Varieties of perennial rudbeckia and its cultivation

Perennial rudbeckia is one of the most popular plants that adorn the flower beds of the middle lane. This unpretentious flower is in demand among designers and florists for many reasons. Let's talk about the varieties, methods of care and types of reproduction of a large-flowered plant.

The homeland of perennial rudbeckia is the vicinity of North America. There she has a rather original name - Black-Eyed Susan. In their natural environment, scientists have counted more than 40 varieties of flower culture, but only a few varieties are successfully cultivated around the world.

Large inflorescences of a plant with a diameter of up to 15 centimeters look like bright yellow baskets, in the middle of which there are dark tubular flowers. The flowering of the plant is late (from mid-July to frost), active. Inflorescences have different shades: orange, purple, pink, yellow-orange, red-brown. The culture is attractive to bees for its aroma, and therefore is considered a honey plant. As a result of pollination, seeds ripen in a capsule. The height of the culture varies from 60 centimeters to 1 meter, but there are tall varieties, the height of the bushy stem of which can reach 2 meters.

Egg-shaped leaf plates, up to 20 centimeters long, have elongated petioles. The whole plant is covered with specific villi.

Consider the most popular perennial varieties of rudbeckia.

Shiny, or radiant, rudbeckia Is a long-flowering perennial crop that grows up to 70 centimeters. The name comes from the fact that the flower has petals with a smooth surface. Continuous flowering: from July to the first frost.

Goldstrum variety has beautiful flowers of a golden yellow hue. Branched bush, wide, but compact.

The dissected rudbeckia grows up to 2 meters in length. Cascading blooms are observed from August to September. Double flowers have yellow tints.

Rudbeckia purpurea, or echinacea, Is a tall perennial plant that has rather elastic shoots. The color of the flowers is from pink to dark purple. It is considered a honey plant, it tolerates frost and temperature changes well.

Glossy variety has shiny, elongated leaf plates. Inflorescences in the form of an umbrella up to 12 centimeters in diameter have yellow reed flowers at the base interspersed with green tubular ones.

Variety "Western" notable for the fact that the inflorescences do not have reed flowers. The culture is presented in the form of an elongated cone with dark median flowers edged with a greenish shade of petals. The stems are thin, strong, the leaves are elongated.

Variety "Giant" has large bushes. The leaf plates on the outer surface have a whitish coating. Small flowers in the form of tubes and tongues are decorated like a cone.

Variety "Hybrid" combines the signs of several varieties of culture at once. Terry, fleecy and semi-double inflorescences are up to 20 centimeters in diameter.

Rudbeckia "Enveloping" - dwarf variety up to 0.5 meters high. The leaf plates are smooth, with a pointed end. The marginal flowers are yellow, and the middle part is from red to dark brown. The receptacle is relatively elongated (by 30 millimeters). The undersized crop is not afraid of pests, disease and drought resistant.

Rudbeckia "Yantar" has compact bushes up to 60 centimeters high. The culture is covered with hairs. The inflorescences are in the shape of a basket with a diameter of up to 10 centimeters on long peduncles. Tubular flowers are brownish purple, and reed flowers are golden yellow.

Variety "White Swan" grows in height up to 60 centimeters. The bushes are bare, simple. Inflorescences reach 10 centimeters in diameter. Receptacle with sharp bracts.

This is a light and sun-loving culture, therefore, a place for planting must be chosen carefully. It is unacceptable to plant it in the shade and in a draft. Damp places should also be avoided: rudbeckia is afraid of snails. The site should be slightly moistened, but planting in beds with overdried soil is permissible.

Before planning planting, you need to make sure that the soil composition has an acidity between 5.8 and 6.8 units. Seedlings are afraid of the cold, so it is better to plant greens after the frost has passed. Ready-made greens are placed at a distance of up to 40 centimeters from each other. If the weather is warm, then there will be no problems with growth. If, according to the forecasts of the cold, then it is better to cover the seedlings with spunbond.

Seeds in open ground can be sown in autumn in shallow furrows at the same distance. After sowing, it is necessary to thoroughly water the flower bed, mulch it.

The advantages of cultivating a flower crop can be considered simplicity and ease, because rudbeckia is a non-capricious plant. It is grown mainly from seeds, and then transplanted into open ground by seedlings.

Plant care is standard - watering, loosening and weeding, it is important to feed in the summer and properly prepare for winter. In order to rejuvenate the culture, they practice transplanting bushes to a new place in the spring every five years and pruning in the fall. Too high varieties are recommended to be grown with support. We recommend removing dried flowers and leaves during the entire flowering period. This is an aesthetic function as well as stimulation of lush flowering.

