Alyssum is a flowering herbaceous plant with an annual or perennial life cycle. It belongs to the Cabbage family. In gardeners, it is known by the names of alyssum, mason or marine lobularia. Indeed, alissum is often associated with lobularia, but these are different, albeit closely related plants. The difference is that the flowers of species alissums are painted in various shades of fawn yellow. In nature, the plant is found in the subtropical and temperate climate of Eurasia, Africa and America. Due to its unpretentiousness, abundant and bright flowering and honey aroma, alissum is a popular culture in landscape design.
Botanical Description
Alyssum is a short plant 15-40 cm tall. Its highly branched shoots form a dense shrub or carpet. Nourishes the plant with a fibrous, superficial rhizome. The base of the stems becomes lignified with time. Young shoots are covered with a short thick pile. The next leafless leaflets grow on them. The fleshy leaf plate of the obovate shape is also covered with gray or silver star-shaped pile.
By mid-May, the top of the stem turns into a loose racemose inflorescence with miniature bisexual corollas. A cup of four petals is painted in snow-white, yellow, purple, pink, purple, scarlet or orange. The center of the flower, due to the stamens, resembles a yellow eye. Changing each other, inflorescences delight during the summer. They exude a rich honey aroma. This smell attracts bees and other beneficial insects. Alyssum is an excellent honey plant. After pollination, small seed boxes ripen with tiny, like dust, brown seeds.
Variety of Alissum
The genus Alissum includes more than 200 species of annuals and perennials. Alyssum perennial is more resistant to cold and is preferable for the northern regions, but it does not bloom for long. Alyssum annual will delight in flowers until mid-autumn.
Alyssum maritime. Heat-loving perennial with branched, creeping shoots on the ground. Based on it, several varieties of ampoule alissum were bred. The height of the vegetation is 8-40 cm. The thickets are covered with fleshy oval leaves. The entire green part is shrouded in short silvery villi. Small golden flowers are grouped in brushes. Varieties:
- Taini Tim - shoots with a height of not more than 8 cm are covered with a snow-white fragrant hat;
- Violet Coning - spherical bushes 10-15 cm tall bloom bright purple buds;
- Princess in Purple - ampel variety with long shoots and soft lilac inflorescences;
- Esther bonnet - an ampelous form with lodging processes 20-25 cm long in July-September blooms cream, pink and purple, pastel flowers.
Alyssum is rocky. Perennial 25-30 cm tall grows highly branched, rising shoots. It forms a semicircular bush. Oval grayish-green leaves are located close to each other. At the top of the stem, numerous dense inflorescences bloom with a scattering of bright yellow flowers. Varieties:
- Golden wave - a bush no more than 20 cm high is covered with a solid bright yellow hat;
- Plenum - dense thickets of up to 30 cm above the ground dissolve golden terry buds;
- Gold placer - a spherical shrub with narrow dark green leaves covered with dense small tassels of fawn yellow color;
- White carpet is a ground cover annual with long and plentiful flowering;
- Snow carpet - creeping shoots no higher than 8 cm above the ground in June-August are completely hidden under many snow-white inflorescences with an intense honey smell;
- Bimbo white - ground cover perennial up to 25 cm in height with white corymbose inflorescences.
Alyssum is mountainous. Perennial frost-resistant plant grows 10-20 cm above the ground. Its stems creep on the soil and rise slightly at the ends. Dark green dense leaves and young stems are covered with a short gray pile. Already in late April, tiny flowers bloomed, grouped into spherical, dense inflorescences.
Growing and planting
During seed propagation, alissum can be sown in open ground or in a greenhouse for seedlings. In the garden at the end of spring, the seeds are distributed in grooves to a depth of 15 mm. Seedlings bloom closer to autumn and not so abundantly, so this method is suitable for perennials. In the southern regions practicing sowing seeds in the winter. In this case, the seedlings will appear in mid-spring, and in June flowering will begin.
