Katananha - lilac daisies

Send

The Katananha surprisingly combines winter hardiness with a look more typical for flyers. This plant is surprisingly airy and delicate, relentlessly releasing trembling flowers with a delicate bluish-lilac color. Despite its fragility, the katanakh does not know its competitors both as a plant for cutting and in decorating compositions. After all, no other perennial can boast of such an ability to bring lightness, harmony in complex ensembles. It is not at all difficult to cultivate the katananha, except for the need to provide this crop with fairly frequent watering in the drought.

Content:

Relentlessly blooming katananha
Conditions Required by the Katanha
Boarding and transplanting katananhe
Katanha care
Wintering katananhe
Pest and Disease Control
Catananche breeding methods

Relentlessly blooming katananha

Katananhe is a plant that cannot be ranked among the most popular garden crops. But it deserves a very bad fate. A beautifully flowering perennial that shows off all over the summer with a scattering of flowers, not inferior in anything to any blue-colored annual, is truly a unique plant. It is no harder to grow katananhe than garden cornflowers, but much more colorful. And their popular nickname "Mediterranean cornflowers" fully reflects the nature of this plant.

There are only 5 plant species in the genus Catanha. Of these, only decorative crops are grown katananhe blue (catananche caerulea) This is a herbaceous perennial, which in countries with harsh winters is notable for its fragility, shortened lifespan. But the information that the katanankhe lives only 2 years and dies is erroneous: this plant simply loses its decorativeness from 3-4 years old, needs more frequent division than usual perennials. But at the same time, it does not perish even without shelter in frosts of -30 degrees.

The bushes of the katanankhe reach a height of 60 cm. Their “garden life” begins with tiny jackets, which gradually grow and gain power, reaching almost a meter in diameter and of ever greater height and abundant flowering. Narrow, linear foliage reminds of bulbs and cereals, and the illusion is stronger, the more pronounced is the arrangement of leaves exclusively at the base of the shoots, in beautiful bundles of rosettes.

Inflorescences-baskets at the katanankhe bloom at the ends of thin, bare and, despite the apparent fragility, very strong peduncles. Katananha flowers resemble a hybrid of chicory, cornflowers and daisies. They are surprisingly beautiful and delicate, with narrow ciliated “petals” along the edge and a beautiful center of dark contrasting color.

At the same time, reed flowers are quite tough, resemble paper to the touch, located both in one row and several in terry varieties. And the tubular ones in the center of the darker, ink-violet color form a very beautiful center. In diameter, the baskets reach 4 cm. After flowering, beautiful achenes are tied, each of which contains more than 5 hundred seeds.

The flowering period of the katananche lasts almost all summer. Classic katananhe bloom from May to August, but most modern hybrid varieties bloom until September and even until the first frost.

The color scheme of the amazing katananha includes blue, violet, pink-purple and white shades.

Katananha in decorative gardening use:

as a bluish accent;
in the role of a long-flowing basis of compositions;
for texture flower beds and mixborders, chintz rabatki, forbs in a rustic style;
in English gardens, flower beds, surrounded by a boxwood border for a contrasting light “middle”;
for texture accents and mixborders with a bet on leaf texture;
in the flower beds in the foreground and the discounts in the middle;
for decorating the lawn with large curtains;
for making airiness, visual lightness in massive, large compositions;
for decorating rockeries and rock gardens;
as a cutting crop for live and winter bouquets.

The best partners for the Katanha: perennials and summers with white, purple, yellow color or a beautiful leaf texture - nyvyanik, sage, bluebells, Byzantine chives, gray fescue, spray roses

Conditions Required by the Katanha

In order for the katanakh to reveal all its decorativeness, it must be planted on a sunny platform. Even the slightest shading negatively affects the abundance of flowering, so it is better not to experiment and immediately select open areas. Places for landing katananhe should be warm, protected from cold drafts.

The soil for katanankhe is suitable any of a number of high-quality and calcareous. The main thing is that the soil is well-drained, loose and light in texture. Soil reaction is critically important, and for a katanha planted even on neutral soil, it will be necessary to add a portion of lime to the soil annually (in early spring).

Boarding and transplanting katananhe

Planting seedlings in the ground can be carried out only in late May or early June, katanankhe shares are planted in May. The optimal distance when planting a katanankhe is 30 cm to neighboring plants. When planting seedlings, it is important not to destroy the earthen lump, protecting the rhizomes as much as possible from injuries. Catananha is not afraid of transplantation, but this approach will help plants to take root and bloom faster. Immediately after planting, both plots and seedlings of the katanankha need to be given increased attention, to ensure regular watering until growth resumes.

But if there are no tricks in planting a perennial, then in its division, updating there are many nuances. The fact is that the katananche is albeit a perennial, but not too durable. Due to the very long, plentiful flowering of the plant, 3 years after planting, the attractiveness of the bushes and the number of flowers begin to sharply decrease. To avoid disappointment, do not bring the bushes of the katananhe to a neglected state, it is better to plan plantings for every 3-4 years. To do this, either completely replace the plants with young ones, or divide the old bushes and transfer them to a new place.

Katanha care

This plant is not too demanding to care for. The main thing is to provide the katanakh with drought compensation by introducing the katanankha into the garden care program and obligatory watering on hot and dry days. The higher the temperature, the more plentiful the watering should be. With normal rainfall, there is no need to water the plant. When carrying out procedures, be careful not to over-moisten the soil: dampness on the katanakh affects very badly, inhibits growth and flowering.

Katananha supplements will not be needed regardless of age. This crop grows well in poor soil. For her, even in early spring, traditional organic fertilizers are not applied.

Wintering katananhe

The Katananha, in spite of sufficient frost resistance, needs shelter for the winter. The thing is that for this perennial snowless periods and sharp temperature drops are fatal, and the task at shelter is to stabilize the conditions and compensate for the phenomena typical of the middle band.

Pest and Disease Control

Even in conditions of waterlogging, the katanha remains a persistent plant, does not suffer from pests and diseases. But endurance does not mean at all that careless care or improper selection of growing conditions will not lead to a loss of decorativeness.

Catananche breeding methods

Samosev (use of "spontaneous" shoots as seedlings).

Seeds

For this crop, it is the sowing of seeds that is considered the ideal method of propagation, because this option is the most effective and allows you to get bushes that do not lose their attractiveness for 3-4 years. Katananha seeds can be sown directly into the soil. But in this case, sowing should be postponed until the beginning of summer, carry it out in seedlings with subsequent transfer to a permanent place and accept the fact that the katanakh will begin to bloom only in the second year.

More effective method of sowing seedlings. It is carried out in the last decade of March, into a loose substrate, just scattering seeds on the surface and covering it with a thin layer of sifted soil. It is necessary to moisten the soil not before, but after sowing, using a spray gun. In order to succeed, you need to prevent the substrate from drying out or watering, gradually grow young seedlings to the second pair of leaves and transfer them to individual containers. Landing is carried out in open soil not earlier than May 25, but better in June.

Separation of bushes

Katananha can be divided in May, near the end of the month. The bushes are dug up with a large amount of soil, carefully separated with a sharp knife and planted without destroying the lump of earth.