The culture can grow in any climatic zone, it is not afraid of temperature changes even in open ground. The level of air humidity for them also does not matter. Tall varieties are afraid of strong winds and places with drafts due to the fact that they break under the pressure of the wind.

Below we will consider each procedure in more detail.

Watering should be regular, especially during periods of prolonged drought. But in spring and autumn, the rudbeckia bushes do not require abundant irrigation. It is better to carry out procedures with moisturizing in the morning or in the evening. It is preferable to direct the watering can with the horn to the base of the bush, but not to the leaves themselves.

After watering, it is necessary to saturate the soil with oxygen by loosening it. It is recommended to weed frequently.

In spring, it is preferable to apply complex fertilizers. For such purposes, thirty grams of nitrophoska, Agricola-7 and potassium sulfate must be dissolved in a container with water. It turns out 10 liters of valuable mixture, which is distributed over a plot of three square meters. It is recommended to repeat the procedure two weeks later. All feeding should be stopped in August. And before planting a new bush, do not forget to add a good portion of compost to the soil.

Most varieties of perennial rudbeckia tolerate frosts up to minus 20 degrees quite well. But care is still needed. With the onset of autumn, we advise you to cut off almost the entire aerial part of the plant, and sprinkle the soil along the diameter of the bush with sawdust or spruce branches. In winter, it is recommended to scoop up a portion of snow to the flower bed.

In the bulk, the flower culture is preferably propagated by seeds. In the autumn, ripe boxes are collected, opened and dried in a cool room. It is better to store ready-made seed material in a cloth bag. Perennial seeds can be sown in late autumn (October) in open ground or with the onset of May. Some growers practice the seedling method. The planting material is sown into the prepared soil, lightly sprinkled with a layer of earth, sprinkled with warm water from a spray bottle.

Sometimes they resort to monthly stratification in moist soil. The crops are covered with polyethylene and removed to a place with a constant temperature of plus 22 degrees. Seedlings can be expected in two weeks. After that, the polyethylene is removed. During the rooting process, the containers are constantly hardened by gradually lowering the temperature. It is best to plant in March for the reason that early seedlings can stretch out.

We advise you to irrigate seedlings from a spray bottle for the reason that young greens are very fragile, and their roots are poorly formed. The water should be separated, at room temperature. It is not worth overmoistening the soil, otherwise problems will appear in the form of diseases or pests. For mass sowing, a pick is needed. It is best to do it at the stage of development of the third leaflet. In this case, it is better to remove weak greens, and it is recommended to immediately send a strong plant to a separate glass.

Seedlings are best planted in an already warm soil when the threat of cold and frost passes. These are approximate dates - May or June: this range of months depends on the specific region. A good portion of sand and compost is added to the dug soil. For soils with a poor composition, peat or humus is recommended.

A method of dividing a plant is used as a reproduction method. The procedure can be carried out by the end of September or in spring, after the snow melts.

As mentioned earlier, the culture does not tolerate excess moisture, otherwise diseases and pests begin to attack it. Rudbeckia is susceptible to spider mites and aphids. In this case, pesticide treatment is recommended. Sometimes the leaves of the plant are eaten by caterpillars, but you can pick them up by hand.

If a whitish bloom appears on the leaf plates, it means that the plant is affected by powdery mildew. It is best to destroy the affected parts, and all the remaining greens should be treated with Topaz. Florists at home use the following composition: they take half a matchbox of copper sulfate for a bucket of water. The mixture is mixed well and processed twice with an interval of seven days. If there are any plants or shrubs nearby, then the treatment should also affect them in order to prevent.

Less often, a nematode settles on the leaf plates. At that moment, the leaf plates seem to be covered with rust and die off. You can get rid of the disease if you use drugs such as "Nemaphos", "Nemagon", "Bazamid".

For a long time rudbeckia has been considered a wonderful decoration and addition to flower beds. Often it is planted for aesthetic reasons: it blooms late, and before flowering pleases the eye with lush greenery, complementing the overall compositional idea. Culture perfectly coexists with flowers such as aster, sage, phlox.

When planted, the lush green mass perfectly complements any design style and genre. It is in perfect harmony in naturalistic plantings and mixborders with anemones, goldenrod, monarda, veronica, barberry.

When forming a composition, you should take into account some of the nuances: dwarf varieties will look great in pots, hanging containers or flower beds, and their tall ones in large flower beds in the background. From an aesthetic point of view, tall varieties can decorate all architectural errors: hide the irregularities of the fence, veil the old wall. When cut, the flower can stand for a long time, decorating the room.

Perennial flowering plant rudbeckia is unpretentious in care. It does not require abundant watering, but it loves the sun. Subject to all growing conditions, you can enjoy the beauty most of the summer and autumn.