Contents
Among the many garden flowers, Turkish carnation is especially popular and loved by flower growers. Why is she preferred? What did she do to deserve such recognition? Unpretentiousness, a variety of colors of flowers, long flowering – these are the main reasons that affect the choice of flower growers.
However, sometimes even professionals have a number of questions: how difficult is it to grow Turkish carnations from seeds, when to plant, how to properly grow seedlings, what does this picky flower like and dislike? What rules must be followed so that bright, inimitable flowers decorate your flower garden? In fact, agricultural cultivation is not as complicated as it seems at first glance.
Brief description of the plant
The Turkish carnation, or Dianthus barbatus, belongs to the clove family and prefers mild, temperate climates. Sometimes it is also called “bearded”. This flower has a very close relative – Chinese carnation. These plants are so similar that it is easy to confuse them.
Carnation refers to biennial plants. In the first year after planting, a root system and small bushes are formed, consisting of several rosettes with leaves. From the second year, the plant forms both flower stalks and additional rosettes.
Carnation blooms, as a rule, in the second year. But some varieties are gaining color in the first year, however, in this case, flowering will be poor. The duration of flowering can last up to 1,5-2 months, depending on the variety and compliance with the rules of agricultural technology.
Turkish cloves are grown by sowing seeds for seedlings or immediately in open ground. With proper care, it can be grown as a perennial flower. In one place, the plant can grow up to 4-5 years without losing varietal characteristics.
On each peduncle blooms simultaneously from 10 to 30 flowers. Small in size, they form bright, lush umbrellas. The size of the inflorescences is on average up to 15 cm. Some varieties exude a delicate, delicate aroma.
The leaves of the flowers are long, narrow, have a characteristic, greenish-blue tint. The plant has an upright, strong stem, on which nodes are often located, from which leaves grow in pairs.
At the moment, about 500 types of cloves are known, which are replenished annually thanks to the work of domestic and foreign breeders.
Despite the large number of species, the classification of Turkish cloves is quite simple. The clove family is divided into undersized (up to 20 cm high) and tall (above 40 cm high) flowers.
Low-growing varieties are often planted as ground cover, border, balcony plants. Often they are planted when composing compositions in landscape design.
Plants of tall varieties have a very strong stem. This feature is of great importance when growing Turkish cloves, which is called “cut”.
Often, carnations are divided into groups according to the complexity of inflorescences: simple, semi-double, terry. The palette of spherical inflorescences is amazing – from dazzling white to strict burgundy. Usually, the color scheme is represented by two contrasting colors. But there are varieties in which flowers combine 3 or even 4 different shades.
Some 20-30 years ago, the color scheme of flowers was rather meager – pink, white and burgundy colors. But in recent decades, the range of colors has expanded significantly. Among the traditional white-pink-raspberry tones, you can now find lilac, maroon, purple and even black tones.
Clove Growing Methods
Before planting Turkish carnation seeds, it is important to figure out how, in what time frame and by what method flowers can be grown.
Carnations are grown from seeds either by seedlings or by direct sowing directly into open ground. If almost all flower growers are familiar with the seedling method, then the seedless method has several nuances.
You can sow Turkish cloves in the spring, as soon as the weather is warm and the threat of frost has passed. In this case, seedlings appear quickly, the flowers get sick less and are more resistant to diseases and temperature drops. Considering that the process of picking and transplanting to a flower bed is excluded, the seedlings do not experience stress and grow faster.
However, it is possible to sow Turkish cloves with seeds in the fall, when the first frosts hit. It is important to remember that flowers germinate very quickly, which means that it is necessary to completely exclude the possibility of their germination before the onset of winter.
What soils and places are preferred
Turkish carnation is an unpretentious plant that does not require strict conditions for growth and abundant flowering. These flowers look perfect in a flower bed, in a garden, in a flower garden in combination with other garden flowers, on a balcony, in containers and flowerpots.
The only thing that this plant is critical of is illumination. The flower does not like too bright, sunny places. Therefore, it is advisable to plant Turkish cloves with seeds in partial shade or in areas that are illuminated in the morning and in the afternoon in the shade.
Flowers grow well in any region of Our Country, tolerate frost well and react relatively calmly to short-term heat.
