Viola Vittrock: features and garden classifications

The gentle refined viola that belongs to the famous family of the Vialkovs is so well known to everyone that it is impossible to find a person who is not familiar with the plant, which in Russia is also called "pansy". Anyone can grow such a flower. Wild-growing representatives of this genus - the oldest plants, common, as a rule, in the mountain regions of temperate climatic zones of the Northern Hemisphere, existed more than two millennia ago. They number up to seven hundred varieties and some of them are endemic to certain areas, for example, there are species found exclusively in the South American Andes, the Brazilian subtropics, the forests of Australia or New Zealand.

In the 16th century, the violet was cultivated , followed by a mountain violet . Europeans got acquainted with the view, called the Viola Violet, and is a hybrid of three plants - violas of yellow, tricolor and Altai, in the 19th century. Today, this garden view has become a popular culture, numbering several hundred varieties and varieties and adorning the gardens and parks of all European countries. Let's talk about this culture, its preferences, growing and peculiarities of care.

Viola Vittrock: description of the species

This famous violet is a perennial, biennial or annual herbaceous plant, reaching 15-30 cm in height, with a fibrous root system and a straight main shoot. Different varieties have different leaflets, simple or feathery: provided with stipules, they either develop from a rosette outlet, or alternatively are arranged on stems. Flowers are single, growing from the sinuses on thin peduncles and reaching very large sizes (5-7 cm in diameter), considering the overall miniature of the bush. In form they are simple, terry with wavy, corrugated or fringed edges. Upper petals of flowers with peculiar marigolds, lower ones with a small spur. Colorings of colors of cultural varieties are very diverse: single and multicolored, spotted, striped. The special love of gardeners is caused by the fact that the blossom of Vittrock's blossom is generous, releasing simultaneously up to 25 buds. The flowering period depends on the time of planting: from April to June or from August to the coldest. There are hybrids that can bloom throughout the summer season. The mature small brown seeds are collected in a fruit box. Their germination lasts more than 2 years.

Garden classification

The perennial planted in gardens as a two-year-old plant and the most widespread type of violets in culture, called Viola Vittroka, combines varieties of garden pansies, classifying them into different categories: the timing and duration of flowering, the shape, size, color of flowers, degree of their cold resistance. So, if the size of the flowers and their number are simultaneously taken into account, the varieties of the viola are divided into large-flowered varieties, called grandiflora and multiflora-multiflora. When choosing as a coloration criterion, the grades are conditionally classified into single, double, multi-color or spotted. Clear classification, defining the boundaries of varieties, does not exist, because it is simply impossible to determine, because the same variety can be determined simultaneously in a group of spotty, bicolour or multicolor.

Popular varieties

We will not dwell on listing all varieties and varieties, but we will talk about the most popular varieties today. For example, the recognition and love of gardeners received the Wittrock Viola "Baroque" - a spectacular, unpretentious culture that grows to 30 cm and pleases the abundant flowering of large, limpid claret-claret-terracotta flowers throughout the summer season. Planted in a seedling manner, this violet blooms in the year of planting. Beauty and bright colors fascinate Viola Vittrock "Baroque". Photos of this variety are presented in the article. The flowers reach a very considerable size - 5-7 cm in diameter.

Even more decorative Wittrock Viola «Terry lace», from the name of which it becomes clear that this violet - the owner of large (6-8 cm) flowers of amazing beauty with a relief corrugated edge. This variety is remarkable for its high degree of winter hardiness, unpretentiousness, the ability to perfectly develop on soils of any composition and maintain a continuous flowering throughout the season.

Viola Vittroca: growing

Viola is hardy and frost-resistant, it grows excellent in the shade, although it is more abundant in the sun and its flowers are larger. Therefore, the site is selected, if possible, solar, located on a certain elevation, without a close approach of groundwater. It is noticed that the violet can successfully grow on any, even the heaviest soils, but prefers wet fertile loams. Before planting the plant, the soil on the site should be prepared by digging a shovel into the bayonet and adding 10 kg of humus and peat and 5 kg of sand per 1 square meter.

Seeding on seedlings

The best way to grow a viola is considered a seedling. This gives an opportunity to receive a flowering flowerbed in the summer, while seed sown in June will be a two-year cycle of development and flowers will appear by the beginning of the next summer. Such are the botanical features of a plant such as the Viola Vittrock. Growing from seeds begins in February-March with soaking for 24 hours in a solution of the biostimulator, for example, "Epin", "Zircon" or "Heteroauxin", the concentration of which corresponds to the recommendations in the instructions to the drug. Seed containers are filled with a special substrate for violets purchased in the store, grooves are marked, seeds are seeded and water is poured. Sprinkling seeds with soil, the containers are covered with a transparent film or glass and installed in a room with an air temperature of 15-17 ° C.

