Snapdragon

Most people know lion's owl as an antirinum, this is its Latin name. In fact, in his homeland, in Africa, he is considered a perennial. We grow it as an annual, but sometimes it manages to overwinter. He has a very strong central shoot, on it gradually, one after another, such amusing florets open, having a lower part, similar to the lion's mouth, is why the lion's pharynx is called. There are dwarf forms from 10 to 25 cm tall. There are medium height - from 30 to 50 cm. But there are very tall ones - from 50 to 100 cm. In my opinion, this is the most interesting form, since the blooming part occupies half-plants. All antinyrums bloom from July to October, carry a small autumn frost - up to 3 degrees. Snapdragon is the most varied coloring. The budding plant is ugly, it simply needs to be cut off, without waiting until the very top is blossoming. Then it will have lateral branches, and it will continue flowering. And to make the plant bloom continuously all summer long, you can do very simply. Only just the flowering central part opened up to half a peduncle, you cut it and put it in water, as a bouquet. It will blossom to the end in the vase, and the plant will begin to give the lateral peduncles. You can do otherwise. The central stem, grown at half its height, should be cut without waiting for flowering, leaving a stump 15-20 cm high. Immediately powerful side shoots will go, and you will have not one flower on the stem, but a dozen. Therefore, it looks completely different, because when there is not one flower, but a half dozen, it is very effective.

The antirinum must be sown at the beginning or end of March, after two weeks it rises, and as soon as it ascends, it is necessary to immediately disassemble it. It's hard, but he's good at picking. Take a convenient spatula for you, for example, a spoonful of salt, take out with a clump of earth and immediately plant 2-4 plants in a cup of yogurt, planting pretty close. Since the seeds of the lion's pharynx are very small, they can be sown on the snow, as already mentioned above, and immediately 3 to 4 seeds in one container. With any method of sowing, you have to transplant after a month, because this powerful plant and root system is quite powerful, which means that a large volume is needed. You can use half a liter of sour cream. In the middle of May planted in the ground, and in fact you will plant more than one plant, and 3-4 fused together, they need a large area of ​​nutrition, not less than 30 x 30 cm. If at the same time you shorten the central stem, as it wassaid above, or cut the peduncles, then the plant will blossom with a bush of extraordinary beauty. The bush sometimes presents such a powerful curtain that from afar no one can determine what kind of plant you have such an amazing, start asking: what is it?

Snapdragon can be sown in a different way, that is, directly into the ground, immediately to the place. You form 2-3 nests around the pattern of 40 x 40 cm each and sow in late April-early May, about 20-30 seeds in each nest. Then you have to thin out the shoots, and in each nest you leave 4-5 plants. Before the end of spring frost, plantings should be covered with a double layer of lutrasil. Blooming will be amazing, but, unfortunately, blossom curtain only in august, the truth and blossom will be until the end of September. I recommend for this experiment to purchase seeds of a stunningly beautiful, very high( 80 cm) variety of Madame Butterfly. You can make very small tots. There is such a short dwarf snapper called the Hobbit, only 15 cm high. But if you make a flower pillow from it as it was said for a high lion's throat, it will look just great, above all on rocky slides. It is very interesting that sometimes this fused root bush overwinter in the ground. In the autumn, at the end of October, when it is blossoming, you cut it and pour a bucket of peat onto it. This should be done before the onset of large frosts. In the spring it will be necessary to get pretty early, because this overwintering bush makes frosts up to -3 degrees. Usually it is possible to keep this curtain if there were no strong frosts without snow. After a successful wintering in the open ground, a huge number of shoots grow out of the nest. If you dig them up and root them in early June, they will blossom this fall.

Seeds of antirinum mature late, in late September and early October. They can be collected in a bag even before the seed box is cracked, so as not to lose. Then scatter on paper and dry.