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Every gardener dreams of decorating his garden, but this is not always possible due to its small size. In summer cottages, fruit trees and shrubs occupy a large and better part of the territory. One way out of this situation is the planting of Tatarskaya honeysuckle. This shrub will not take up much space, does not require special care, it will become the main ornamental plant in your favorite garden. Check out our tips and tricks for growing ornamental honeysuckle and you’ll see that it won’t give you too many problems.
History
The cultivation of various types of honeysuckle began in the XNUMXth century of the last century. In European countries, honeysuckle was used exclusively as an ornamental crop to decorate gardens and parks, and only a century later Europeans learned about the edible species of this plant. gardeners have known about it since time immemorial, wild honeysuckle bushes grew everywhere in the forests of Siberia, the Urals, and the Middle Volga region.
History is silent about the specific data on the breeding of the Tatar honeysuckle variety, we also did not find information about why this species has such a name – Tatar. According to our assumptions, this is due to the territorial halo of wild honeysuckle growth, because Tatarstan is the very heart of the Middle Volga region. The second assumption is that it was in the Tatar crop farms that work began on the cultivation of wild-growing honeysuckle and selection for the breeding of its new varieties.
Description of the subspecies and photos of popular varieties
Types of honeysuckle are divided into two main types: ornamental (berries are inedible) and fruit with excellent berries. Ornamental honeysuckle, in turn, is cultivated in several forms: shrubs, climbing vines and cap.
Tatar honeysuckle, which we are talking about today, refers to shrub ornamental plants. Varietal differences within the species are the height of the bushes, the shape and shades of flower petals and fruits. The basic morphology of all varieties of Tatar honeysuckle is identical:
- roots – the root system is branched, fibrous, the depth of occurrence is up to 1 meter;
- shoots – hollow inside, young shoots have a light brown, slightly yellowish color, in subsequent years the bark on the branches of honeysuckle becomes gray, exfoliates in longitudinal strips;
- leaves – oval, slightly elongated at the ends (ovoid), the edges of the leaves are smooth, the average length is from 3 to 6 cm, the color is rich green, a pronounced vein runs in the middle of the leaf, they are located on the stems in pairs;
- flowers – grow from leaf axils, their shape resembles bells with a narrow neck below and petals diverging to the sides, depending on the variety, the color of the petals can be pink, red, purple, the main advantage of flowers is a fragrant aroma, flowering occurs from early May to mid-June from the third year of life;
- fruits – inedible berries-balls, bright red or orange, their diameter is up to 6 mm, the ripening of berries begins in July and lasts until the end of August, sometimes until the beginning of October (depending on the variety).
Bushes of Tatar honeysuckle are deciduous crops, they completely shed their leaves at the end of autumn, unlike some “evergreen” counterparts in appearance.
Popular varieties
Varieties of Tatarskaya honeysuckle differ mainly in the color of the petals and the color of the fruits, knowing the individual differences of the variety, designers skillfully use them in their compositions. In the photo you can see exactly what shades the flower petals and berries of this ornamental shrub are.
The decorative value of the Tatar honeysuckle is not only fragrant and bright flowers, in their place appear equally beautiful and no less bright berries, so looking at the honeysuckle bushes, you might think that flowering continues until the very late autumn days.
Fruits of honeysuckle Tatarskaya (red and orange).
Pollination
For ornamental varieties of honeysuckle, the harvest of berries is not so important, but in order for the berries to decorate the bush with their beautiful appearance until late autumn, its flowers need cross-pollination. For these purposes, gardeners planted several varieties (2-3 varieties) shrubs on their plots.
The flowers of Tatar honeysuckle attract with their aroma and tasty pollen bees – our industrious honey plants, which, while collecting nectar, pollinate each flower, thereby ensuring the formation of fruit ovaries.
Secrets of cultivation
Before planting Tatar honeysuckle, it is necessary to determine exactly for what decorative purposes it will be planted:
- Creating a hedge.
- Decoration of facades of houses and arbors.
- Free standing installation.
- Use in multi-storey landscape compositions.
Having determined the purpose, you can already choose the necessary variety of Tatar honeysuckle so that the color of its flowers and fruits is in complete harmony with other plants in the garden. It should be borne in mind that honeysuckle begins to bloom and form fruits only 3-4 years after planting.
How to choose seedlings
Gardeners who first decide to plant decorative honeysuckle bushes can purchase seedlings in specialized stores and nurseries. When buying, you need to carefully examine the planting material offered to you, because the further cultivation of the plant depends on its quality:
- the most suitable for planting are honeysuckle seedlings of the second year of life;
- the root system of the seedling must have at least 2-3 branches with a fibrous network, if the plant is sold with a closed root system, that is, together with the substrate packed in bags, check that it is sufficiently moistened;
- the height of the seedling should not exceed 50 cm, but not be too small (up to 30 cm);
- branches should be flexible, elastic, with healthy buds (from 5 to 12 no less);
- if the appearance of the honeysuckle seedling completely satisfied you, then you need to buy immediately couple for cross-pollination.
