Nasturtium

Description. Nasturtium is a perennial plant, which in culture is grown exclusively as an annual one. Due to the decorative effect of flowers of warm yellow-orange tones and abundant lush foliage, nasturtium has gained wide popularity among florists.

Three main types of nasturtium are used in floriculture. Nasturtium large is distinguished by large forms of bush, fleshy juicy stem, large leaves on long petioles and a wide variety of flower colors. This plant can be with stems with stems up to 2 m in length or of bushy form 25-35 cm high. Flowers large, up to 5 cm in diameter, fragrant, arranged one by one in leaf axils often on elongated pedicels, simple or terry,cream, yellow, salmon, orange, red, dark cherry and purple. Flowering begins at the end of June and continues until the first frost.

Widely used nasturtium for planting in flower beds, on the rabbits, as curbs, in boxes on balconies and windows, in street vases. Scantling forms are used to decorate arbors, trellises, walls, balconies. Nasturtium is also good in cutting.

Nasturtium varieties

Nasturtium large

Sclerous

Tattooded stem reaches a length of 2 m. Aurora ( flowers light orange), Cockcineum ( red), King Theodore ( bright red, very large), Prince Heinrich (golden amber with red veins), Orange bowl ( bright orange, terry), Doppelte Glantz ( bright red, very large, terry) Low-growth bushy or dwarf Height of spherical shrubs 20-25 cm Vesuvius ( pink-salmon), Queen of India ( dark purple velvety), Ruby ( carmine-no-crimson), Othello ( black and red), Black prince ( dark purple).

Cultivation and care. Nasturtium is photophilic, prefers open solar areas on which it blooms very abundantly, and also is thermophilic, therefore it needs solar illumination and does not tolerate frost. Soil nasturtium prefers light drained loamy or sandy loamy, rich in humus, but not fertilized with fresh manure. With an excess of nitrogen, plants grow rapidly and form many leaves at the expense of flowering.

Nasturtium is a hybrid. This kind of nasturtium appeared from the crossing between the heat-loving real Nasturtium Lobb and nasturtium large. Hybrid herbaceous annual with rounded leaves. The length of the stem is 3-4 m, numerous large flowers are predominantly yellow and red in color. Sensitive to cold and damp than the nasturtium is large, but it blooms somewhat earlier and blooms profusely.

Nasturtium Canary. Motherland - Mexico. Nasturtium Canary is less known than nasturtium hybrid, and less common in orchards. It is a very tall grassy vine with a bare, curly, juicy stalk. Leaves are kidney-shaped, with 5-7 deep lobes. The flowers are numerous, medium-sized, yellow with a green spur, the upper petals are larger than the lower ones and have fringe edges. In the nasturtium of the Canary, the stem reaches 5 m, the flowering is early and abundant, it grows well in the penumbra. In the mid-zone conditions is the most persistent species.

Of nourishing elements nasturtium most of all needs phosphorus, which stimulates the flowering of the plant.

It is better to do watering not often, but abundantly and only when the earth dries. However, the lack of moisture plants nasturtium suffer painfully, lose decorativeness.

Propagation of nasturtium with seeds that are sown in April on seedlings, grown without picks or sown right into the ground in early-mid-May so that seeds or shoots do not fall under frost, thin out shrub plants to a distance of 20-25 cm,not less than 40 cm apart.

You can sow nasturtium on seedlings at an earlier time - in the middle-end of March. Large seeds can be placed one by one in cups or peat pots.