Garden carnations: planting, care
Garden carnations are beautiful flowers. In bouquets, they are presented to women and men for any reason. Understand the rules for planting and growing these flowers so that your garden is always drowned in bright colors.
The key to a beautiful lawn with carnations is a correctly chosen area in the garden. It should be sunny, without stagnant water. The soil at the planting site should be neutral; sandy loam, loamy or peat soil is best suited. If the soil is too acidic, add dolomite flour before planting, if too heavy – sand and peat.
Garden carnations come in all colors
Prepare the seedlings in early March. Spread the seeds on the surface of the ground in pots, lightly crush them with a thin layer of soil, sprinkle with water and cover with foil. When shoots appear, remove the film and put the pots in well-lit places. After the appearance of the second leaf, dive the seedlings. When it gets stronger, transplant it into the ground at a distance of 30 cm from each other.
Care rules are extremely simple:
- Water your cloves often, but little by little. Waterlogging is destructive for her.
- Cut off dried flowers immediately after flowering. At the same time, shorten the stems slightly.
- Remove weeds in a timely manner.
- Feed the carnation three times per season: in the spring, when the buds appear, during the beginning of flowering. Use a complex mineral fertilizer. Don’t fertilize your cloves with manure and potassium-based fertilizers! Be careful with nitrogen fertilizers, use them as little as possible.
If you violate the rules of care, the carnations will begin to hurt, and pests will attack them. Of the pests, this flower is most fond of aphids, of diseases – gray rot. To prevent diseases, transplant a flower to a new place every couple of years or plant a calendula near it.
In the future, the established carnation can be propagated by cuttings or by dividing the bush. The optimal time for these procedures is the beginning of June. Cuttings and parts of the bush, with proper care, quickly take root.
Depending on the variety of carnations, they can be used in different garden compositions. For example, flower beds can be surrounded by low-growing varieties, unpretentious varieties are suitable for rock gardens, and herbaceous varieties will decorate the now fashionable Moorish lawns. For any of the ideas, you can grow carnations according to the scheme described above.