The plant constantly renews the bark, shedding the old one, therefore, when buying seedlings, you should not be afraid of such a phenomenon, it does not affect the quality in any way.
Terms of planting
There is another feature of honeysuckle, which is noted by many gardeners who have grown more than one seedling of Tatar honeysuckle – the highest degree of survival of the culture is achieved during autumn planting seedlings. In this case, the germinated shoot is planted at the end of September, when it is rather cold in the garden, but the thermometer readings have not yet dropped below + 10 ° C.
This is the best option, but you can plant a plant both in spring and in summer without fear that the seedlings will take root poorly, honeysuckle is a very unpretentious culture, especially decorative varieties.
Site and soil selection
Honeysuckle grows well in lighted areas, but temporary shading during the day will not hurt it either. All types of this culture love well-moistened soil, but low-lying wetlands are not for it; these bushes can be planted near an artificial reservoir: a pool, a pond, a stream.
The unpretentiousness of the shrub to the composition of the soil allows you to plant a plant on loamy and sandy loam soils, but the best composition is a good garden soil of normal acidity.
Bush planting
To create a hedge, you need a sufficient number of seedlings, you can get them from one adult bush, propagating by layering or cuttings, and now we have next in line the technology of planting seedlings:
- They dig holes (furrows for hedges) up to 40 cm deep.
- Fill them 1/3 with mature compost, add dry mineral fertilizers on top, mix with a shovel.
- Water is poured into the holes (furrows) per hole – one 10-liter bucket, into the furrow – 2 buckets per 1 meter.
- The seedlings are placed in the hole, straightening the roots (they are placed in the furrows 1-1,2 m apart).
- Each sprout is covered with soil and slightly compacted, leaving a small distance to the surface of the earth (up to 10-15 cm), so that when watering, the water does not go to the sides.
- Trunk circles are mulched with peat or tree bark.
- On a seedling of the first year of life, 3-4 buds are left from the ground, the entire top is cut off.
Care
It is easy to care for the unpretentious bushes of Tatarskaya honeysuckle, it does not require any special conditions.
Watering
Bushes are watered only during prolonged drought, natural regular rains of honeysuckle are enough for normal growth.
Additional fertilizing
On well-fertilized and moistened soils, honeysuckle does not lack fertilizers for a very long time, a young plant does not need to be fed for 2-3 years, for an adult shrub, one feeding at the beginning of flowering is enough.
Trimming
Sanitary pruning of Tatar honeysuckle bushes is carried out in early spring, and molding – throughout the season.
Protection against diseases and pests
Honeysuckle Tatarskaya is resistant to many diseases, harmful insects bypass it because of the specific smell, and the berries are very bitter in taste and do not attract them. As a preventive measure, when you process other plants in the garden, walk once with a jet from a sprayer over the uppermost parts of the bushes, this will be enough.
Wintering
The wild-growing form of this culture initially chose the forests of the Urals, Siberia, the Middle Volga region as its halo, the cultivated plant retained its endurance and winter hardiness, endures harsh winters with dignity.
Reproduction
Honeysuckle Tatarskaya propagates by cuttings and layering, see the attached video for a practical lesson on such reproduction.
Tatar honeysuckle in landscape design
The main purpose of decorative honeysuckle is to decorate the garden plot, so landscape designers often use it in their compositions. Compositions of different types of such plants look good in large areas, because these bushes are tall, sprawling and dense.
Shrub honeysuckle is used to form hedges: high (without pruning), medium (pruning just above 1 m) and very low (form no higher than 70 cm). Separate bushes are planted and formed on trellises in the form of various shapes, but not all varieties of Tatarskaya honeysuckle are suitable for this, but only plants with flexible, elastic branches.
Bushes of medium height harmonize well with alpine hills, high bushes serve to decorate and shade arbors, decorate arches and gables. The photo below shows Tatarskaya honeysuckle bushes in a hedge, it would not hurt to more clearly form the outlines of the hedge, but the owner of this site has a passion for the free development and growth of bushes, this is closer to natural nature.
Conclusion
Honeysuckle Tatarskaya is not so popular in private gardening, but gradually it is also gaining its place under the sun. There is very little information about this plant, some of the information we gleaned from available sources needs to be verified, there is absolutely no video with recommendations for growing it, everything that exists concerns edible honeysuckle, not decorative.
We appeal to our readers, to those who have experience in breeding Tatarskaya honeysuckle, to leave their opinions and reviews on our page.