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For residents of the middle headera, unpretentious evergreen ivy will draw a more ivy - video
For residents of the middle band of the header, unpretentious evergreen ivy will draw a more ivy - video
But in the southern regions of the country - it is garden ivy.
Huge thickets of this culture can be found in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Growing, ivy climbs on impregnable tales, the walls of houses, carpets the slopes with thick carpet, its shoots hang from the trees. Plants belonging to perennial evergreen vines are non-capricious, not demanding to growing conditions and care. They grow quickly and are pleased to please decorative foliage of different shapes and colors.
It is no wonder that the plant was noticed by gardeners for a very long time. In Europe, evergreen garden ivy, which remains attractive throughout the year, is used to decorate hedges, landscaping urban and rural buildings, parks and arbors.
Description of ivy garden and cultivated species
In nature, there are half a dozen species of ivy. All of them are perennial climbing shrubs with long shoots that cling to the soil, stones, other vegetation and walls with the help of numerous adventitious roots that form on the adult part of the stem.
Depending on the type of garden ivy, the leaves can be split, three-or five-fingered, or whole. The leaf plates of most garden ivy are dense, leathery with a smooth surface and radial veins. In addition to plants with monophonic, green foliage, even in the wild, you can see variegated specimens.
If the long shoots reaching 30 meters in length and the decorative foliage of garden ivy are immediately apparent, then the flowering of representatives of this genus sometimes goes unnoticed. The greenish flowers collected in capitate or umbrella inflorescences are very small and do not represent decorative value.
The small rounded fruits of a dark, almost black color, formed after pollination, look much more interesting.
Only a few of the most cold-resistant species are cultivated in Russia:
- Garden ivy is the most common plant, also used as a houseplant. This species has a slow growth rate, relatively small three- or five-fingered leaf plates and an abundance of varieties.
- Colchic or Caucasian ivy also grows in gardens. A strong fast-growing liana with shoots up to 30 meters long and leaves, sometimes reaching 20 cm in diameter, is found in nature in the foothills of the Caucasus, as well as in a number of Asian regions. The shape of the green or variegated leaves changes as it grows.
- Crimean ivy is another Russian species that looks like a Maltese variety grown in Europe. Thermophilous plants, getting in favorable conditions, become powerful. Their trunks at the base of ligneous, sometimes growing together with the trees, on which this garden ivy willingly climbs.
Planting and caring for garden ivy
Ivy is considered to be a shade-tolerant crop that easily adapts to life as a ground cover plant. Settling under the canopy of large trees in the southern regions, it hibernates well. But the north, the higher the risk of freezing, not only because of low temperatures, but also because of high humidity, insufficient shelter.
To protect the plant and facilitate the care of garden ivy, planting is performed on elevated, protected from the wind places. The first few years, the culture does not grow too fast, so young ivy plants are planted in the spring, so that the seedlings mature and grow better during the warm season. For reproduction of ivy choose healthy shoots not older than 2-3 years. In this case, they will take root well, they will not have to be seriously injured when transferred to a new place.
Garden-friendly ivy is not very capricious and adapts well. To make this happen faster, a moisture-absorbing, breathable substrate with a high organic content is prepared for planting. The main part of ivy roots is located at a depth of 20 cm, so the planting pit is prepared a little deeper. At the bottom necessarily provide a drainage layer.
After planting garden ivy, care is in watering, fertilizing and simple tillage. Very accurate loosening will help increase the permeability of the soil to air and moisture, and mulching will be able to save moisture and protect plants from the first frost by winter.
The soil is loosened to avoid the formation of a dense crust after rain, trying not to harm the shoots and their adventitious roots, which are formed closer to the nodes and quickly penetrate into the substrate as they grow.
Mulching with leaf humus, peat, or other porous organic matter prevents the soil from drying out and, from damp years, from rotting. The mulch is poured gradually, in a thin layer in several steps so as not to affect the foliage located on the ground. By the autumn, the layer is increased, so that with the arrival of cold weather to conduct full-scale insulation and shelter of plants.
The farther north, the greater the likelihood of freezing plants used for vertical gardening. This fully applies to ivy for hedge, decoration of arches and walls of houses. Ground cover specimens, especially those additionally covered with snow, winter better.
After the snow melts in the spring, you should not hurry with pruning the victims of frost or other shoots. It is better to remove them at the beginning of summer, when the active movement of juices will end. Sections on large stems are treated with garden pitch.
Watering garden ivy throughout the season should be regularly, but moderately, monitoring the soil moisture under the plants.
Reproduction of evergreen ivy
Most species suitable for cultivation in the garden form adventitious or aerial roots. This makes it quite easy to root the cuttings cut in the spring and summer months.
For reproduction of ivy, semi-woody shoots with visible buds or already real adventitious roots are suitable. If you cut a very young, green growth, the process of rooting takes much longer. And under adverse conditions, for example in the cool, the stalk may completely rot.
For reproduction of evergreen ivy, it is better to use apical cuttings, but if there is no such possibility or you need to get a lot of young plants, the shoot is cut into 10 cm fragments, with at least one healthy node.
Rooting cuttings can be in a street greenhouse, dropping a few pieces in a loose, light soil, or in plain water. When a sufficient number of roots appear on the stems, the plants are transferred to the future residence. Considering the growth of the ground cover shrub and the particularities of garden ivy care, the planting is carried out at a distance of at least half a meter from each other.
