General characteristics of the bell, the rules for growing in the garden, DIY breeding steps, pest and disease control, facts, types. Bellflower (Campanula) belongs to a genus of plants that have an exclusively herbaceous form of growth, which scientists attributed to the Campanulaceae family. This genus also includes up to 400 species of flora, which often like to settle on lands in temperate climatic zones. Namely, in nature, you can find these flowers in the Caucasus and Siberia, as well as in the regions of Central and Western Asia, and they also did not bypass the countries of Europe, and sometimes bells can be seen growing in North America. But if we take into account the lands of Russia and neighboring states, then there are up to 150 varieties of this plant, although in its European part there are only about 15.
For their growth, bells have chosen a wide variety of locations, which include meadows, forests, steppe regions, and they can also grow successfully in semi-deserts and on rocky soils. There are some varieties that successfully inhabit mountainous areas that belong to the subalpine and alpine belts.
This genus of green inhabitants of the planet bears its scientific name "Campanula" because of the diminutive word with late Latin and Italian roots - "campana", which means "bell" in translation. Naturally, the Russian name of the plant comes from the description of the shape of flowers, which has become firmly established in botanical scientific literature. And among the people, this delicate and beloved flower is called depending on the area: chenille, bells, chebots, birdwort and many other terms.
Bellflower is a plant with a perennial life cycle, but in rare cases, they can grow as an annual or biennial herb. The height of the stem can vary from 50 to 100 cm. The arrangement of the foliage is regular, the leaf plate is solid. When the leaf is in the root zone, it may have a long petiole; in the leaves in the middle of the stem, the petioles are already shorter, but at the top they are sessile (without petioles altogether).
Flowers are an ornament of this plant, most often the corolla has bell-shaped, funnel-shaped, tubular-bell-shaped outlines, the petals are tightly welded. Occasionally, it can take on a flat or almost wheel-like contour. The color scheme of his color acquires blue, pink or purple colors of different shades, sometimes lilac and very rarely snow-white can be found. From the buds, as a rule, paniculate or racemose inflorescences are collected, very rarely there is only one flower in them. The flowering period falls on the beginning and middle of the summer months, but perennial varieties can delight their owners until September days.
After flowering in August, fruitlets ripen in the form of a box, in which a large number of seeds are present. Their sizes are very small, up to 4500 units per 1 gram. And the seed material will not lose its germination within 4 years. When fully ripe, the capsule opens with six holes in the form of slits.
If the bells are cut for a bouquet, then some of their varieties can stand in the water for more than a week. The plant is most often used to decorate flower beds and in flower beds, birdberry is also used in cutting.
Growing a bell in your garden bed?
The place for landing is selected open and sunny, but chenille will grow well in partial shade, sometimes even in such conditions they bloom longer. The site should not be with stagnant moisture, they do not like the bells of lowlands with a clay and loamy substrate, if the site is filled with water, then they will not grow there either. If there is a proximity of groundwater, then drainage is placed in the holes during disembarkation.
Bell transplants are performed in the spring or fall. When the snow melts, you can transplant plants with a powerful root system (varieties - broadleaf, crowded, and others). If the rhizome is not so strongly developed, then this operation is carried out in May, when the soil is well warmed up. If the transplant falls in the fall, then the time is selected at the end of August or the beginning of September, so that the plants take root before the frost. The substrate for planting is prepared in advance, while the weeds are removed, and the digging is carried out to a depth of 30–40 cm. If the soil is clay or loamy, then sand or peat is mixed into it, also adding a little fertilizer to it. Sod land, peat and humus soil, or muddy pond soil are mixed into a loose, but poor in humus substrate. If the manure or peat is fresh, then it is not recommended to use them, otherwise it can lead to fungal diseases.
Fertilizers for bells are applied in the spring. Nitrogen is used to help the foliage grow quickly. With the arrival of summer, phosphorus and complex dressings are used, and with the onset of autumn, potash fertilizers will be required, which will help the bells to survive in frosts.
