Viola or Pansy scientifically called Virotka violet. This two-year-old plant is from 15 to 30 cm in height, its flowers look very much like a violet, in the center of which there is a spot of unusual shape. Colors vary: from white to black with shades. Pansies are very unpretentious: they can be transplanted even when they bloom and plant in the early spring, as soon as the snow falls. They blossom very early (late March - early April) and blossom very abundantly.
Pansies - planting and care
- Location . Pansies are quite shade-tolerant, but if they grow in the penumbra, the bloom will not be so abundant, although longer, and the flowers are smaller and brighter.
- The soil . Fertile and moist loam soil is suitable for planting pansies, without stagnation of thawed waters, as this leads to decay of the root system of the plant and its death.
- Watering . You need to water the viola 2-3 times a week, and if it's too hot, then every day.
- Top dressing . Puff up pansies need complex mineral fertilizer with potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus and trace elements. Seedlings need to be fertilized with superphosphate and ammonium nitrate (20-40 g per m²). Pansies can not be fertilized with fresh manure.
- Care . To pansy blossoms for a long time, you need to remove the faded flowers in time, so that the seed boxes do not develop, as when the seeds mature the flower stops blooming and dies.
Pansy - reproduction
There are two ways to grow new pans of pansies: seeds and cuttings.
Pansies - growing from seeds
Seeds are sown in two ways:
- straight into the open ground;
- in the boxes.
After the pansies bloom, they have a fruit with the seeds that they use to grow them for the next year. When sowing pansies depends on the desired flowering period. To obtain a good flowering in the early spring, the viola must be sown in the summer in late June - early July of the previous year. In nurseries or on well-cultivated beds, they do not sow in dense rows. Sown seeds are planted after 1-2 weeks, 2-3 weeks after the appearance of sprouts, they are dived, and at the end of August they are transplanted to the place of flowering at a distance of 20-25 s. M.
If you want to receive flowering in the same year, then you need to sow the seeds first in boxes, and then plant the seedlings in a flower garden.
- Sequence of work stages:
- Seeding of seeds of pansies should be carried out in February, scattering them on the surface of moist soil, slightly sprinkling with a thin layer of earth.
- Boxes put in a dark place with a temperature of 15-20 ° C and sufficient soil moisture.
- When the seeds are ascending (1-2 weeks), the temperature should be lowered to 10 ° C and put a container with sprouts in sunlight.
- You can dive the seedlings of viola in 10-20 days.
- Plant the seedlings of the flower in the open ground in May, so that in the summer they already bloom.
Pansy - propagation by cuttings
Cuttings propagate immediately in the open ground, and begin to be carried out in May-June.
- With a bush cut off the final green shoots with 2-3 knots.
- These shoots are planted on a shaded area close to each other at a depth of 0.5 cm, immediately it is good to water and sprinkle with water.
- The roots of the cuttings will appear in 3-4 weeks.
If cuttings in the spring, then the pansies will bloom in the summer or early autumn of the same year, and if closer to the autumn - then in the spring for the next year.
Such reproduction rejuvenates the plants themselves, does not allow the bushes to grow much, as this leads to a deterioration of flowering. From one large bush at a time you can get about 10 cuttings, and for the whole summer even more.
Pansy - diseases and pests
Violation of the agrotechnics of growing pansies leads to the development of the following diseases:
- black leg;
- powdery mildew;
- root and stem rot,
- spotting.
From pests, the most common are aphids and scoops , which can be controlled with appropriate drugs.
Due to its unpretentiousness in transplantation and charming colors, pansies are often used to decorate flower gardens and balconies.