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Amazing geranium plants, where instead of lush umbrellas inflorescences appear, more similar to elegant bouquets of tiny half-opened tulips.1966
50 years of history of tulip-shaped geranium
It happened in the United States in the nursery of the family of Andrea, where tulip-shaped geranium, named after the form of unusual flowers, was bred.
The first ever geranium variety with flowers that remain half open throughout the entire flowering period was named Patricia Andrea. American breeders Robert and Ralph Andrea were so passionate about getting exactly the tulip geraniums that over the years they managed to get some more spectacular varieties. Some of them were named, like the first grade, in honor of women breeders close to them.
European flower growers met with such as in the photo tulip geraniums, only 20 years after the appearance of the first plants. In this case, the flowers have caused not only genuine interest, but also a lot of controversy.
It is believed that tulip-shaped geraniums are difficult to select, and this is due to the structure of the flower and the low availability of stamens and pistil. Therefore, over half a century, no more than two dozen varieties and hybrids of these amazing plants have appeared in the world.
However, among specialists there is another explanation for the nature of the extraordinary shape of flowers. Perhaps this variety of geranium was not artificially bred, but was the result of a natural spontaneous mutation of some varieties of zonal geranium with simple flat halos. Even the supposed ancestors of tulip varieties, ancient large-flowered geraniums, obtained in France at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, were called skeptics of the success of the family nursery of Andrea.
All the current varieties of geraniums with flowers in the form of miniature tulips are the subject of dreams of amateur flower growers who are not indifferent to flowering ornamental crops.
In this case, the plants are very different from each other. In the subgroup there are as tall specimens, the height of shoots of which reaches 70–80 cm, but there are real dwarf hybrids and varieties among tulip-like geraniums.
Plants differ in growth rate, color, shape and even the number of petals in the corolla. On average, each flower contains from 6 to 9 petals, which can be even or have curly jagged edges. The inside of the centimeter corolla is always colored more brightly than the one that faces outwards. Lush bouquets, inflorescences of tulip geraniums, as in the photo, consist of 20-40 flowers.
Photos of tulip geraniums amaze with a variety of colors and decorative plants with bright figure foliage. Every year there are more and more people willing to become owners of such plants.
The features of caring for tulip geraniums
In caring, tulip geraniums are almost as picky as their relatives with regular flowers. With due attention, they willingly bloom, grow and multiply. For planting ornamental plants, you can use both a ready-made universal mixture and prepare the substrate yourself, mixing garden soil, peat and a small amount of sand in equal proportions to give the soil looseness.
Geraniums are afraid of over-wetting the soil and stagnation of moisture in it, so a powerful drainage layer is poured at the bottom of the pot.
Planted plants year-round should not have a lack of sunlight. Best of all, tulip-like geraniums feel in bright but diffused light. If you take care of the illumination of the bushes, the inflorescences may appear in the winter. In shaded places, shoots of tulip geranium weaken and stretch. Foliage with a deficit of the sun becomes pale, part of the buds can not be formed and open.
In the room geraniums do not require special conditions of detention. The main thing is that in summer time the air should be warm to 20–26 ° C, and the atmosphere would be 5–7 ° C cooler. Plants do not tolerate drafts, from which tulip geranium is better to protect. Dry hot air from radiators is not good for flowering.
In the warm season, when the need for moisture is high, tulip-like geraniums are watered every other day, ensuring that the water does not stagnate. In winter, watering is carried out much less frequently, but in no case it is impossible to dry the earthy clod under a flower.
Fertilizing is carried out from spring to autumn, using liquid complex means with a low nitrogen content, otherwise the plant will produce a lot of foliage, but geranium will not bloom with pomp
- improve the shape of the bush;
- cause branching of shoots;
- to make the flower form more flower buds.
As a result, the plant looks more decorative and attractive, and it blooms much more luxuriously than before the pruning included in the systematic care of tulip-like geraniums.
In addition to pinching the tops of the shoots, it is necessary to remove the flowering inflorescences and trim the overgrown, immensely elongated adult shoots.
Cut tops - great planting material for breeding. Since tulip-like geranium seeds, as in the photo, are not always easy to find, and sprouting them for beginning culture lovers may cause problems, grafting has become the most common way to produce new plants.
Cuttings are obtained in the spring or after the completion of mass flowering in the fall. Root geranium can be in ordinary water, a light substrate of peat and sand or in a solution of root stimulator. After the appearance of the first roots, the stalk is planted in the ground and put on a bright window.
The only feature of a tulip-like geranium that a grower may encounter is the appearance of shoots with ordinary flowers. In this case, it is better to cut such a stem under the base. Such surprises are not excluded when growing plants from cuttings. The tendency to spontaneous mutations suggests that the variety is not sufficiently fixed, but this does not detract from the decorative effect and the amazing attractiveness of miniature “tulips”.
