Karagana: description and varieties, planting and care

In a city park, a park or on a personal plot, you can find a plant in the form of a small tree or shrub with unusual foliage and many small yellow flowers. People often think that it is acacia, but the correct name for the culture is Karagana.

About 7 dozen cultures belong to the Karagan genus. All of them have a similar description and grow in nature in the form of thickets in the forest-steppe zones of the Far East, Siberia, and European regions of Russia. The plant is popularly called yellow acacia. Caragana is a small tree or shrub from the Legume family, which is characterized by unusual regular foliage, as well as bisexual flowers with a yellow or golden color.

The cultivated representative of the flora is a good honey plant, therefore, high-quality and healthy honey is obtained from the yellow acacia. The culture is characterized by resistance to drought and severe frost. She takes root well in a gas-polluted region, but loves to grow at the edge of or near a river.

In the first days of summer, yellow flowers begin to appear on the bush. Typically, the flowering phase of this representative of the flora lasts up to 50 days. At the end of this period, fruits appear on the caragan in the form of small peas in pods.

Currently, many types of caragana are grown.

• Tree-like. This yellow acacia is recognized as the most popular among gardeners. It looks like a smooth-bore shrub 7 m high. The shoots of the plant are bare, have a brown-green color. The leaves are bright, green. The culture blooms with single yellow flowers. At the end of the flowering phase, narrow cylindrical fruits appear on the caragan.

• Karagan "Pendula". And also the culture is called weeping acacia. The plant looks like a small graceful tree with an original crown and long weeping branches. Depending on the season, the leaves of the culture are able to change their color. In the springtime, they are painted in an emerald hue, and in the fall - in yellow. The flowering of the shrub begins after the leaves open. The fruit of the culture is a cylindrical bean.

• Shrub. A small bush no more than 200 cm high. The bark of the culture has a pale green, yellowish color. The flowering period of caragana falls in late spring and lasts until early summer.

• Dwarf. This yellow acacia looks like a small bush. Its height does not exceed 100 cm. The trunk of the caragana has a smooth shiny bark. On thin shoots - silvery-green foliage. When used correctly, the plant can have anti-inflammatory effects and relieve fever.

• Prickly. The maximum crop height is 150 cm. Karagana has many unbranched prickly shoots with small foliage. During flowering, flowers appear on the bush with a diameter of 2 cm.

• Ussuriyskaya. This is a winter-hardy caragana species that looks like a small bush with melliferous characteristics. Often the plant can be found in the forest or in the steppe.

• Maned, or "camel tail". It is a perennial herb with a height of no more than 1 m.Thick branches have a large number of thorns. The thorny caragana is considered a hardy representative of the flora that can grow on poor soil.

• Small-leaved caragana looks like a meter-long bush. The culture has a yellowish bark, straight or bent branches. The foliage is small, has a blunt or truncated top. The yellow acacia fruit is a flat lily bean.

• Scythian. Caragana of this species is listed in the Red Book. It belongs to the southern Black Sea endemic.

There is nothing difficult in planting caragana seedlings, so even an inexperienced gardener can safely take on this business. In order for a plant to grow healthy and beautiful, you need to follow some planting rules.

In this case, it is worth giving preference to a well-lit place, but the caragana grows well in partial shade. For active growth of yellow acacia, it is better to plant it in sandy loam soil. This representative of the flora does not show sensitivity to the level of acidity and nutrient content of the soil.

There are several main stages of planting.

• After the selection of the site, it is worthwhile to mark it with the help of a specially stretched rope fixed with pegs.
• Next, you need to dig a planting hole with a depth of 0.4 to 0.5 m.
• At the bottom of the hole, it is necessary to equip a drainage layer consisting of rubble, and sprinkle it with earth.
• When planting, it is worth shaking the seedling lightly in order to fill the voids between the roots.
• The last step is to place the young caragana in the pit and carefully tamp the substrate. Experts recommend not sticking the plant into the soil, as this can damage it.
• A fresh plantation must be watered, and the soil near the seedling must be trampled down.
• Gardeners should not ignore the mulching of the near-trunk crop circle with needles and hay.

The yellow acacia shrub is considered unpretentious. But the care and implementation of some important activities will certainly contribute to the active development and flowering of culture.

It is recommended to moisten the soil near the caragana at least 3 times in 7 days. It is impossible to overmoisten the soil too much, since the culture does not like swampy soil and can die from rotting of the root system. After moistening, it is necessary to loosen the soil well, while removing all weeds.

You need to fertilize yellow acacia bushes only in the initial stages of growth. Young representatives of the flora need more nutrients than adults. It is recommended to apply dressings from May to August, taking a break of 14 days. Chicken droppings and mullein are considered the ideal feeding option for caragana.

Formative pruning is one of the most important procedures for caragana. It is worth carrying it out in the 2nd year of the life of the culture.

After these important activities, pruning can be carried out at will, shaping the appearance of the yellow acacia, following your taste. In the same way, the weeping type of caragana is formed. A well-groomed tree after pruning looks quite attractive and original.

Yellow acacia is classified as a frost-resistant flora. but young crops, whose age does not exceed 3 years, should be protected from low temperatures... For this purpose, the caragana stems should be wrapped in burlap.

Yellow acacia can be propagated:

• using seeds;
• layering;
• bush division.

A plant has good growth and development if it is propagated by dividing root shoots, the number of which in the culture exceeds the norm. It is worth separating the planting material in the spring, since this period is considered optimal for planting.For planting a culture, you need to prepare small pits. The distance between them should not exceed 50 cm.

To form layering, young branches are used, located at the bottom of the shoot.... Young twigs should be dug in so that they take root well. Plants will need abundant watering immediately after planting. Rooting can be observed after a year, then the layers are separated from the mother and planted in a separate hole.

During spring and summer pruning, you can prepare planting material. The lower part of the root is soaked in liquid with a rooting stimulator. A young caragana is able to take root only after a month. If you propagate yellow acacia seeds, then before the procedure, they should be soaked in cold water for a day. As it develops, the planting material is planted in a permanent place of growth.

The most common ailments of caragana are considered the following fungal diseases:

• powdery mildew;
• rust;
• white rot.

The fight against the disease is to remove the affected parts. As a preventive measure, it is worth carrying out timely sanitary pruning of the shrub.

When attacking caragana by any pest, they use insecticides. Most often, the culture suffers from acacia aphids, glassworms, false scale insects and lice beetles.

The neat and fast-growing yellow acacia is appreciated by landscape designers. It is often used to create hedges. Compositions from different representatives of the flora look very original, for example, from "Pendula", the Ussuri and tree varieties. Often, Karagana is used to preserve crumbling slopes. This bush is planted in a garden area, in a tub or used to decorate a terrace.

In the next video, you will learn about the use of the tree caragana and its beneficial properties.