Excess moisture is the main enemy of plants. In excessively moist soil, the root system of flowers is quickly affected by fungal diseases. As a result, the flowers may die. Therefore, for growing cloves, select areas where rain or melt water does not stagnate.
Pay attention to groundwater. Too close their occurrence to the surface of the earth can negate all your efforts – the flowers will simply rot. When planning planting in such areas, you need to take care of drainage in advance, be sure to add sand to the soil and raise the flower beds by 30-40 cm.
Getting ready for landing
When growing Turkish cloves from seed, it is important to properly prepare the soil before planting. Unlike other garden flowers, it is completely undemanding to the composition of the soil.
However, for lush flowering and preservation of varietal characteristics, it must be taken into account that carnation loves sandy, sandy, or fertile soils with neutral acidity. If possible, add Turkish compost, humus or wood ash to the soil before planting clove seeds.
Most flower growers prefer to grow carnations the old fashioned way, using seedlings. You can sow the seeds both in the soil mixture purchased in the store, and in the garden soil, diluting it with sand in a ratio of 2: 1.
Any containers for growing Turkish cloves from seeds at home are suitable. Sowing can be carried out both in individual cups and in bulk containers. Immediately prepare a sunny, warm place for flowers. The optimum temperature for seed germination is +20˚С.
Carnation seeds before planting can be soaked in water with the addition of a growth stimulator. However, they germinate very quickly – 7-10 days after sowing. Therefore, additional processing, in principle, is not needed.
Seedbed method
When growing Turkish cloves from seeds, there are usually no particular difficulties. You can start sowing flowers as early as late February – early March. In warm regions, sowing works begin no earlier than the end of March – the beginning of April.
When determining the sowing time, keep in mind that transplanting flowers into open ground must be done before the onset of extreme heat.
A feature of growing Turkish cloves for seedlings is the fact that the plant does not like transplantation. Therefore, it is advisable to sow flowers in peat cups or tablets in order to exclude the process of subsequent picking and facilitate transplanting into open ground.
When sowing Turkish cloves for seedlings, you must perform the following steps:
- At the bottom of the container with drainage holes, as usual, lay a layer of drainage, and fill it with prepared soil by 2/3 of the volume.
- Spread clove seeds on the surface, the minimum distance between which is from 1,5 to 2 cm.
- Lightly sprinkle the flower seeds with soil or sand, a layer of 0,5-1 cm will be enough.
- Cover the container or container with cling film and place in a warm place. It is desirable that direct sunlight does not fall on landings.
- Seedlings should be watered as needed, but not more than 2-3 times a week. It is advisable to provide gentle watering to the flowers – moisten the soil with a spray bottle.
- Subject to the rules for planting Turkish carnations for seedlings, the first, bright green loops appear after 7-10 days. After germination, the film from the container must be removed and the seedlings transferred to a brighter place.
- Give your flowers regular watering. But do not forget that carnations do not like excessively wet soil.
- After 2-3 weeks, you can start picking seedlings. If you sowed flowers in separate containers, this stage of growing Turkish carnation seedlings can be omitted. Seedlings should be dived exclusively by transshipment, keeping a distance of 8-10 cm between them.
- Seedlings of flowers are transplanted into open ground in late May – early June. Before transplanting cloves, be sure to harden off the plants. When transplanting, you must follow the recommended landing pattern.
- Immediately after transplantation, the flowers must be covered with a film or lutrasil until the rooting process has passed. As soon as it is clear that the plants have taken root, the shelter can be removed.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated in growing seedlings of Turkish cloves. It is only important to follow the recommendations, and soon your flower beds will be covered with a bright, floral, fragrant carpet.
Sowing seeds in open ground
In the spring, you can plant Turkish cloves with seeds as soon as a stable temperature of + 15˚С + 18˚С is established outside. The optimal landing time in central Our Country is in mid-late April. In regions with a more severe climate, cloves can be sown no earlier than early to mid-May.
A few days before planting, the flower garden must be carefully dug up and moistened. It is not necessary to soak and process seed material before planting. Flowers easily tolerate short-term frosts. But wet clove seeds can die when the temperature drops.
Make neat, even grooves 1-1,5 cm deep. The distance between the rows should be at least 15-20 cm. Pour the grooves with warm water. Spread the flower seeds in 1,5-3 cm increments. Lightly cover the plantings with soil.
