Mirabilis

Most plants and flowers that have a strong connection with the solar cycle are directly dependent on the position of the daylight in the sky. Night beauty Mirabilis can be considered an exception, which lives a little differently. In the daytime, its low bushes are unremarkable, but as soon as dusk comes, as gramophone flowers begin to unfold, in order to maintain their brightness all night and exude a delicate scent.

Mirabilis: growing from seed at home

It is easy to grow on the garden plot or the loggia of Mirabilis: the plant arrived from America is unpretentious and does not surrender to external factors, even if you forget about it for a while. Most of the attention flower needed at the initial stage, while the emergence of sprouts. It is noteworthy that the seeds of mirabilis have a very high degree of germination, as a result of which it is better to sow them not as a group, but one by one, so that they do not have to later engage in thinning the seedlings. In addition, seeds retain their ability to germinate for 4 years.

There is no need to take any preliminary actions before sowing Mirabilis seedlings - practicing gardeners even point out that the seeds do not need to be treated with stimulants. However, their growth will accelerate if the seeds are lowered into peat tablets. However, in their absence, you can get by with peat and river sand, which are diligently moistened before sowing Mirabilis in them. Seeds are necessarily deepened by 1-1.5 cm and filled with the same peat-sand substrate. In the case of peat tablets, picking seedlings is no longer necessary, and it will be possible to immediately distribute them to the site or to the boxes for the balcony. If you sow Mirabilis group in a large capacity, it will be possible to plant seedlings in 25-30 days.

Unlike most flowers and plants that are sown on seedlings at home, Mirabilis does not need to be tightened with a film - seedlings and without this action will appear by the end of the 2nd week, and the seeds themselves will feel much better at an average humidity than rather high that is typical of greenhouses. However, in seedlings without shelter, it will be necessary to carefully monitor the soil moisture, which dries out faster than it does in mini-greenhouses. Depending on the climate in the apartment, watering can be daily, and can be done 1 time in the 2nd day, but always through a light spraying of the soil, rather than a direct stream.

Mirabilis: planting and care in the open field (photo)

• Directly in the open ground, the night beauty Mirabilis is no more difficult to grow than at home and from seedlings. Seeds are fairly resistant to slight changes in weather, so they can be sown in the summer cottage in May. However, for zones with a sharply continental climate, experts recommend covering the planting area with a film, which is removed at the moment when the night air temperature stops falling below 10 degrees. In addition, the film is removed and in the daytime, if the day is warm. And, as in the case of sowing Mirabilis on seedlings, seeds in the open ground are also dropped one by one with penetration, and there is a distance of 5-7 cm between them. They should be sprinkled with clean coarse sand.
• If you grow mirabilis from seeds through seedlings, seedlings are taken out in open ground when they reach 30 cm in height. Or you can rely on weather conditions: June is considered ideal for planting, when air and land are warmed so that in the event of a sudden cooling will keep warm . At the same time, the zone itself, on which the seedlings will be identified, should warm up perfectly and not be in the shadow. Usually practicing gardeners prefer to plant Mirabilis on a hill or on open flat areas, composing it with lower plants that will not shade it.
• According to the conditions of growing seedlings, it was evident that the soil for Mirabilis is somewhat different from the substrate that is familiar to most flowers: the proportion of sand and peat in it is very high, and the garden soil is completely absent. Approximately the same requirements are preserved for adult seedlings of Mirabilis, however, the sand should already be less, but peat remains an indispensable component. Ideal loam and other dense soils that form large, bright flowers on the bush. However, some gardeners say that the plant takes root even on rocky terrain, only the bushes in such a situation remain green rather than richly strewn with flowers.
• An important nuance in the care of Mirabilis concerns watering: the plant should not be wetted often - it suffices even the natural schedule of rains, if the summer was not dry, which, according to practicing gardeners, is not dangerous for the flower. Occasionally you can spray the bushes or arrange for them to "shower" with a hose, but the proportion of water falling on them should be minimal. If you overdo it, the root system of the flower immediately succumbs to rotting.
• Feeding of mirabilis is practically not carried out, if we do not take into account the one-time application of mineral fertilizers at the beginning of flowering. Compost or humus is also not brought into the soil before planting, but the plant will appreciate adding a small amount of ash to each well.
• Between the bushes there should be a free space of at least 35-40 cm, and for very tall bushes it increases to 45 cm. At the same time, if the bushes start to grow, they are necessarily thinned, since this negatively affects the abundance of flowering. In addition, in this matter it is important and timely removal of new shoots (at the time of active growth), as well as dead inflorescences, which appear 21-25 days after the start of flowering.

The night beauty Mirabilis is an unusual flower, and not so much externally as with its biological clock. In the care, it is unpretentious, you can hardly pay attention to the bushes - they are very independent, and before the frosts it is recommended to just dig up the tubers and transfer them to the cellar, where they will last until spring. In this case, re-grow mirabilis from seed next year will not have to.