Mexican ageratum, żeniszek - Ageratum houstonianum
The flowers are blue, purple and white. Mainly low varieties are grown (20 cm), blooming profusely from June to autumn. This plant is most often used for borders, discounts, perches, as well as carpet flower beds. Taller varieties are often used for wreaths, very rarely grown in our country.
Seeds are sown in the second half of February in boxes in the greenhouse (temperature 12—15°) in the frame soil with the addition of leaf, sand and peat. On 1 m2, 5–7 g of seeds are sown. For production 1000 plants, g of well-germinated seeds are enough. When the plants grow up, yes, that the first or second leaves will be visible, they should be quilted at a 2X4 cm spacing, and after three weeks, re-pierce the frames with a 5X8 spacing. A seedling prepared in this way will seem nice, plants aligned, which are planted permanently in the second half of May after the last spring frosts, spaced 10-15 X 15-20 cm. It grows best in a sunny position, warm soil and not too moist.
Ageratum has very fine seeds; w 1 a gram is 6-8 thousand. seeds. This plant is often propagated from green shoot cuttings, which is cut in early spring (February March) from specially selected mother plants overwintering in the greenhouse. As a result, plants of even growth are obtained, which we usually do not achieve with seed propagation. The seedlings should be planted for a warm inspection. When they are well rooted, they are transplanted to permanent places with the same spacing as the seedling.
Tagetes - Tagetes
Currently, there are numerous varieties of three species in floriculture: 1) the marigold rose, reaching a height of 40—80 cm, with orange and yellow flowers; 2) marigold spread or, as it is often called, dwubarwna (Dwarf forms 20-30 cm high and 40-75 cm high) with full or single flowers, yellow-orange with a red spot or dark brown with a yellow edging; 3) marigold fine, growing up to 30 cm in height, with numerous tiny flowers of orange or yellow color with a red spot at the base of the petals.
The tagetes is most often used to cover the rebate in the form of borders, also for flower beds and discounts, and the higher varieties for cut flowers. It is an easy to grow and decorative plant, however, it has a rather intense pungent smell, not liked by everyone. Due to the intense exudation of smell, these plants are often planted between cloves, to scare away rodents, which often destroy (they eat) cloves, for these animals hate the smell of marigold. Recently, varieties without smell have been bred, and even quite pleasant smelling.
Tagetes flower after 12 weeks after sowing, the main flowering period is in July, august and september, extending sometimes until October.
Seeds should be sown for inspection in early April, you can also do it on the seedbed to protect the plants from frost by stretching a polyethylene film over them. If the seedlings are to be quilted, on 1 m2 are sown 10— 12 g seeds of marigold erect or broadleaf, while 6-8 g of fine marigold, otherwise, the sowing rate is reduced by half. When sowing sparingly, quilting the plants is unnecessary, when sowing densely, the seedlings should be quilt at 3X5 cm spacing, and in the third decade of May, put them up on prepared permanent places in the ground.
The marigold tagetes intended for cut flowers should be planted in the beds (4—5 rows, and every 30-35 cm in a row). If it is grown in groups, on rebates or flower beds, we use a spacing of 40-50 X X 40-50 cm. The marigold, wide and fine, is planted at a distance of 20-25 X 30-35 cm.