Lilac is a plant that has many main trunks, so it belongs to the genus of shrubs. In total, more than 30 different types of this decorative shrub are known, and each of them has several siren varieties.
Lilac flowers can be white, raspberry, lilac, blue. And breeders deduced a number of varieties, the color of the inflorescences of which is pink and even yellow. It is such a fairly wide color scheme of these shrubs — the reason for its popularity among gardeners and landscape designers.
Flowering periods of various types may vary slightly, but these shrubs bloom in late spring — early summer.
Types and varieties
In the garden areas of our country, the types of lilac and various hybrids obtained on its basis are most often found. Among them:
hyacinth -color;
Chinese;
Persian;
Afghan;
small -fiber.
Chinese and Persian species of lilac often freeze in the middle strip of Russia, and in particularly frosty winters often freeze completely.
Varieties are divided by the following signs:
by painting flowers;
by terry and shape of colors;
in the shape and size of the inflorescences themselves;
by smell that exudes inflorescences;
by height and shape of shrub.
There are many types of lilacs, so choosing specific varieties for your site will not be difficult for any gardener.
Propagation methods
You can propagate lilacs with the help of seed material and vegetative ways: cuttings, shoots, grown from the roots of the mother bush or layering.
Reproduction of lilacs root
To propagate lilac bushes with the help of root overgrowth is the easiest way. Usually the shoots coming from the roots of the main bush grow during the season. These small bushes quickly increase their own root system, they retain all the properties of the mother bush and are easily separated from the main bush when digging up.
Usually they carry out the process of rejection of the seedling from the mother bush in early autumn (preferably no later than the first decade of October). In autumn, lilac, like other plants, begins to prepare for winter, the processes of sap flow in the plant are calmed down, so the injury of the mother bush when rejecting the processes will be minimal.
Before digging processes, the soil must be thoroughly watered. Dip off the tape bushes should be carefully so as not to damage their root system. It is better to carry out the process of transplantation in cloudy weather or in the evening.
Propagation of lilacs with layering
The easiest way to propagate with layering is a simple lead. In this case, annual shoots are tilted in the spring to the ground and pinned. Then this place is covered with a layer of soil on top. All season these layering is regularly watered. Typically, after 4 seasons, layering can be transplanted, since the bushes have formed enough, and their root system also has grown.
Propagation of lilacs with cuttings
You can propagate the lilac in this way using both green and old cuttings.
Green cuttings are best cut from flowering or just faded branches of lilacs. The length of the cuttings should be about 15 cm, and the number of kidneys on it is 3 — 4 pairs. Leaves from cuttings do not remove.
Immediately before landing in the ground, the lower two sheets should be removed with sharp scissors. Slightly retreating from them down, they make a scythe -cut on the cuttings. The rest of the foliage should be shortened by half. The top of the cuttings is cut in a straight line.
Before planting, the cuttings are kept in a solution containing drugs to stimulate the growth of roots. Typically, in such a solution, the cuttings are at least a day.
The hole in which the cuttings will be planted is prepared as follows:
holes up to 30 cm deep are dug up.;
on the bottom is laid out for drainage by expanded clay or crushed stone with a layer of 120 mm.;
The next layer of 200 mm. — humus;
The last layer — about 50 mm. — Soil.
The resulting soil in the Yamk5AH is thoroughly compacted and watered. Cuttings are planted in rows, the distance between them in the rows — 6 cm, between the rows distance — 12 cm. Plantings are watered again. Then a mini greenhouse is made above them — a frame of stakes or other improvised material up to 0.5 m high is built and covered with film material on top.
Water such a greenhouse once a week, if the foliage of cuttings begins to fall, then it is removed. After 30 — 45 days, the greenhouse should be well ventilated. By this time, cuttings should be actively rooted.
Film material should be removed, until the onset of autumn the cuttings grow out in the open air. Caring for them consists in regular watering and weed.
In the fall, the strongest bush of lilacs are transplanted to a permanent place, and weak sprouts are covered for the winter. The next spring, the remaining plants can also be transplanted to a permanent place.
When and how to plant
In the middle lane of our country, lilacs are usually planted in the third decade of August — in the first decade of September.
Prepared pits for seedlings have in a diameter of 0.5 m and the same depth. Organication (overduced cow manure or two -year compost), ash and slightly bone flour are added to the pit.
Seedlings are planted either on a cloudy day, or in the evening, when the sun is already sitting down.
Lilac bushes grow better on soils with pH 5.5 — 7.0 and with good absorption of moisture. These shrubs are not afraid of frosts, so they grow well in the conditions of central Russia. This shrub is also distinguished by high drought tolerance, but still in the dry summer period, lilac should be regularly watered.
Lilacs are necessary for a sufficient amount of sunlight, but the sun during the day this plant also does not endure. The best place for this shrub is protected from strong winds, where there is enough sunlight until 13 o’clock in the afternoon.
The best place for lilacs is the southwestern slopes of the site.
Rules of care
Lilac refers to the type of plants that are not demanding on the conditions of content. However, behind the seedlings of this flower, care is still needed. After planting the bush, it should be thoroughly watered, and then mulch the trunk circles. As mulch, you can take rotted foliage or peat. Subsequently, the care of the growing bushes of lilacs comes down to the constant loosen of the upper layer of soil.
Feeding under the planted plants begin to be made only from the second season. At this time, it is recommended to make mineral fertilizers containing nitrogen. For each plant, about 2.5 tablespoons of urea (or other nitrogen -containing drugs) are needed for each plant).
Nitrogen contributes to the accelerated growth of shoots, building up the autonomic mass and the root system. Instead of mineral fertilizers, you can use the top dressing of lilac bushes with a solution of dung slide. Under each bush, it is recommended to make up to 20 liters of such top dressing. Watering with such fertilizer is carried out along the edges of the trunk circles, making sure that the slurry does not hurt the barrel.
Once every three years, complex mineral preparations are introduced under the lilac, which include potassium and phosphorus. The norm of such top dressing is 2 tablespoons for each plant. They should be added in the autumn period under the digging in order to deepen to a depth of at least 5 cm.
Abundant watering of shrubs is carried out during flowering and time when shoots are actively growing. From the middle of the summer, watering lilacs reduces, as the growth of the shrub decreases.
Cutting
So that the shrub has the correct shape, it should be regularly cut. These bushes begin to form only from the third after planting cuttings of the season. Such scraps are carried out in the spring period immediately after the snow becomes, and the kidneys do not begin to swell yet.
Frozen and sore shoots are cut. Only 4 to 10 main shoots are left symmetrically, the most powerful and strong, and all the rest are cut under the root.
This type of pruning allows you to better ventilate the shrub, and new shoots grow more actively.