General care for delicate bell-shaped plants is to weed them in a timely manner from weeds, water them during dry periods and shelter them from the cold. With the onset of cold weather, it is recommended to cut off all the stems of the chebot, and sprinkle it with peat, cover it with spruce branches or dry foliage.
General rules for breeding bells
To get a new bush of "bells", then carry out the division of the bush, planting segments of rhizomes or root suckers, cuttings and sowing of seed. The choice of the method directly depends on the characteristics of the given variety and its form of growth. So if the bell is one-year, then it is easiest to sow seed, if the plant has a two-year growing period, then both the seed method and spring cuttings are used. Perennial bells are divided into:
- vegetatively immobile (plants with a root in the form of a rod or brush), for which only the seed method of propagation is used;
- vegetatively inactive (bells with a short rhizome) can be propagated by seeds, by dividing a bush or by green cuttings;
- vegetatively mobile (with long rhizomes that form stalons and root suckers), any propagation method should be used (sowing seeds, dividing an overgrown bush, planting root suckers or rhizome segments, rooting of green cuttings).
During seed propagation, the fruit pods of the bells must be collected when their color becomes brown, but before the pores have not yet opened. The capsules should be dried, and the seed spills out on its own. Due to the fact that the seeds are very small in size, it is recommended to mix them with washed river sand or crushed chalk before sowing. Sowing is carried out both in the spring and in the fall directly into the ground, or seedlings are grown from them, and with the arrival of constant heat they are transferred to the flower garden. The beds for seedlings are prepared in advance, but if the planting is carried out in the spring months, then they are engaged in preparation in the fall. The soil should be nutritious and permeable to air and moisture. The seeds are sown superficially and finely enough, then they can be sprinkled with a thin layer of sand. If the time is spring, then sowing takes place on May days, and in the autumn, sowing is carried out in the second half of October. When sowing in spring, sprouts appear after 10–12 days. When sowing podzimnym sowing bell seedlings will appear next spring, after 14 days, after the soil thaws well and warms up. Then it is recommended to thin out the seedlings, and when the third true leaf is formed, a dive is carried out in a checkerboard pattern, the distance is maintained between the plants 10 cm apart. Also, you can sow seed not in the ground, but in seedling boxes with a light fertile substrate. For the winter period, these containers should be dug in the garden and covered with plastic wrap. By the spring heat, the shelter is removed, and it is recommended to shade the boxes from the direct streams of the sun. At the beginning of summer, the seedlings should be transferred to prepared beds, where they will grow until next spring. Then it is already necessary to transplant them to a permanent place in the flower bed.
If seedlings are grown in greenhouse conditions, then the seeds should be sown in early spring in dive boxes. These containers are filled with a soil mixture of soddy soil with river sand and leafy substrate with the addition of very finely ground peat, which has been well ventilated. Organic fertilizing is not applied. The emergence of seedlings is expected in 10-15 days, and then a pick is carried out, then, with the arrival of June, the seedlings are transplanted into open ground.
With vegetative propagation, the division of the bush is carried out for 3-5 years of growth, but some varieties (peach, speckled, Takeshima, twisted and rapunzel) can be divided in the first year of their flowering.
The division of the bushes is performed at the beginning of May days or at the end of summer, so that before the onset of frost, the plants will take root. The mother specimen is required to be removed from the soil, the shoots located above the ground are cut off, and using a knife or shovel, division is made in such a way that each of the parts has several regenerating buds. Parts of the bell are planted in prepared shallow grooves, so that the buds of renewal are at the ground level. This applies to varieties of bells rapuncle-shaped, spoon-leaved, peach-leaved, Kemularia and the like.
If it is necessary to separate the root suckers from the mother bush, then they must have roots and are planted in flower beds. Thus, it is possible to carry out reproduction of Takeshima and dot bells or the same.
If cuttings are cut, then young stems are selected for this, which have begun to grow.
Difficulties in cultivating the bell flower
A big plus when breeding bells is their unpretentiousness and resistance to harmful insects and diseases. However, if this representative of the flora is grown as a perennial culture, then pathogenic microorganisms will definitely accumulate in the substrate, among them fusarium, sclerotinia or botrytis are distinguished. They can lead plants to death by their influence. In order to save the bells from such a misfortune, it is necessary to process the planting of bells with Fundazol in the form of a 2% solution twice a season (namely, in the spring and autumn periods).
