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The ordinary gooseberry, despite its unpretentious appearance, is often used by designers when creating various landscape compositions. Sods of an unpretentious ground cover, covered with numerous snow-white flowers, harmoniously fit into the landscape, giving natural beauty to alpine hills, rockeries and mixborders in natural style (naturgarten).
Cerastium flower most often with petals incised by a third
Description and characteristics
Yaskolka ordinary – lat. (Cerastium Holosteoides) belongs to the family. Clove (Caryophyllaceae Juss). Other botanical names of the same species are soddy, costly, or lanceolate (Cerastium fontanum). Cerastium is a herbaceous annual, biennial or perennial plant, 10-30 cm high, with erect and vegetative creeping stems. The root system of the common chickweed is fibrous, widely branched, the roots are located near the surface of the earth. The lower rounded or ovate leaves are collected in a rosette. Stem foliage – greenish with a silvery sheen, has a lanceolate shape, pointed at the end. The plates are opposite. Leaf length 3 cm, width – 1 cm. All parts of the plant are pubescent with glandular and simple hairs.
The flowering of the common chickweed is long – from late April to October. The bush puts forward low corymbose loose inflorescences in the form of semi-umbrellas with 8-10 buds and green membranous bracts, the lower of which is leaf-shaped. White flowers with a diameter of 5-6 mm in the form of a bell are located on long pedicels, have 5 petals, incised at the top. Stamens and pistil shorter than petals, anther filaments bare. The fruit is a cylindrical box with small brown (up to 0,8 mm) tuberculate seeds.
The common goosefoot is an extremely unpretentious plant, easily tolerates periods of drought, and has high frost resistance. It can grow on poor soils, do without watering and fertilizing. Cerastium has a high immunity to diseases, is practically not damaged by pests. The common gooseberry is an aggressor plant, if you do not limit its growth in breadth, after a few years the ground cover curtain reaches 80 cm in diameter, oppressing the flowers growing nearby.
Under natural conditions, the common chickweed grows on stony poor soils. When planted in fertile soil, it blooms less, increasing the green mass. It prefers to grow on hills, in well-warmed places where there is no stagnant water in spring and during periods of rainy weather. The plant loves lighted places. The ground cover, planted in partial shade, ceases to bloom.
The common gooseberry has medicinal properties. It contains tannin, rutin, useful flavonoids and organic acids. Decoctions and infusions of herbs are used in folk medicine for beriberi, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, tumor growths.
The flower forms a dense turf, which is not afraid of even malicious weeds.
Where grows
Yaskolka ordinary is a cosmopolitan plant. The natural area of its distribution captures the entire Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia, Siberia, Altai Territory and the Far East. The flower is found in pastures, meadows, glades, high banks of reservoirs. Growing in the fields next to agricultural crops, the common weed becomes a weed, competing with plantings for water and nutrients. The flower is able to produce a large number of seeds.
Methods of reproduction
The common gooseberry breeds easily. Main ways:
- sowing seeds in the ground;
- growing from seeds through seedlings;
- division of the bush.
Seeds of the common chickweed are sown directly into the ground in autumn. Often self-seeding occurs. When growing seedlings, seeds are planted in March, the first shoots can be seen in a week. When two true leaves appear, the seedlings dive. Young bushes are planted in the ground in early summer. The division of the common chickweed is carried out in spring or autumn with a sharp knife or shovel. The plant is cut into 2-3 parts with equal parts of the roots and transplanted to a new place.
The common jaskolka is distinguished by its long flowering – from April to October
Cultivation and care
The flower requires a minimum of attention. The moisture schedule is moderate, the plant can be watered only during the drought period. Top dressing is carried out during flowering, nitrogen fertilizers are used with caution. As far as possible, loosen the soil near the bushes, trying not to damage the surface roots. Weeds are not afraid of ordinary weeds, a dense curtain suppresses their growth. Main activities:
- pruning to give the plant a spherical shape and stimulate repeated waves of flowering;
- removal of dried flower stalks;
- periodic division of an overgrown bush.
Young immature plants are mulched with peat. Cerastium does not need shelter for the winter; under a layer of leaf litter or spruce branches, a flower culture can fade.
Pests and diseases
The common gooseberry is not affected by pests, is not susceptible to fungal and viral diseases. When grown in the lowlands, it can get sick with a physiological pathology – rotting of the root system. Causes of occurrence:
- stagnation of water in the soil;
- excessive watering;
- growing on heavy clay soils;
- excess fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers.
What plants are combined with
The exceptional unpretentiousness of the common chickweed, long flowering and the ability to create a dense cushion without weeds from shoots has led to the widespread use of the plant in landscape design. The ground cover is planted in the foreground of mixborders, in the lower tier of coniferous hedges, borders are made along the paths. The common jaskolka is suitable for growing in flowerpots and containers.
The flower can grow in crevices between stones with small areas of soil. This ability of plants is used in the arrangement of rock gardens, rockeries, gardens made of stones. The common goosefoot goes well with bulbous plants, excluding small primroses, which are too weak to be adjacent to an aggressive plant. The groundcover looks great in compositions with rhizomatous irises, tulips, and various types of lilies.
Snow-white flowers on thin stems emphasize the bright color of perennial petals.
Conclusion
The common gooseberry is an unpretentious plant, the cultivation of which is available on any soil and does not require special skills. The flower reproduces easily, rarely gets sick, and is not damaged by parasitic insects. Proper pruning of the bush helps to give the groundcover a beautiful spherical shape and allows it to be used in a variety of compositions that mimic the natural landscape.
