Godetia: photo, planting and care in the open field

The creation of a beautiful flower bed should be preceded by a careful development of a plan: flowers are selected according to the shade of the inflorescences, flowering time, in accordance with the requirements for care, soil composition and growing conditions. Most of all, flower growers appreciate bright, but unpretentious plants that can exist in almost any conditions and coexist with different colors. One of these species is godetia, planting and caring for which is extremely simple, and its large inflorescences look bright and gentle at the same time. Godetia is suitable for decorating flower beds and borders, it is good as a decoration for window sills and balconies, and these flowers also look great in bouquets.

How to grow godetia in open ground, in boxes or flowerpots, how to plant this flower correctly and how to care for it, will be described in detail in this article. Also here will be indicated the optimal timing of planting seeds for the seedling method and direct sowing into the ground.

Features of the view

In nature, godetia grows in North and South America. The flower is named after the Swiss botanist Godet, who was one of the first to be puzzled by the question of the reproduction of Godetia in European countries.

Godetia is a herbaceous annual plant of the Cyprus family. In nature, there are about twenty species of this culture. Breeders are constantly developing new varieties of a delicate showy flower.

View characteristics:

• the flower is an annual;
• at the beginning of the season, the stems of the plant are herbaceous, by the end of summer they become woody;
• the length of the stems rarely exceeds 60 cm, the plant is compact;
• leaves are lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, painted in juicy green color, arranged in the next order;
• sprawling bushes, narrow pyramidal shape;
• inflorescences are large, their diameter can reach ten centimeters;
• the shape of the flower is simple, bell-shaped or cup-shaped;
• petals can be simple, double, with a wavy edge, silky or satin;
• godetia is painted in a wide variety of shades: white, pink, purple, lavender and others;
• the flower propagates by seeds;
• in each gram of the godetia fruit there are about 3500 smallest seeds – the flower is very prolific.

Growing methods

There are several ways to plant godetia: sow seeds directly into the ground, grow seedlings, sow before winter. Each of the methods has its pros and cons, but most often a delicate flower is still grown by the seedling method.

Regardless of the method of planting, first of all, the grower must choose a suitable place for godetia in his garden. At this stage, it should be taken into account that the plant loves light, heat and moderate humidity. At the same time, godetia is able to tolerate even small frosts, but its fragile stems cannot tolerate strong winds or drafts.

In open ground, the flower is best grown on loamy soils. In pots, boxes and flowerpots, this flower needs good drainage and a nutrient substrate. Suitable soil can be prepared independently by mixing garden soil, river sand, peat, or rotted spent oyster mushroom mycelium. It is recommended to pre-disinfect all components of the homemade substrate.

Alkaline soils are not suitable for godetia; it prefers neutral or slightly acidic soils. If the alkaline component in the soil exceeds the norm, you can dilute the earth with peat or urea.

Seedling cultivation

In most regions of Our Country, godetia is recommended to be grown in seedlings. Seeds for seedlings should be sown in mid-March or in the first decade of April. Self-collected seeds should be stored in a dark and cool place. Before planting, they do not need any special preparation, you can only disinfect the planting material in a weak solution of manganese.

For planting flowers, ordinary pots, 15-20 cm high, or plastic containers, boxes are suitable. Godetia seedling containers are filled with nutritious loose soil and watered with warm water. When the water is completely absorbed, seeds begin to spread on the surface. To make it more convenient to work with small flower seeds, you can mix them with wet river sand.

After sowing, the seeds are sprinkled with a thin layer of substrate or peat and the containers are covered with cling film, forming a mini-greenhouse. Now the godetia should be warm until shoots begin to appear. Every day, the film is removed or slightly opened for 20-30 minutes to avoid the accumulation of excess condensate.

After the emergence of seedlings, the film is removed, containers with flowers are placed on the windowsill or under a fluorescent lamp. The temperature should not be allowed to drop, as the cold is detrimental to the seedlings of these flowers.

Now caring for Godetia will consist only in regular watering. After 1,5 months, flower seedlings can be transferred to a flower bed or a flowerpot.

Sowing in the ground

Godetia seeds can be sown in the ground when the soil warms up well. Usually it is the middle of May. At the same time, flower seedlings are transferred. Far from the whole territory of the country, the weather stabilizes in May, so flowers are sown with seeds only in the southern regions.

The seeds are sown in the ground in the same way as for seedlings: they make small grooves, water the ground and lay out the godetia seeds at the desired interval, then sprinkle with a thin layer of dry earth. For the first time, you can cover the plantings with dense polyethylene, which is removed after germination.

Winter cultivation

The method of sowing flowers before winter is suitable only for those regions in which there is always a lot of snow in winter, and the air temperature does not drop too low (more than -15-20 degrees).

It is necessary to sow Godetia a couple of weeks before the upcoming snowfall. Only in this case, the seeds will have time to absorb moisture from the soil, but they will not germinate prematurely and will not freeze on bare ground.

Planting godetia before winter allows you to get earlier and more abundant flowering – the flowers grow hardened, they are not afraid of the vagaries of the weather and the attacks of diseases. Bushes will begin to bloom 2-3 weeks earlier, which is especially important for those who grow flowers for sale.

How to care for a flower bed

The care of an unpretentious godetia needs the simplest, it can be provided even by a beginner or inexperienced grower. In order to properly care for this flower, you need to consider what poses the greatest danger to Godetia:

1. Excessive humidity. Flowers should be watered only during periods of drought. Low-lying areas of open ground, boxes and flowerpots must be drained so that water does not stagnate at the roots.
2. Severe overheating. When the weather does not please with coolness for too long, it is necessary to shade the godetia and cool the flowers by spraying with cold water.
3. Pests devouring the tender leaves of Godetia. It is necessary to fight insects and snails with special means.

The flower care schedule should contain the following steps:

• regular watering with warm settled water. It is important to consider that both drought and excessive humidity are detrimental to flowers. Therefore, you will have to look for the “golden mean” by trial and error. Godetia responds very well to moistening the leaves, so an air drip irrigation system will come in handy. A special system may well be replaced by an ordinary garden watering can with small holes.

  

• You also need to fertilize the flower regularly – every 10-15 days. As a top dressing, it is better to use mineral complexes designed specifically for flowers. An important point is the fact that godetia does not like a large amount of nitrogenous fertilizers.
• The flowering of the bush is very plentiful, so you can pinch new strings to increase the size of the flowers. They also control the shape of the godetia bush, cutting the shoots where required.
• Near godetia bushes, it is necessary to constantly loosen the soil and remove weeds. To facilitate the care of flowers, experienced flower growers use mulch, covering the soil around the flowers with it.
• When the first frosts come, the godetia bushes are pulled out along with the root and taken away from the flower bed so that they do not become a source of infection for the flowers of the next season.

Conclusion

Godetia flowers, planting and caring for which are shown in the photo, can transform any personal plot. To date, there are many varieties and varieties of this delicate flower with satin petals on sale. The variety of shades of godetia allows you to successfully use it in the preparation of flower arrangements, bouquets, combine with other flowers and plants.

Everyone can plant and grow a fragile godetia flower, you just need to make a little effort and provide the plant with comfortable conditions.