Seedlings and Picks

Seedlings appear after 10-15 days. As soon as the germination begins, the film shelter is removed, and the boxes with the seedlings are placed in a light cool place (+ 10 ° C). Care of seedlings during this period consists in regular watering with warm water and applying a solution of complex fertilizer for seedlings every two weeks. With the appearance of several real leaves, grown seedlings are planted in separate pots. As a rule, this happens about a month and a half after germination. With intensive growth of seedlings, it is necessary to dive the viola one more time, but usually one picking operation is enough. In addition, the amazing endurance of the violet allows it to get well on the flower bed even after planting flowering plants.

Terms of planting on a flower bed

Plant the seedlings of the viola in the open ground, focusing on the climatic features of the terrain. Usually this happens at the end of April or May. The main thing is to plant the plant after the threat of recurrent frosts passes, because the unsettled and unsettled violets will not cause sharp frosts. The technology of planting is simple: the seedlings are placed in prepared wells at an interval of 10-15 cm, the roots are sprinkled with soil, compact the soil around the plants and generously watered. Perennial varieties of violas are very proliferating and over time they lose decorativeness. Their best varieties are easily propagated by cuttings.

Care of the viola in the open ground

The complex of courtship activities is simple and traditional for planting such crops as Viola's Viola. Care consists in the periodic loosening of the soil and the removal of germinating weeds. Taking into account the development of the root system of the plant, and it is superficial and placed no deeper than 15-20 cm, it is necessary to control the moisture level and in wet periods to keep the soil moist. To prolong flowering, it is necessary to cut off the buds that are discolored, as the ripening of seeds draws on the plant's forces, significantly reducing the intensity of flowering.

In addition, quality flowering is impossible without good feeding. Viola Vittroca responds with a luxurious blossom for monthly application of ammonium nitrate or superphosphate in the amount of 25-30 g per 1 square meter.

The listed stages of care are acceptable for all varieties of garden violets, including such as the Viola Vittroca "Baroque". Growing seedlings from seed and subsequent planting in open ground is the most reliable way of obtaining a bright, color-filled rainbow, flowerbeds.

Diseases and pests of viola

Agrotechnics of growing violets is simple, but non-observance of these simple rules leads to problems. Attacks of pests or the emergence of diseases are often the result of non-fulfillment of the listed stages. Often Viola's viola suffers from powdery mildew, white plaque appearing on leaves, stems and flowers. This happens with overfeeding nitrogen fertilizers and a lack of phosphate-potash or unfavorable weather conditions, when hot, dry days alternate with cold mornings with abundant dew. Excessive humidity can cause gray rot and a black leg. Eliminate such diseases by spraying with a solution of "Fundazol", caustic soda or infusion of ground sulfur with the removal of affected parts of plants.

Among insects-pests, caterpillars of clover scoop and violet mother-of-pearl are especially dangerous, quickly and quickly eating viola leaflets. They are destroyed by spraying a solution of chlorophos, carbofos or tobacco infusions.

Collection of seeds

The seeds left on the peduncles mature in the middle of August - September. After the flowers wither, small boxes with small brown seeds are formed. It is important not to miss the moment of their maturation, as the boxes open and scatter the seeds. The readiness of seeds for collection is manifested by turning the seminal boxes upward. They are carefully trimmed, seeds are extracted and laid out for drying, and then placed in storage in a cellar or refrigerator, as they need stratification.

If the boxes with seeds are not cleaned specially, then the seeds are sown by themselves, and such spontaneous shoots can be seen already in autumn or next spring. In this case the seedlings are planted in prepared places, bypassing the seedling period and the accompanying procedures, the time and effort.

Winter troubles

Derived varieties of perennial violets, which belong to the Vittrock Viola, (photos are presented in the publication) can withstand even very severe frosts (down to -30 ºC), if with the onset of real colds, plantations are covered with spruce lagets or covered with dry plant remains.

These are the peculiarities of caring for the sweet and unassuming violets decorating garden and park interiors, pleasing life-affirming colors and amazing duration of flowering and amateur gardeners and professional flower growers.