Astra Alpine, an unforgettable Alpine - decoration of your garden

Astra Alpine is a perennial plant that has a horizontally located rhizome and a fairly strong stem, it is all covered with thin, very short hairs. The lower leaves of this plant have a shovel-like, elongated shape. The upper leaves are regular in shape, they are smaller. Astra Alpine has inflorescences, which are painted in a variety of colors from white to yellow and various shades of blue. Inflorescences have the form of baskets, their size reaches 4-5 centimeters. Astra Alpine has a rather long flowering period, which lasts approximately from May to June. The fruit of this plant is the seed.

Astra Alpine. Cultivation

This flower is quite unpretentious when grown, can grow in different areas and easily tolerates both heat and cold. It can grow on any soils, but prefers fertile and soils that have good drainage. Astra Alpine is widely used during the design of various group compositions on lawns and rock gardens.

The plant does not require abundant watering, it should be uniform, but always regular. From time to time it is necessary to carry out fertilizing asters, for which organic and mineral fertilizers are used.

Astra alpine reproduces by means of seeds. The disadvantage is that the seeds very quickly lose their initial germination, so they should be sown better late in the autumn. But it is more simple to propagate asters by dividing the bush. This operation is performed in the spring, and the separated plant immediately lands on its permanent place.

In Ukraine the alpine astra is listed in the Red Book and protected by law, it is very rare to meet it in nature.

In many folk medicine this plant is used as a medicinal plant. For example, in Tibetan medicine it is used in the treatment of various eczema, gastrointestinal diseases, as well as in diseases of the respiratory tract.

Forget-me-nots Alpine

This plant is also very often grown on garden plots. Its height ranges from 25-30 cm, the stems of the plant are shaggy. Inflorescence forget-me-nots consists of a large number of small flowers, the size of which individually about 5-7 mm, so from a distance the flower is like a ball. Most often the flowers come in a variety of shades of blue, but there may be specimens with pink and white flowers. The flowering period is about a month, after which the plant, can be replaced by summer. There are both fairly high grades, which reach a height of up to 40 centimeters, as well as dwarf ones, whose height does not exceed 20 centimeters.

Forget-me-nots reproduce very well by self-seeding. If in the spring to conduct a timely thinning of the sowing, then you will again get healthy and flowering plants. Almost all kinds of forget-me-nots can be propagated using cuttings, and some species, for example marsh swallow, are also propagated by dividing the bush.

To plant forget-me-nots on your site, you need to sow the change at the end of May or the beginning of June. Cuttings are taken from the apical shoots. When placed in fertile soils and shaded areas, they are very well established. If the cuttings are produced early, then already closer to the autumn the plant can blossom. More abundant flowering of the forget-me-not got from the cuttings occurs already in the second year.

Plant transplantation can be carried out in the flowering state. They are very convenient for decorating early flower beds. The plant prefers fertile soils and slightly shaded areas. If there is not enough moisture, there will be less abundant flowering and earlier seeds will appear.

To obtain early plants, the most suitable is the swamp forget-me-not. To obtain hardy plants that are grown in pots, the seeds are sown in April-May.