Before the emergence of seedlings, the beds should be covered with a film. As soon as the Turkish carnation seedlings grow up, the seedlings need to be thinned out. Extra seedlings are either removed or carefully transplanted to another place.
The ideal distance between plants is 15-25 cm depending on the variety and the height of the flowers. For carnations, it is important that the plantings are not thickened, otherwise the flowers will often get sick with fungal diseases.
Before winter, carnation seeds are sown no earlier than the first autumn frosts hit. Early-mid October is the most favorable period for planting. Sowing technology is practically the same as planting carnations in the spring. There is only one difference. Neither the soil nor the seed material can be watered and soaked. Dry seeds of Turkish cloves are sown in dry grooves, lightly sprinkled with soil and plantings are mulched.
If you wish, you can cover the future flower garden with spruce branches, hay or straw. In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, the covering material is removed. As in the first case, do not forget to thin out the plantings.
Flower aftercare
Turkish carnation is a non-capricious and hardy plant, therefore, caring for it comes down to carrying out simple and familiar activities for all flower growers – correct, moderate watering, regular loosening, weeding and top dressing.
Water the carnation sparingly and only as needed. From a constant excess of moisture, a weak root system of flowers is quickly infected with fungal diseases, and it will be almost impossible to save the plants. Therefore, it is not necessary to fill the flower beds.
Weed the flower garden as often as possible – the less weed grass on it, the better and more magnificent the carnation grows. Loosening, as usual, is carried out after rains or watering.
Given the unpretentiousness of the carnation, the flowers do not need to be fed. However, in some cases, you can still feed the plants:
- if you want to accelerate growth or provoke lush, friendly flowering;
- if you grow cut flowers;
- or subject to the impoverishment of the soil.
Superphosphates, carbamide (or urea), potassium sulfate are used to feed cloves. You can also use complex, mineral fertilizers. The feeding scheme looks like this:
- upon reaching a plant height of 10-12 cm – carbamide or any other nitrogen-based fertilizer;
- during the budding period – use superphosphate or a complex of minerals;
- after flowering – potassium sulfate or superphosphate.
If desired, you can feed Turkish cloves grown from seeds with humus or compost. However, it should be borne in mind that it is undesirable to feed flowers during the flowering period: you will provoke an active growth of green mass, and flowering will be scarce.
After flowering, flower stalks with seed pods are recommended to be cut so that the plant directs all its forces to the formation of new basal rosettes.
How to extend the life of plants
Turkish carnation grown from seeds at home is a biennial plant. However, it also reproduces by self-sowing, only flower growers note that the bushes of flowers are quite rare, bloom every year more and more poorly, and gradually lose their varietal characteristics.
Therefore, most often the carnation is propagated with the help of layering. At the end of summer or the beginning of autumn, the stems of plants are laid out on the ground, directing them from the center in the form of a radius. The top of the flowers is either cut off or left above the ground. Layers are carefully pinned to the ground with a V-shaped hook and sprinkled with a thin layer of soil, lightly compacted and watered.
In the spring, a large number of young, green rosettes will appear at this place. You can leave the bushes in their original place, or you can plant them in the garden or share them with friends or neighbors.
What or who can threaten plants
In general, cloves are highly resistant to many diseases. However, dampness and wet soil can provoke the occurrence of diseases such as fusarium (or root rot) and heterosporiosis. In both cases, the affected plants should be immediately removed from the site, and the soil should be disinfected with fungicides. It is advisable not to grow Turkish cloves in this area for at least 2-3 years.
Of the pests in flowerbeds with cloves, you can find spider mites and aphids, which suck out all the nutritious juices from the plant. If you find insects on flowers, take immediate control measures. You can use insecticides or resort to folk remedies.
In spring, young, tender shoots of carnations are attacked by rodents. After their invasion, the flowers are almost impossible to save. Therefore, take care of the carnation prematurely. Place poison or rodent traps around the plants.
The author of the video will tell you about the rules for planting Turkish carnations for seedlings
Conclusion
Variegated, neat bushes of Turkish cloves grown from seeds at home will decorate any corner of your backyard. The advantage of this unpretentious plant is its versatility. After all, it looks great in flower beds, it can be grown as border or balcony flowers. Carnation harmoniously looks in combination with other garden flowers. With a minimum of effort, you will soon be able to enjoy bright, inimitable colors that give your garden a cozy, unique look.