General description of distinctive features, recommendations for cultivating viburnum on your site, breeding rules, difficulties in growing viburnum, species. Viburnum (Viburnum) belongs to the genus of arboreal flowering representatives of the flora, attributed to the Adoxaceae family, which also includes more than 160 genera. The native habitats of almost all species are found in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere of the planet; you can also find several species in the Andes and the Antilles, and even in Madagascar.
The plant got its Slavic name, apparently, because of the bright red, like red-hot berries, which look attractive against the background of green foliage. In the Slavic culture, viburnum is very closely intertwined with the life of the people, that a large number of legends, tales have been written about it, there are also sayings and proverbs.
Any of the varieties of viburnum is a shrub or small tree in height. The foliage can be shed during the autumn-winter period, or evergreen varieties are also found. Erect shoots, often with rough bark. Viburnum leaf plates are located oppositely on the branches, sometimes their placement can take a whorled shape. Their outlines are simple, with lobed or palmate-lobed contours, the edge can be either solid or serrated. The leaf is attached to the branch with a petiole.
When flowering, inflorescences appear, formed at the tops of branches with a simple, complex umbellate or umbellate-corymbose shape. Small flowers are collected in these inflorescences, the diameter of which can reach 1.5 cm. The petals of the flowers are painted in white, yellowish-gray or pinkish color. Viburnum blooms from the end of May days or at the beginning of June. After flowering, the fruit ripens in the form of a drupe. Fruit shape can be spherical or elliptical. From the very beginning, the berries are painted in a bright red color, but over time, by full ripening, this shade becomes bluish-black. Viburnum fruits are edible. The viburnum bush can delight the owner for 50-60 years.
Agrotechnics for growing viburnum, plant care, pruning
- Planting viburnum. This shrub can be planted both in spring and autumn. The soil needs to be neutral or slightly acidic, and it is important that the groundwater occurs at a meter depth. Peat, sandy and podzolic substrates will not work. It is better to choose a sunny place for planting, but maple grows better in partial shade. In the spring, while the leaves have not blossomed on the seedling, they plant it. The hole is prepared 50x50x50 cm. If there are a lot of landings, then they try to maintain the distance between them 2, 5-3, 5 m. 2/3 of the soil mixture is poured into the hole from a layer of soil from the same hole, a bucket of humus or a peat substrate, a pound of nitroammofoski … Then 4 buckets of water are poured there and left for 5-7 days. Then the remaining substrate is poured into the hole in a hill so that it rises 10–12 cm above the soil surface. Then a 3-year-old seedling is placed on this elevation, its roots are straightened and covered with the remaining soil. The root collar should be 5–6 cm above the ground. The soil around the seedling is compacted, abundantly watered and mulching of the near-trunk circle with peat, compost or humus is carried out. If the planting takes place in the autumn, then it is important to carry it out between the fall of foliage and the first frost.
- Care behind the viburnum with the arrival of spring is to collect all last year's foliage, as well as to loosen the soil in the trunk circle. A little later, treatment with a fungicide or a 7% urea solution should be performed, but the last remedy is used before the buds appear, otherwise they can be burned. Care in the spring-summer period is to loosen the soil around the viburnum, destroy weeds and water it. With the arrival of autumn, the fallen foliage is removed, treated against diseases and pests, liquid fertilizer is applied and the trunk circle is mulched again using rotted organic matter.
- Watering plants need to be held weekly, especially in summer, even though they can withstand drought. Under the bush on which the harvest will be, it is required to pour 3-4 buckets of water. If the bush is small, then the volume of water decreases, but not the frequency of watering.
- Fertilizers for this shrub, they are introduced in mid-May, and potash preparations are used, and after flowering, it is recommended to add complex mineral agents to the soil of the trunk circle. Often, fertilizers are used dry and scattered into the trunk circle before watering. If in early spring no spraying of dormant buds with urea was carried out, then 2 tablespoons of the drug are added under the bush. Before flowering, 500 grams of wood ash or 2 tablespoons of potassium sulfate is scattered under the plant. When the flowering is over, then a nitroammophoska in the amount of two tablespoons is poured under the viburnum bush.
