Hesperis (evening party): description and cultivation rules

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Hesperis ( lat. Hesperis ) is an ornamental herbaceous plant, a representative of the Cabbage family. It bears the second name “evening party”. Depending on the species, it can be annual or biennial. Most varieties of this flower in natural conditions grow in the Mediterranean countries.

Description

Hesperis is a bush with straight, branched stems, from half a meter to 120 cm high. The leaves are entire, sessile, and also petiolate, with denticles along the edges, of a rich green color, with another arrangement on the shoot. There is a light pile on the leaves and stems. Root system of rod type. The roots lie near the surface of the soil.

Inflorescences loose, racemose, include small four-petalled simple or double flowers. The color can be lilac, fuchsia, white, purple, purple. The buds look like phloxes. This plant blooms in May. You can admire beautiful bright inflorescences until August.

The fruit is an elongated pod with four weakly expressed faces. In the first year of life, the evening forms a dense basal rosette, the following season, an escape and inflorescences form.

Kinds

In ornamental gardening, only two types of hesperis are used. On their basis, interesting forms have been obtained.

Matron’s Vespers ( Hesperis matronalis ) – has the second name “night violet”. A biennial plant, which is a dense shrub 80 cm high. It has upright, fleecy stems. The leaves are oval, pointed, with small teeth along the edge. Their surface is smooth or pubescent, depending on the variety. Inflorescences in the form of a cylinder consist of many small four-petal double or simple flowers with a diameter of not more than 2 cm. The color range of buds is limited to lilac, white and light pink tones. In the evening, you can feel the strong sweet aroma of hesperis buds.

Description of the popular forms of the matron party:

Nana candidissima – a compact bush with straight shoots reaches half a meter in height. It has white inflorescences in the form of a brush. Looks very elegant.

Purpurea plena – distinguished by expressive purple flowers. It is a bright accent of flower beds and flower arrangements in the garden.

Siberian evening ( Hesperis sibirica ) – the height of this species varies from 40 to 110 cm. There is a strong branching in the upper part of the stems. Leaf blades in the upper part of the shoots are sessile, entire, lanceolate, in the lower part – petiolate, oval, elongated, with teeth along the edge. Foliage color is dark green. On its surface there is a slight pubescence.

As you can see in the photo, the flowers of this type of hesperis are snow-white or light pink, with fleecy pedicels:

Growing seedlings

This culture is obtained using seedlings. Sowing seeds is carried out in the first days of April. To do this, take small plastic pots or containers, fill it with loose soil, moisten it, spread the seed evenly over its surface, then sprinkle it with a layer of peat or sand.

From above, the crops are covered with polyethylene or a glass cover to create conditions for seed germination, close to greenhouse ones.

Before the sprouts hatch, the mini-greenhouse is kept in a bright room at a temperature of 20 – 24 degrees. They usually appear on the surface of the earth in 2 to 3 weeks. After that, the film is removed.

In order for the seedlings to actively grow and develop, it is necessary to provide it with favorable conditions. Regular watering is required. The substrate must always be moist. To prevent moisture stagnation for growing seedlings, containers with drainage holes are chosen or a layer of expanded clay is laid on the bottom of the pot.

After the second full-fledged leaf is formed in young plants, they can be subjected to hardening. This procedure is carried out daily, but increasing the time gradually. On the first day, seedlings are kept outdoors for 1 hour. Every day, the period of being on the street is increased and adjusted to 24 hours.

After the plants have hardened, you can start planting them in the ground in a permanent place. One of the advantages of growing this flower is its ability to bloom equally successfully in both sunny and shaded areas of the garden. Therefore, you can choose any place for growing evening.

The soil should be light, loose, have a neutral or slight acidity. The place for planting is pre-prepared: they dig up, remove stones and weeds, and apply fertilizer. Plants are planted at a distance of 30 – 40 cm. The depth of the planting hole should be such that the root plant of seedlings fits well into it, along with a clod of earth. After planting, the soil is abundantly moistened.

Planting seeds in the ground

Hesperis seed can be immediately planted in open ground. Sowing is carried out in the second half of June or in early July.

Sprouts will hatch in 20 – 25 days. They need to be thinned out, leaving a distance of about 20 cm. In a month, the plant will form leaf rosettes. However, this culture will bloom only next year.

The division of the bush

Evening terry varieties are propagated only by dividing the bush, because if the gardener collects seeds from faded plants and plant them, there is a high probability of obtaining specimens with simple inflorescences. This work is carried out in March – April.

The mother overgrown bush is dug up, trying not to damage the roots, which, due to their structure, are located close to the soil surface. The plant is divided into parts using a sharp clean knife. The cut sites are treated with charcoal for the purpose of disinfection. Seedlings are placed in holes prepared for them, sprinkled with a layer of earth, watered.

Care

Since the evening belongs to unpretentious garden flowers, it is quite simple to care for it. Even if the gardener forgets about the plant for a while, it is unlikely that it will lose its beauty. However, in order to maintain a fresh, well-groomed appearance of hesperis, it is recommended to carry out certain maintenance work.

  • Watering. The flower is moisture-loving. Actively forms buds, getting enough moisture. It should be watered every 2 days, except during the rainy season. After irrigation, the land must be loosened, at the same time weeds must be removed.
  • Topdressing. In the first two years after planting, the flower is fed 2-3 times per season. As top dressing, a nitrogen-containing mineral composition is used. In the second year, when buds begin to form on the plant, complex fertilizer for garden flowers is applied. It is useful to periodically enrich the soil with potash fertilizers.
  • Wintering. Shelter will be required only when it is bred in regions with severe winters with little snow. In October, the stems are cut, leaving 10 – 15 cm from the ground. Top with lutrasil or spruce branches. In a mild climate, shelter is not necessary.
  • Garter. If long stems have fallen to the ground under the influence of gusty winds, they will need to be lifted and tied to a support.

Disease and pest control

Hesperis can be affected by the same pests and diseases that attack other members of the Cabbage family.

So, the most common insects that infect a flower are: aphids, bedbugs, rapeseed sawfly larvae, cruciferous fleas, cruciferous gall midge, nematode, cabbage moth. Insecticides help in a short time to cope with the invasion of harmful insects. Preparations are purchased in specialized stores, after which the plants are processed.

Evening seedlings are affected by the black leg disease. The lower part of the stem darkens and rots. If you do not take action, the plant will completely rot. Prevention of this disease is moderate watering and the presence of drainage holes in pots.

Adult copies of hesperis can damage fusarium, clubroot, botrytis, black rot, vascular bacteriosis, phomosis, alternariosis, mosaic, ring spot and other fungal and bacterial diseases.

For the resuscitation of flowers and the fight against the listed diseases, fungicidal preparations are used. Severely affected bushes must be dug out of the ground and burned. It is not recommended to plant any crops on this site for 3 years.

In order not to run into problems when growing hesperis (evening party), you need to follow the recommendations for planting seeds and caring for a night beauty. It is important to properly care not only for adult plants that are already in the open field, but also for seedlings. Only then will the gardener be able to get strong healthy seedlings with strong immunity.

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