because phlox in the wild grows where there is a lot of light and moisture. To make the flowers in the garden comfortable, maintain an average level of humidity, if necessary, conduct surface spraying of plants.
How to plant
Planting conditions depend on the climate of the growing place. Phlox refers to cold-resistant crops, so they are popular in areas with different climates and day lengths. In regions with long cold seasons, phloxes do not grow on the northern sides of sites and in the shade.
In places with a sharply continental climate, early varieties with short growing periods are used for cultivation. In the Urals, for planting and caring for phlox in the open ground, southern hillocks are protected from the winds. In the southern regions, phlox is reserved for slightly shaded areas available for irrigation and regular maintenance.
How to care for phlox
Like all cultivated plants, phlox can not do without the active participation of a person in their life.
How to feed
The first top dressing is necessary in early spring, after winter shelters - foliage, dry grass or artificial protective materials - are removed from the soil surface. For the growth of stems and the formation of buds, nitrogen fertilizers will be needed: nitrate, urea or feeding chicken droppings, mullein. In summer, for abundant flowering, plants need superphosphate, boron and kalimagnesia. In the fall, potassium sulfate and phosphate fertilizers are used.
Important! Mineral fertilizing is applied on moist soil in the root zone after rain or watering.
Loosening and mulching
The basal soil crust formed after rains and watering does not allow the roots of the plant to breathe normally, and the cracked earth drains them. Therefore, loosening the soil when caring for phlox is indispensable. To simultaneously loosen the soil and remove weeds, plane cutters and choppers are used.
Mulching of the root zone in the summer allows plant roots not to suffer from overheating and lack of moisture, and the soil - not to dry out. Natural and artificial materials are suitable for mulch: mowed grass, last year's sawdust, dried bark, decomposed seedless compost, stone, sand, gravel, special plastic.
Mulching
Cropping and shaping the crown
For better tillering, phloxes are nipped over the fifth pair of leaves. At this time, plants should have well-developed stems and at least six leaf nodes. Pinching is carried out before the formation of the buds. As a result, lateral shoots increase, the flowering zone increases, the crown of the bushes expands. As they bloom, dried flowers are removed from the inflorescences.
In areas with harsh winters, pruning of dying stems in early phlox species begins in late August, late varieties are pruned in October-November. The work is carried out with sharp tools so that the stalks are not crushed. In order not to harm the kidneys of renewal, leave ten centimeters hemp.
Important! In the southern regions, plant stems are not removed for the winter, pruning is carried out in the spring.
Stalk pruning
Watering
A powerful root system of phlox is able to raise a lot of moisture to the tops of plants, but this moisture must be in the soil. The need for watering and their intensity are determined by the appearance of the plant: with a lack of moisture, the lower parts of the stalks turn pale, the leaves turn yellow and die, the inflorescences become smaller. When the soil dries up to 1 m², up to two buckets of water are used, it is necessary that the moisture moisten the soil to the layer where the roots are located.
Wintering and shelter
In cold climates and in those places where little snow falls in winter, but frosts break out, trimmed bushes of plants are covered with dry peat, fallen leaves. The thickness of the shelter is up to 10 cm. In spring, the protection is removed. Where phlox does not carry out autumn pruning of stems, snow accumulates in the bushes and becomes an additional protection of plants.
When to transplant phlox
For phlox transplantation, the most favorable period is autumn two to three weeks before the expected frosts. By the time of transplantation, phlox should already have cut off the stems, and the soil is not much warmed up. Spring transplantation is carried out after the snow melts and the ground thaws. In summer, transplants are carried out by the method of dividing the bush throughout the entire warm season.
For your information! Flower plants do not need to be grown in the same place for more than six years. Otherwise, various pathogens and pest larvae accumulate in the soil.
Pest and Disease Control
Phlox suffer from viral and fungal diseases and leaf-eating insects. You have to fight with them and take care of flower bushes all the time until the plants go into hibernation. A variety of chemical and biological agents are used to destroy pests and various pathogens, decoctions and infusions based on folk recipes are used to repel insects.
Phloxes are very beautiful flowers. To plant them on your site, just love the plants and be able to care for them.