If the weather is humid for a long time, the chenille may be affected by the slobbering penny. In order to defeat this pest, an infusion of garlic is used - 200 grams of chopped garlic is put in a bucket of water and this mixture is infused for a day. Then the solution is filtered and the bells are processed. If the height of the stems in plants is low, then they can often be affected by slugs. In this case, you should spray with a decoction of hot pepper, and it is also recommended to pour granular superphosphate under the planting.
Interesting Bell Facts
Some varieties of bells are on the verge of extinction due to the fact that in natural conditions of growth they are collected for bouquets or the places of their distribution are destroyed due to human activity. There are up to 12 such varieties, which are located on the territory of European countries, half of these plants are endemic to Italy, that is, they do not grow anywhere else except in those areas. Among them are the equifolia bell, the Transylvanian bell and a variety of the trizoid bell.
There is a belief that you can hear the ringing of bell flowers only once a year, during the magical night that comes on the holiday of Ivan Kupala. Tyutchev wrote about these delicate flowers: "My bells, forest flowers, look at me, tender blue."
Description of the types of bells
There are many varieties of these delicate and popular flowers. Only a couple of them are presented here.
Broad-leaved bell (Campanula latifolia) is a perennial plant with a height ranging from 70–130 cm. The stems have erect outlines, they are well leafy. The leaf plates in the root section are large in size, with elongated petioles. Their dimensions are 12 cm in length with a width of up to 6 cm, the edge is serrated. In the lower part of the stem, the leaves have short petioles, and those that grow in the upper part are sessile.
The native areola of growth falls on the territory of alpine meadows. The resulting flowers are large in size, and they take the shape of an elongated bell. Their peduncles are located in the leaf axils that grow in the upper part of the stem. They are solitary, but from the buds they collect a rather narrow contour, almost spike-shaped carpal inflorescences. The corolla is funnel-shaped, its length is about 6 cm, its color is blue, blue or whitish. Garden forms have already been bred, which are decorated with terry flowers. The flowering process occurs in the middle of summer, the ripening of the fruits occurs at the end of the summer period. The number of seed material is very large, on one shoot they can be formed in the range of 1200-2000 units. At the end of flowering, the plant completely loses its decorative effect.
The most common varietal species are:
- "Alba" is distinguished by snow-white color of flowers;
- "Brantwood" flower petals of violet color;
- "Makranta" has large flowers, and their corolla casts a dark purple color scheme.
Bellflower (Campanula lactiflora) most often this representative of the flora is found in the mountains of the Caucasus and Asia Minor, in the subalpine belt and in the same growing forests. The height of the stems can be 60–150 cm. The root system has racemose outlines. The stem in the upper part is strongly branched. Since the roots are a rod-like species, unlike other varieties, the plant grows well on a heavy loamy substrate.
The shape of the flowers is bell-shaped, in diameter they can reach 3-4 cm. The color is from milky white to lilac. From the buds, inflorescences with a wide pyramidal shape are formed, in which up to 100 flowers are collected. The flowering process occurs in June-July, it is very abundant, and with the arrival of August, multiple seeds begin to ripen.
The flowers have a delicate delicate scent that becomes a lure for bees and bumblebees pollinating them. They have been cultivated in culture since 1814. The most popular varieties are considered:
- "Alba", flowers which are distinguished by their snow-white color;
- "Cerulea" the corolla of flowers casts blue;
- "Loddon Anna" flaunts with flowers of a pale lilac-pinkish tone;
- "Pichard with" Varieti "opening flowers with a blue-lovandova tint, with a total height of the stems one and a half meters.
It is often planted in a sunny place, seed reproduction takes place, they should be sown immediately to the place of future growth, and then when seedlings appear, thinning is carried out, since this variety is very poorly tolerated by transplantation.
How to grow bells, see below:
[media =
