Alpine Arabis: description, varieties, selection, cultivation

To create a beautiful landscape design, you need not only bright flowers and neat shrubs, but also ground cover plants. Experts recommend choosing Alpine Arabis for this purpose, which is distinguished by its absolute unpretentiousness, pleasant aroma and attractive appearance.

Alpine Arabis, whose other name sounds like Alpine rezuha, is one of the most popular varieties of Arabis bred by breeders. During flowering, herbaceous plants intended for open ground are densely covered with beautiful flowers, painted in a white or pinkish tint. This interval lasts from the end of spring to the end of the first summer month. Buds grow on branching shoots that form clumps. Those leaves that grow at the roots have an oval shape, as well as a bright green color.

The plates growing on the stems resemble hearts in their appearance. Due to the presence of a whitish hairline, the bright green color becomes faded and slightly silvery.

Mass flowering occurs during the above period, but individual inflorescences may appear throughout the summer. Despite the fact that the stems of the culture "move" on the ground, they are capable of reaching a height of 30 centimeters in height.

Alpine Arabis is widely used in landscape design. Most often it is used to decorate borders and delimiters, or it becomes part of an alpine slide. As part of the composition, the plant looks good with tulips. Arabis has a pleasant aroma and also belongs to melliferous plants.

Best of all, Alpine Arabis develops in a sunny area, since the constant exposure to sunlight makes the inflorescences larger and more lush. The area should be open and warm, but always protected from drafts and gusts of wind. Some varieties favor partial shade, but for others it causes stunted growth and reduced flowering quality. The soil should be loose, thinned with sand and have a good drainage layer. A combination of garden soil, sand, turf and small pebbles is also suitable.

Important, so that oxygen can be transported to the roots without any problems... It is worth avoiding the proximity of groundwater, since excessive irrigation or simply waterlogging of the soil most often leads to decay of the roots and further death of the shrub.

If you initially purchase or prepare healthy seedlings and plant them in accordance with the requirements of Alpine Arabis, further crop care will be as simple as possible. As already mentioned, it is recommended to irrigate the crop only in dry and hot weather, using an average amount of liquid. Watering is accompanied by a loosening procedure, which copes with the formed crust of the earth, and also provides better oxygen transport.

When the flowering of the culture is completed, not only the buds are eliminated, but also the stems themselves. This procedure allows you to maintain a beautiful shape and stimulate quality flowering next year.Fast-growing branches undergo the same shortening.

Weeding should be carried out regularly, while the plant is young, but the adult specimen is already able to cope with weeds on its own. Of the neighbors, crocuses, daffodils and tulips are recommended for Arabis, and the rezuha will have to be planted right above the bulbs. Before flowering, Arabis needs to be fertilized with mineral complexes and humus. In general, top dressing is relevant if the soil is depleted.

Before preparing the shrub for winter, you need to attend to the collection of seeds. Further, the shoots of the Arabis are cut off, and only 3-4 centimeters are left from the surface of the earth, and the remaining parts are first covered with dried fallen leaves, after which they are covered with spruce branches.

One of the advantages of Alpine Arabis is the fact that it practically does not suffer from diseases and does not attract insects. The main crop problem is mold and rot resulting from over-watering. Sometimes razuha gets sick with a viral mosaic. You can detect the problem by the brown spots that appear on the sheets, the size of which increases over time. Unfortunately, the disease cannot be cured, and therefore the bush is dug out of the ground and burned. The area where Arabis developed is treated with a manganese solution, after which quarantine is declared on it for 12 months. Of the insects on the culture, you can find the cruciferous flea. From organic means to combat the pest, wood ash is used, and from insecticides - "Iskra" and "Karbofos".

Alpine arabis can be grown from seeds, but no less often it propagates in a vegetative way: by dividing a shrub or by cuttings. When using the seed method, it is extremely important to choose a well-lit area with loose soil. Seed planting is carried out in two ways. In the first case, in April, when the ground is already warming up, a shady area is selected, where the seeds are sown to a one-centimeter depth. The resulting bed is closed with a special covering material, which is removed when the seedlings germinate.

In the last week of May, when it is cloudy, the seedlings are irrigated, after which they are transplanted to their permanent habitat - already a sunny area. This must be done without separating the earthen lump from the roots.

A wooden or plastic container is filled with a mixture of turf and disinfected river sand, taken in equal proportions, after which the soil mixture warms up a little. The seeds are deepened by one centimeter, and the container is tightened with cling film. The containers are referred to in warm seasons, since Alpine Arabis can develop at this stage only at a temperature of 20 degrees.

The seeds will germinate in about 3 weeks or a little later, at which point the film can be removed. As soon as leaves appear on the stems, it is time to take the seedlings out into the garden for a while to harden. Bushes are planted in open ground upon reaching three leaves. Culture will begin to bloom only in the second year of life.

The division of the bush is most often used for terry varieties, and only specimens that are already 3 years old can be used. The division is carried out either in the last weeks of August or in the first weeks of September, but always after the last buds have bloomed. The shrub is carefully dug up, the roots are shaken off the soil, and the plant is divided into the required number of parts. It is more convenient to do this with a well-sharpened and disinfected knife or shears.The resulting wound is treated with ash or crushed charcoal immediately after the procedure.

Finished cuttings are planted in a previously prepared area. The pits must be dug, keeping the gap between them from 35 to 40 centimeters. The plantings are immediately abundantly irrigated.

Finally, cuttings are also suitable for reproduction of Alpine Arabis. Planting material is prepared when the buds have faded. Unlike shrubs, the stalk is created in a somewhat unusual way: you have to pull out one of the leaves, pulling it very carefully towards you.

Another stalk is obtained by cutting off the top of the stem, equal to 10 centimeters, from which all the lower leaf blades are removed. The stalk is placed in the soil at an angle and covered with a glass jar or plastic bottle that simulates a greenhouse. The developing bush will need to be regularly ventilated, if necessary, irrigated and cleaned of condensation. As soon as the stalk acquires roots and becomes more elastic, it can be transplanted to a permanent habitat.

See below for tips on growing and caring for Arabis.