- Pruning a viburnum bush. It should be done in the spring, before the juices begin to move. You can also shorten the shoots after the leaves fall, but here it is difficult to predict the first frosts. Therefore, molding and rejuvenation are performed in the spring, and for sanitary purposes, you can cut the shoots in the fall, only a couple of centimeters. When forming, remove all branches growing inside the bush or not growing abnormally. For rejuvenation, the old shoots are shortened by a third, and only the strongest specimens should be left from the young growth. Every year, the old branches are still cut by a third, they are replaced by young shoots.
Diy viburnum breeding rules
You can get a new bush with red and healthy berries by sowing seeds, cuttings or layering. You can plant seeds, but they will germinate for about two years, so they use the last two methods.
The seeds can be folded into a nylon stocking filled with wet sawdust, and then stored at a temperature of 20-24 degrees for 2 months. The seeds will begin to germinate and are placed in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator for 30 days for stratification. At the end of this time, the seeds are sown to a depth of 3-4 cm in a peat-sandy substrate and await sprouts. As soon as the spring morning frosts pass, the seedlings are planted in open ground, but you should find a shaded place or shade the young plants for the first time from direct sunlight. Also, abundant hydration is required from the very beginning.
For cuttings in the autumn, the lower branches of the young growth are cut off on the viburnum bush, only 2–4 buds should be left on them, and it is recommended to cover the trunks high with a substrate. In the spring, when on such specimens the shoots from the remaining buds stretch by 8–10 cm, they are already spud up to 5 cm in height. In the event that the shoots become 20-30 cm in height, they should be dug out and pulled at the base using copper wire, and then hilling should be carried out again, but already by 1/3 of the height. After another couple of weeks, it is recommended to huddle the plants again. In the autumn, these shoots are dug up and carefully separated and planted in a new place. It is recommended to carry out cuttings with green twigs, as they take root better. During the flowering period, cuttings must be prepared (this time falls on June or early July). The twig, if bent, should spring and not break. For the cutting, the middle part of the branch is taken, the length of the cutting should fluctuate within 10-12 cm and have 2-3 nodes. The cut from the bottom should be oblique, the upper leaves are shortened by half, and the lower ones are completely removed.
Stimulant-treated cuttings are immersed in a sandy-peat substrate by 1–2 cm. The cuttings are planted obliquely, the distance between the branches is kept 4–5 cm. Then the cuttings are covered with a cut plastic bottle or wrapped in polyethylene. The germination temperature is maintained at 27-30 degrees. Moisture readings should be around 90%. Spraying cuttings from a spray bottle is carried out 3-4 times a day. After 20–23 days, the cuttings take root, the shelter is removed and in the spring, after hardening for 14 days, they are planted in open ground in holes with parameters 50x15 cm and they are grown. When the seedlings get stronger and grow up well, they are moved to a permanent place of growth.
There is also the possibility of reproduction using horizontally located layering and when planting root shoots.
Difficulties in growing viburnum: pests and diseases
Of the pests that annoy the viburnum, the guelder-rose beetle, the black leaf-rolling aphid, the guelder-rose, the guelder-rose and honeysuckle gall midge, and the green deciduous moth are isolated. If harmful insects are detected, the affected parts are removed and the bush is treated with Karbofos or Fufanon. From the leaf roll, treatment is also used before the formation of buds and buds with Nitrofen, dissolving 250 grams of the drug in a bucket of water.
From diseases, powdery mildew, frostburn, ascochitous spotting of viburnum and fruit rot are isolated. Control methods are reduced to treating the bush with colloidal sulfur, fungicides, copper oxychloride or Bordeaux liquid.
Types of viburnum
Kalina ordinary (Viburnum opulus) or also bearing the name Kalina red. The most famous and cultivated plant for a long time as both fruit and ornamental. A shrub that can reach 4 meters in height, its trunks are usually covered with a fissured brown bark. Large leaf plates with blades painted in a light greenish color in spring. With the arrival of summer, the color changes to bright green, and in the fall you can admire the red foliage. During flowering, corymbose inflorescences are formed, which can reach 10 cm in diameter. They are made up of small white flowers. When fruiting, reddish drupes ripen, their shape can be either round or elliptical, a large stone is flat inside, its outlines resemble a heart, pumpkin. Edible fruits, red juice.
