Exotic plants are extraordinary - canna. Due to the beauty of its flowers and leaves, canna can take a special place in any flower bed, becoming its main decoration. Good canna and the fact that it grows well in the apartment, for example, on the balcony or loggia. But, probably, the most convincing argument in its favor is unpretentiousness, resistance to drought and pests. Beautiful exotic plants are the pride of any florist. We will tell you more about cannes - flowers: agrotechnics, whose wintering requires observance of certain rules.
What grade is better?
There are a lot of canes. One of them is characterized by beautiful decorative leaves, others - an unusual coloring of flowers. But all these plants are divided into groups in height: high (1.5 m), medium (1 m) and low (50 - 60 cm). The most good grades suitable for breeding in the middle lane are the Fire Wizard, America, Valentina Tereshkova, Sun Beauty, Firebird and some others. High varieties of canoes are planted only on the street. Since these plants reach 1.5 m in height, they have many large flowers and wide leaves. And, consequently, they need a lot of space and nutrients. These include varieties of cannon Fire Wizard, Koenig Humbert, America, President, Firebird.
Grades of medium height are also preferable to plant on flowerbeds, in flower gardens. Since they can grow up to 1 m with a lot of flowers and leaves. Among them, the varieties Valentina Tereshkova, Gurman Titov, the Solar Beauty proved to be very good.
But low cannes are ideal for small flower beds, curbs or focal plantings, and for decorating various rooms. The house is especially good for cultivating the Vostok-2 variety. It grows to 40 - 50 cm, can give up to 23 flowers 9 cm in diameter, and also has many green leaves.
Regardless of the variety, canna flowers are perennial herbal plants with horizontal, branched, thickened rhizomes. Which are located at a depth of 5 - 15 cm and develop powerful appendages. The stems of these plants are erect, not branched, formed by leaves. And they, depending on the variety, can grow up to 25 - 80 cm, usually large, pointed to the top. But the most valuable thing in leaves is color, which can be just plain solid with different shades, from green to dark chestnut, or striped. Flowers of plants also surprise with a variety of colors and sizes, peculiarity of the structure. The variety of their color is no limit! Flowers can be monophonic, for example, pink. Or with shades - fiery red, light orange and so on. Or with different pigmentation, fringes, specks, strokes. Only one drawback is with cannabis, they do not have a smell. But this is easily compensated by their beauty and unusualness.
Color unpretentiousness
Along with these qualities, canes have a rare resistance to pests and diseases. Only with a strong waterlogging of the soil, they can be affected by rust fungus, which "leaves" rusty spots on the leaves. Or gray rot - Botrytis fungus, because of what turn black and start to rot inflorescences. Occasionally these plants can infect a virus of variegation, from which black dots appear on the leaves. And in heavily infected cannes, flowers are twisted and diminished in size. Diseases are treated very easily - enough to cut off the infected areas.
Agrotechnics of growing flowers cannes
In the natural environment, cannes grow in warm countries, such as subtropical America or tropical Africa. Therefore, agricultural technology should be appropriate. This should be remembered, attaching them to our middle belt. Basically it concerns the landing site. It should be a bright, well-lit place (plants are capable of carrying direct sunlight), protected from winds and without drafts. Landed canes in deeply treated, very loose and nutritious soil to a depth of 5 - 10 cm after the frosts have passed and stable warm weather is established. The soil must consist of equal parts of peat, leaf land, humus and coarse sand. In it at a distance of 50 - 75 cm plant rhizomes. Before the appearance of the first shoots, the canals are watered sparingly. But in the flowering period, they need to provide abundant watering and frequent, 1 - 2 times a week, fertilizing liquid complex fertilizers. We often loosen the soil and, if necessary, weed out the weed. In the autumn, watering and top dressing of plants is gradually reduced. And with the onset of frosts, they are high-tempered so that the root cervices do not freeze - otherwise during the "wintering" the plants may be rotted.
Wintering cannes
Wintering canoes is quite simple. For the winter, the plants are excavated, dried for 1 to 2 days. Then, the wilted leaves and roots are cut off, the remaining rhizomes are covered with moist peat. The capacity is put in a dry room with a temperature of at least +5 degrees. During this period watering is not carried out!
Care of canna in the room is not much different from if they were growing in the open ground. The same watering, feeding and so on. Only their vegetation period will increase, they can bloom for a long time after the onset of cold weather. And if moderately watered with soft, settled water and provided with light, that is, use additional lighting, the canes will keep the greens for the whole winter. However, plants are still worth resting for at least 2 months. To do this, you gradually need to reduce watering and, in the end, stop altogether. Trim the leaves 10 to 15 cm from the base and transfer the pots to a cooler place. So they must stand until the spring.
It happens that the only place to store cannes in winter is the apartment. In this case, the rhizomes can be stored in a large plastic bucket, filled to the brim with dry ground. Until the air temperature on the balcony or loggia does not drop to 5 ° C, they can be stored there. Then they are brought into the apartment and put on the cold floor near the balcony doors. For the entire time of wintering, you only need to moisten the top layer of the earth in the bucket several times with water.
Reproduction of cannon
Flower growers, who want to have as many canes as possible, need to master the agrotechnics of reproduction of this unusual plant. There are two of them: the division of rhizomes and seeds. In the first case, it is necessary to get very carefully the canes without destroying their earthy coma. This is done so that the rhizome does not wither, but on the contrary, ripened in it during the winter. And in March they are shaken off the ground, choose the best, cut off the obsolete roots. The pure rhizome is divided according to the number of freely detached processes in it. And the youngest again cover with earth or sand for 3 - 5 cm. So they will germinate better. At this time, you need to create a certain temperature and humidity: the room should be warm and carried out a rare spraying. In early April, the rhizomes of plants should be transferred to a warm greenhouse and densely laid on the ground, sprinkled with earth. As soon as the canna leaves reach such a development that they begin to press each other, the plants are planted in selective order in pots of 11-13 cm. In June, the seedlings are planted in the open ground.
Seed reproduction is more troublesome. Seedlings obtained in this way are very different in shape and color from the original varieties. But if this fact does not bother, then in February it is necessary to put the seeds of canna for 1 to 2 hours in the snow, then scald with boiling water. Then they are sown in boxes or a warm greenhouse. And after 25 - 30 days there are shoots. In March they make a pick in small pots, which should stand in a warm room until the end of May or the beginning of June. Then the cannes are planted in the open ground.
Attention!
In some cases canna flowers may not bloom:
1. For example, as a consequence of early planting seedlings in the ground - until the end of spring frosts. And since cannes are heat-loving plants, they will be able to withstand the morning cold snap, but they do not already blossom.
2. When planting these plants in the open ground, it is better to make a hot bed of manure. They are filled with a pit 50 cm deep by 3/4 (a layer of at least 20 cm), then they are sprinkled with sand (20 - 25 cm), and the rhizome of canna is placed on top and again covered with sand. A hot effect is created for the roots. From this canna will not only bloom, but also develop well.
We hope you are interested in canna - flowers, agrotechnics, whose wintering is not particularly difficult. But the effect of their beauty will surpass all expectations!