Bell "cup and saucer": growing from seeds. Features of planting and care

Many growers mistakenly believe that the bell is a wild plant. Today there are varieties that are successfully used for gardening lawns and flower beds, growing in flower pots on loggias and balconies.

Most often in flower lovers, the choice falls on the middle bell. The history of this plant began in Asia and in the south of Western Europe in the 16th century. Earlier the bell "cup and saucer" could be found only in natural conditions. But for many years this magnificent plant adorns the garden and garden areas, it can be seen in squares and parks.

Variety description

This biennial plant, which is often grown as a perennial. This is explained by a natural update. Flowers bell have a fairly high (about a meter), a straight and sturdy stem, abundantly covered with villi. This plant is valued for very beautiful flowers, having the shape of inverted glasses with delicately curved edges. They are terry or smooth and reach a length of seven centimeters. In one inflorescence there are up to fifty flowers.

The bell can be painted in different colors: unusually tender all shades of white: from white to milky, elegant blue or blue. Especially spectacular is the bell (middle "cup and saucer") pink. Its flowering is abundant, lasts from June to the end of September.

Seedlings will allow you in the same year to admire the blossoming bell "cup and saucer". Cultivation from seeds - only the next. In the first year, a root system and a leaf socket are formed, and the next one will grow a flower spike. Cut flowers, by the way, are kept in the vase for up to ten days.

Seeds

Seeds appear in early September, sometimes in late August. They are very small and light: one gram accounts for up to four and a half thousand pieces. Many gardeners quite successfully practice samosev: falling seeds take root in the ground and the next generation develops from them. In this case, you do not have to update the flower bed every year.

And the middle bell blooms, if favorable conditions develop, throughout the summer, until September.

Features of the variety: selection of a landing site

The description of the bell, which is given by experienced florists, indicates that this plant loves light and moisture. It tolerates temporary temperature drops well.

Prefers well-fertilized and easy soil. It does not tolerate acid soils and stagnation of moisture. On damp sites, the plant simply stands out. For one square meter of clay soils, it is necessary to introduce fifteen kilograms of humus or compost under the digging. For loamy soils, this amount increases to nineteen kilograms.

The use and possible complexity of cultivation

It should be noted that the bloom of this species is very active - the plant is completely covered by large flowers, which looks simply unusually beautiful. Plant bells in groups on the background of the lawn, on the rabbits, alone, in prefabricated flower gardens, used for cutting. Bouquets of these flowers (especially colorful) look very impressive and fresh.

But for active flowering these plants need not only good soil, they make high demands on growing conditions. The fact is that the seeds germinate only in the dark. In the light they may not ascend. And one more important condition that must be fulfilled is winter shelter. Rosette leaves, formed by the autumn of the first year, covered with dry peat or dry fallen leaves, you can use and cover material.

Bells "cup and saucer": growing from seeds

Seeds - the most common and popular method of reproduction of the described flowers among gardeners. You can use one of two methods:

• Sow seeds in the open ground;
• Grow sprouts.

We have already said why it is still preferable to seedlings to grow a bell "cup and saucer". Growing from seeds will allow you to get magnificent flowers only next year, so gardeners prefer the second way.

Before boarding you need to prepare:

• Landing tanks;
• priming;
• Seeds.

Use small plastic containers or wooden boxes. They must have drainage holes. The soil mixture should consist of six parts of a soddy earth, three parts of the flaked leaves and one part of a large river sand. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly, and pour the resulting soil into containers and pour.

Bells "cup and saucer": planting and care

So, you completed all the preparatory work, and now you can start landing. At once we will answer the widespread question: when to sow the bells "cup and saucer"? When growing seedlings, this must be done in October-November, then the plant will have time to form before the summer and give abundant flowering.

Sow the seeds on the surface of the soil, lightly press down and top "powdered" with sifted fine sand. After that, the landing tanks are covered with a film or glass. Germinate the seeds in a warm, well-ventilated and always dark room. Comfortable air temperature for the plant is + 20 ° C. For darkening, the glass or film from above is covered with dark paper or cloth. Watering the seeds is not necessary, they are only periodically moistened with an atomizer.

Description of the bell, which can be found in the publications on floriculture, guarantees the appearance of the first shoots after fifteen days. After that, the dark cloth can be removed or moved boxes to a brighter place. When the very first leaves appear on your seedlings, and it grows to about three centimeters, it must be dived. Transplant into more spacious containers, at a distance of about fifteen centimeters from each other.

After this procedure, the seedlings are again removed to a dark place for ten days - so it will quickly acclimatize. All this time the plants continue to be moistened from the spray gun.

Landing in open ground

When the weather is established, and night frosts pass, the seedlings are planted in the ground on lawns and flower beds. Usually it happens in the middle or the end of May. In June you will see the first buds. Between seedlings should be a distance of at least thirty centimeters.

Reproduction by cuttings

These flowers can be propagated with the help of cuttings. In the second year after planting the plant, in spring, when the stem is formed, choose the most healthy shoot and make the stalk. There must be at least three internodes on it. Leaves are removed from it so that they do not take away the power from the plant.

Cuttings are planted in a well-moistened soil. Two internodes must remain on the surface. Close the cut with a cropped plastic bottle or glass jar.

We hope, now on your site there will necessarily be a smart bell "cup and saucer". Cultivation from the seeds of this plant, as you can see, is not too complicated. Observing all the rules of planting and care, you can admire the magnificent blossom all summer long.