When the snow still lies in April, the flower of the bluebell, which is often mistakenly called the blue snowdrop, opens its delicate petals. This beautiful and graceful flower has long been loved by gardeners in many countries, widely using it in the decoration of rock gardens, rocky gardens, flower beds and flower groups.
Scallop (flower): description
Blossoming in the very first spring, the spells also have another name - Scylla. All the variety of species of this flower, which botanists counted more than 80, belong, according to the latest scientific data, to the family of Asparagus, and not Liliaceae or Hyacinths, as previously thought. This is a perennial herb onion plant with several basal narrow leaves. A bluebell flower releases one leafless peduncle. On it are small flowers of a star-shaped or bell-shaped form.
They can be either single or grouped in a brush. Coloring of flowers can be different: blue, blue, pink, lilac and white. Blueberry flowers - scylla - bushes form low, their maximum height in rare cases exceeds 13-15 cm.
Botanical features
All the sprouts that bloom both in spring and autumn are ephemeroids. This means that in a very short period of time, less than a month, they manage to not only grow the aerial part and bloom, but also form the seeds. Then the plant goes into a dormant phase, and the flower of the spillage drops the leaves, and its bulb falls asleep underground until the next season.
Variety of species
In the genus Scilla, there are more than 80 different species that live mainly in areas of Asia, Europe and North Africa with a temperate and cool climate. In gardening, not all species known to scientists are used. In the conditions of our middle zone, it is quite possible to choose the types and varieties of the scylls so that they please their flowering from early spring to autumn.
Scilla Mishchenko
In the still empty garden after winter, the first spring flowers of Mishchenko’s sprout are the first to appear. This miniature, only 10 cm high scylla, blooms in white, with a light blue veil of flowers. It produces from 2 to 4 peduncles, the height of which varies between 8-12 cm. In each inflorescence, there are from 3 to 5 bluish-white flowers with a diameter of 2–2.5 cm. The flower of the Mishchenko scrub blooms, depending on weather conditions, in the middle - the end of April. It blooms for 15-20 days. This species is one of the earliest and large-flowered, was described in 1927. His homeland is northwestern Iran. In gardening, it began to be used in Holland since 1936. This species is unpretentious and is widely used in European gardens. Prefers sunny areas with loose, but not very light earth.
Single-flowered scaffold
Around the same time, a taller, about 15 cm, elegant single-flowered Scylla blooms.
Only when opened, her flowers are painted in a pale blue color and brighten over time. For each petal, they are decorated with a central blue vein and anthers of a bright blue hue.
Bifolia
At the very beginning of May, a spectacular two-leaf scylla blooms even before flowering. From the foliage of saturated burgundy color, a racemose, as if braided in a braid, grows an inflorescence. Over time, the peduncle stretches up, and the scythe turns into a scutellum, consisting of 6–9 medium-sized, wide-open flowers of a thick blue color. They can retain freshness for up to ten days. For more than five centuries, this species of scrub has been known. Flowers, the cultivation of which does not cause much trouble, have been cultivated in European gardens since the 16th century. Today there are forms with delicate pink as well as white flowers.
Siberian spelling
Following the double-leafed silla, the most common and unpretentious Scilla sibirica (Siberian sprout) blooms in the gardens. It produces flower stalks up to 15 cm high, on which two or three flowers with a diameter of 2 cm are located. They are usually painted in azure or blue-blue color. In the gardens, this species of bluebell has been grown since the 18th century. Modern breeders have created several varieties of Siberian scylla, comparing favorably with the original form of larger flowers and bright color petals:
- purple-blue multi-flowered Spring Beauty;
- saturated azure Vazlav;
- bright cornflower blue Sapphire;
- Alba - this forest species has white flowers.
Cannula spike
This species pleases the gardener's eye with its flowering at about the same time as the Siberian scylla. The birthplace of Scilla puschkinioides is the mountain systems of the Pamirs and Tien Shan. On its racemose peduncle is from 5 to 7 pale blue flowers with a diameter of up to two centimeters.
Rosen Scaffold
At the very beginning of May, the latest sprout blooms - Rosen. Wide dark green leaves are funnel-shaped around powerful peduncles, each of which is 1–2 large, up to 4 cm in diameter, resembling cyclamens. Perianth leaves are painted in a delicate, lilac-blue hue, almost white at the base, and decorated with long stamens with anthers of bright blue color.
Other species
As already mentioned above, in addition to the forests that delight us with their flowering in the spring, there are species that bloom in the summer and even in the fall.
In June, it reveals its small violet-blue flowers collected in the spike-shaped inflorescence of Italian Scylla. A little later, the multifloral, bluish-lilac spawn of Litardier blooms. At the end of July - the beginning of August, the flowering time of the Scythian sprouts, often called autumn, comes.
We create conditions
Regardless of what type of forest you are going to grow on your site, you need to create at least the minimum conditions for the growth and flowering of this unpretentious perennial. In the best way, the scilla shows its decorative qualities on well-enriched humus soil with an average acidity, but most of the species of this plant are so unpretentious that they feel great on heavy clay soils, slightly “seasoned” with deciduous humus or overripe compost. Sheds can grow both in the sun and in the shade. To obtain spectacular flowering, experts recommend adding one to two tablespoons of nitrophoska and 3-4 kg of peat mixture per plant square meter before planting. Fertilizers should be laid to a depth of 10-12 cm.
How to propagate?
In one place, the sprout can grow for 4–5 years, forming thickets with proper care. This plant can be propagated both by planting seeds and daughter bulbs-children. The problem of seed reproduction is that good germination in seeds lasts only a few days, and then decreases significantly. Thus obtained seedlings will bloom in 2 to 3 years. In this regard, babies are a simpler, and most importantly, quick way of reproduction. As a rule, each adult onion annually forms several subsidiaries.