And yet it is more convenient to grow alissum through seedlings. In this case, by May, the gardener will have strong flowering bushes, from which it is easier to make the desired composition in the flowerbed. Flowering seedlings begins after 1.5-2 months after sowing seeds. It is necessary to prepare shallow boxes with light nutritious soil. Alyssum grows on alkaline soils, so a little slaked lime is introduced into the ground. Seeds are trying to evenly distribute on the surface. They are slightly poured into the soil, sprayed and covered with a film.
The container is kept in a well-lit place at a temperature of + 10 ... + 15 ° C. The earth is regularly ventilated and sprayed. Shoots appear after 5-8 days. After this, the shelter is gradually removed. With the advent of the first real leaf, fertilizing with the mineral complex is carried out. Seedlings with 2-3 real leaves are dived in separate pots. Young alissum is sensitive to cooling, therefore, flowers are transplanted into the open ground not earlier than the end of May, when the danger of frost completely disappears.
For alissum, sunny open areas with light drained soil are selected. Flowers feel good between concrete slabs on a stone embankment. If the land is too fertile, more shoots and leaves will form, but flowering will be weak. Earth should be neutral or slightly alkaline.
The curtain grows in breadth, therefore, between individual plants in the garden they maintain a distance of about 40 cm. Planting pits make it shallow. Seedlings are planted along with peat pots or a large lump of earth, so as not to damage the delicate roots. After planting, alissum is abundantly watered and mulched with peat.
Vegetative propagation
Vegetatively alissum is propagated quite rarely, since even perennial plants in the garden are often grown as annuals. If it was possible to maintain a large bush, in the spring before flowering it is separated and transplanted. It is important not to damage the roots, so try to save a lump of land.
In summer, cuttings with a length of 8-12 cm are cut from a strong bush. They put water, and with the advent of roots they plant in open ground. In contact with the ground, the stems often give root. Layers can be separated in May-August and landed on a permanent place.
Outdoor Care
Alissum will not require much effort from the gardener. Although the plant is considered drought tolerant, regular watering is important for it during flowering. In the absence of rainfall, the flowerbed is watered 1-2 times a week, when the soil has dried to a depth of 3-4 cm. Near young seedlings, you need to weed the soil more often and remove weeds. They are more sensitive to aggressive neighbors.
Too overfeeding alissum is not necessary. For perennial, 1-2 feeding during the year is enough. For the first time, plants are fertilized in spring with complexes with a high nitrogen content. At the beginning of summer, a mineral solution for flowering plants with phosphorus and potassium is added. Annuals feed twice as often.
In spring, perennial alissum is cut off, removing dry vegetation. At the end of flowering, anti-aging pruning is useful to all varieties. So the green carpet will look neater, and at the end of the summer a repeated flowering period is possible.
Alyssums are able to winter in open ground, if the temperature does not drop below -15 ° C. In the northern regions in the fall, it is often simply destroyed, making way for new landings. To preserve the flowers, in autumn they are covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves or spruce branches. In winter, a high snowdrift is additionally thrown. In the spring, it is important to remove the shelter in a timely manner so that the plants do not sock.
Alyssum is resistant to plant diseases, but on dense, flooded soils, it suffers from fungal diseases (late blight, root rot, powdery mildew). From diseases, plants are treated with fungicides, Bordeaux liquid or copper sulfate. Like all representatives of the Cabbage family, flowers are susceptible to attacks by the cruciferous flea, caterpillar, cabbage moth and whitewash. In this case, it is necessary to timely spray with an insecticide.
Garden use
Alyssum is an excellent groundcover. It is used on stony masonry, in rock gardens, to decorate the border and foreground of the flower garden. The alyssum goes well with a rose, phlox, forget-me-not, iris and tulips. It is often planted together with bulbous early flowering plants, in order to subsequently mask the bare soil. Ampel alissum is equally beautiful as a groundcover and in flowerpots on the veranda and balcony. They are also decorated with poles and gazebos on the street.
Alyssum is not only beautiful, but also useful. Its leaves and flowers are collected to prepare a decoction. The medicine saves from colds and fevers, is a good diuretic and laxative, and is also used as a facial tonic for freckles and problem skin. The name of the plant is translated - "against dog rabies." In olden times, the victim of a bite of a rabid animal was soldered by a decoction.
