There are quite a few garden plants, beautifully flowering and at the same time unpretentious. This includes hawthorn - a perennial bush with bright red berries.
Hawthorn - the best species and varieties
The most common varieties of hawthorn:
- hawthorn prickly - decorative variety, often used for hedges . This plant has red or yellow fruits, flowers with double flowers;
- hawthorn semi-soft - has a beautiful symmetrical crown with long spines and large flowers;
- hawthorn blood-red - has a characteristic red sweet and sour fruit, and in autumn the foliage of this variety is colored in purple and golden colors;
- hawthorn is a single-tree tree, reaching a height of 5-6 m, with red fruits and white flowers. Often decorates parks and country plots.
Hawthorn - planting, reproduction and care
The place for hawthorn should be sunny, so that it blossoms well and fruited. It is desirable that the soil is heavy, but at the same time fertile. Dig a pit depth of 70 cm deep, add lime to it, and put rubble or broken brick for drainage on the bottom. If you want to plant several plants, keep in mind that the distance between them should not be less than 2 m. Do not over-drill the seedling - its root neck should be at ground level. After the hawthorn is planted, well pour it and cover the soil of the stump circle.
When planting a hedge, it is better to use a spiny or one-worm hawthorn variety. In this case, plants are planted very closely (0.5-1 m), and their whips are intertwined.
In addition to planting, an important point in the care of hawthorn is its pruning. It is necessary to, first, get rid of diseased and dead branches, and secondly, to give the bush the desired shape. This can be used for hedges or various design experiments, because hawthorn can be given any unusual shape! Carry pruning should be in the spring.
Watered hawthorn usually once a month, and in a drought - a little bit more often. The standard amount of water for irrigation - 13 liters, but a young plant can do and 10 liters.
After watering, it is desirable to loosen the soil under a bush, and in spring and autumn the land around the bush is dug over to the bayonet of the shovel. And do not forget about the timely removal of weeds. With regard to feeding, then usually before flowering, the plant is fertilized with slurry.
Fruit grows bush closer to 10-15 years. Hawthorn is generally considered to be a long-lived among the garden plants, there are even 300-year-old specimens.
Reproduction of hawthorn is possible in several ways:
- Root cuttings - in autumn or spring, roots 20 cm in thickness should be selected, cut into pieces of 10 cm in length and prikopat in the soil each of them so that on the surface there was only two centimeters.
- Seeds - for such planting, a long stratification of seeds will be required, they have little germination.
- Inoculation - with the purpose of an earlier beginning of fruiting, the common hawthorn is planted on its other varieties. Do this usually in early August. The very hawthorn can serve as a stock of rowan, apple, pear.
Hawthorn needs a transplant only in the first 5 years after planting. This plant has a very deep root system, and subsequent transplants can injure it.
Planting hawthorn and caring for him in the garden are carried out with the purpose of harvesting his medicinal fruits and flowers. They are collected during flowering, immediately dried and then stored in sealed containers. Fruits need to be collected when they are full red. Interestingly, for medicinal purposes, leaves and bark of hawthorn are also used.