Deutzia plant from the Hydrangea family is an ornamental shrub, especially beautiful at the time of flowering. Its branches, strewn with delicate flowers, lean low to the ground, resembling snow-white cascades.
There are varieties with inflorescences of pink and purple hues, but in the middle latitudes they are quite rare.
The action owes its appearance to European culture to the French dendrologist M. Vilmorin.
Deytion shrub and its flowering
The birthplace of action is East Asia, Mexico, the Himalayas. About 50 species are known. Cultivated since 1840
These are deciduous, flowering shrubs up to 1.5 – 2 m tall, with simple ovate or elliptical leaves.
Deutsia flowers are graceful, sometimes double, white or slightly pink, collected in panicles or umbellate inflorescences.
Blooms in June – early July. In the bulk of the representatives of the genus, the leaves are simple with whole, serrated or serrated edges.
Less common are plants with a palmately dissected leaf blade, which gives the plants an unusually elegant look of green openwork lace.
The leaves are dark green, dull green on both sides, different shades, petiolate, without stipules with alternate or opposite arrangement.
As you can see in the photo, the foliage of the action in the autumn takes on shades from green to yellow-brown:
Shoots straight or curving rounded. In other species, slightly pubescent. During the flowering period, the action of the branches, under the weight of the inflorescences, bend to the ground, giving an extraordinary decorative effect to the bush. Young shoots are light brown, gradually darkening. In some types, the bark is gray or reddish-brown. Perennial bark peels off in small crusts or short ribbons.
Stem wood becomes woody by autumn and becomes dense, hard, but retains flexibility. A feature is the appearance in the second year of life of a through hollow hole in the center of the stem. The tubular hollow stems break easily, which must be taken into account when sheltering in winter. The growth of bushes, especially when freezing, is resumed by root shoots.
The fruits are yellow-brown, inconspicuous, ripen in early September.
When describing the action, it is worth noting that almost all types of this plant are characterized by poor frost resistance, and in the middle zone for the winter it is best to bend the plant to the ground and cover it with snow, spruce branches and other warming material.
The root system of action is fibrous rod, consists of one or two powerful roots that go deep into the ground and a large number of smaller fibrous roots located in the upper third of the main root.
This structure of the root system contributes to drought resistance and easy transfer of injuries during plant transplants.
It is especially good to plant action in mixborders, and we recommend placing undersized species on alpine slides.
In combination with other ornamental shrubs, action is suitable for hedges.
Growing and pruning action
When grown on soil, the action is undemanding, but prefers humus, nutritious soil. It grows and develops better in bright places in light partial shade.
For better flowering, periodically feed with organic fertilizers. Easily tolerates transplantation, but freezes in harsh winters.
Deutsievye are quite resistant to short summer droughts. Therefore, they are watered no more than once a month, and only in a particularly long dry period, watering is carried out after 20 days. The norm of water under a bush is 5-15 liters, depending on the age of the bush. The volume of water can be determined by the time the bucket is filled. The soil should be fairly moist, but not wet. After watering, mulching is a must. We loosen the dried soil, destroying weeds and increasing the supply of oxygen to the upper root layer.
The action is propagated by seeds, cuttings, dividing the bush, as well as layering by bending the shoots to the ground.
Rooted cuttings bloom in the second year, reaching a height of about a meter. Action is very effective in borders.
Deytion refers to shrubs that bloom in June – July, so the timing of pruning largely depends on the time of flowering.
Old bushes can be rejuvenated by pruning. To enhance flowering and give a beautiful shape to the bush, immediately after flowering, faded branches are cut out.
However, strong pruning should not be applied to profusely flowering forms, it can weaken the plant. Forming an action is very simple.
Planting biennial seedlings in a permanent place should be carried out in the fall, but better in early spring. Immediately after planting, strong and healthy action branches are cut into 2-3 strong outer buds, and all weak growths are removed at the same time.
By autumn, the action forms several strong shoots at the base of the crown and a large number of side branches that have grown on the main stems after spring pruning.
To maintain the symmetry of the crown, when pruning the action, all incorrectly located or weak shoots are removed.
The plant begins to bloom in early summer. After the end of flowering (beginning of July), all faded shoots are removed, at this time new shoots appear and begin to grow at the base of the crown.
When caring for the action, it is necessary to cut off all damaged and weak shoots and monitor the uniform distribution of shoots in the crown. In the third and subsequent years, they carry out similar work – they cut off faded shoots and carry out enhanced care for shoots that will bloom next year.
Strong growths should not be cut below 15-20 cm from the base of the bush.
Another tip when growing action is to remove all damaged shoots in case of freezing, and the plant will bloom in late autumn.
The shrub is easily renewed by root offspring, therefore it should not be cut in a hedge – only thickened, damaged and diseased shoots are removed.
It is important to remember: if the action is weakly bushy, then you should cut it off more and more often, this will make the plant even more dense and beautiful.
Look at the photo of the care for the action, which shows all the basic agricultural practices:
Description of the types of action
Next, you can see the photo and description of the action of the most popular types.
Graceful action – Deutzia gracilis . Homeland – the mountainous regions of Japan. Graceful shrub up to a meter tall, with arcuate branches and lanceolate leaves. The flowers are white, 2 cm in diameter, collected in paniculate inflorescences.
Blooms in early June for two to three weeks. In severe winters, the shoots freeze slightly. Used for low curbs and for landing in the foreground.
Large-flowered action – Deutzia grandiflora . It occurs naturally in North China and Korea. It has been known in culture for over 60 years. Spreading shrub up to 2 m tall, with single large (up to 3 cm in diameter) white flowers.
This type of action blooms profusely in the second half of May, for more than three weeks. Frost-resistant. Very effective in group plantings.
Rough action – Deutzia scabra . It occurs naturally in Japan and China. Lush ornamental shrub with white star-shaped flowers, collected in beautiful erect brushes, densely covering the bush.
Blooms in May – June. Flowering lasts about a month and is so plentiful that leaves are not visible. The shrub is photophilous, tolerates winter well.
In amateur gardening, most often grown:
Action gorodchaty (D. crenata) .
Action (D. lemoinei) .
Amur action (D. amurensis) .
Long-leaved action (D. longifolia) is one of the most winter-hardy species.