Viburnum wrinkled (Viburnum rhytidophyllum). Most often, it can be found in natural surroundings in the western and central parts of China. As a cultivated plant, it is grown in garden and park plantings of the middle zone because of its high frost resistance. Differs in evergreen foliage with original contours. In height, such a plant can reach three meters, the branches are upright with dense tomentose pubescence, thickish, bare. Leaf plates with a shiny wrinkled surface, reticulate, covered with villi on the reverse side.
The length of the leaf can reach 20 cm. When flowering, flowers with yellowish-gray petals appear, they gather in corymbose inflorescences located at the tops of the branches. The diameter of the inflorescences is measured 20 cm. The fruits of this variety are small, only 8 mm in diameter, their shape is ovoid, the surface is shiny, at first their color is red, but as ripening the color changes to black. The plant is distinguished by shade tolerance, unpretentiousness to soil, frost and drought resistance. It can be grown in group plantings, but also looks good as a tapeworm.
Laurel Viburnum (Viburnum tinus) is also called Viburnum evergreen. Grows on the lands of the Mediterranean, is a shrub plant with evergreen foliage not falling. The height of its shoots can reach three meters. Its young branches have a bare or raggedly pubescent surface, and annual shoots already have a brown bark. The leaf plates are eye-catching due to their bright green color, as well as their elliptical shape and leathery surface. The edge is solid, the surface above is shiny, and the underside of the leaf has a lighter shade and has pubescence along the veins.
When blooming, buds are formed with white-pinkish petals, when the flowers open, a wonderful strong aroma is heard. From the flowers, umbrella-shaped inflorescences are collected, which are measured in diameter 10 cm. Fruits ripen with spherical or ovoid outlines, dryish, painted in a bluish-black tone.
The variety is thermophilic, has drought resistance. But when growing, it requires good lighting, it does not make demands on the soil, in winter it can withstand a decrease in the thermometer column to a mark of -15 frost. Often it is grown not only as a single plant, but also hedges are formed from it. There are several decorative varieties: glossy, purple, upright and variegated.
Viburnum lantana is one of the most popular varieties of viburnum. The native habitat is widespread in Northern and Southern Europe, it can be found in North Africa and the North Caucasus, as well as in the lands of Asia Minor. The plant is a light-loving mesophyte - a representative of the flora that grows on soils that have a sufficient, but not excessive level of moisture. This variety is completely different from Kalina ordinary.
However, all the same, the growth form of this specimen of the Adoksov family is shrubby, but in height the shoots can reach five-meter values. It has a dense but compact crown. Shoots, like leaf plates, are covered with stellate whitish hairs. The surface of the leaves is wrinkled and in length they can approach 18 cm. The leaf is dense to the touch, its outlines are wide, the color is dark emerald on the upper side, and on the back - with a grayish-tomentose pubescence.
Small whitish-cream flowers gather in corymbose inflorescences, the diameter of the flowers is 1.5 cm. The fruit is a drupe of a red hue, its color darkens as it ripens until it reaches a black color.
This variety is one of the most attractive shrubs with decorative outlines. The plant is completely undemanding to the composition of the soil, while it is shade-tolerant, drought-resistant and does not suffer from the polluted city air. It can decorate the garden with red-pink foliage and shiny berries blackening among it until the very frost. There are also garden forms of this species: wrinkled and variegated. And of the varieties that are most appreciated by gardeners, is "Aureum" - a plant with oval outlines of leaf plates, which are painted in a golden color at the top and a silvery felt underside.
Kalina Bulddonezh (Viburnum "Boulede Neige") or as it is often called Kalina "Snow Globe". Although the official name of this variety is Sterile Viburnum (Viburnum opulus). A rather picturesque view that does not give berries, but it is famous for its beautiful spherical inflorescences, in which flowers of a snow-white color are collected. At the very beginning, the petals in the buds are slightly greenish; when opened, they become pure white. And by the end of the flowering process, a pinkish tone is added to this color scheme.
In this variety, sterile flowers are collected in flowers, in which there are no stamens or a pistil. This plant is resistant to frost, easily tolerates drought and cloudy weather.
More about Kalina in the following video:
