Ratibida or lepakhis is a sunflower plant from the Asteraceae or Asteraceae family. In culture, columnar "Mexican hat" ratibide and "sombrero" ratibide are most often grown. It grows naturally in Central and North America.
Ratibida description
Ratibida can be both biennial and perennial. The ground part is covered with small hairs. The stem is erect, branched, rough and leafy. Grows from thirty to one hundred and twenty centimeters in height. The plant has a rod and branched root system. Leaves of a grayish-green hue, grow from three to fifteen centimeters in length. The baskets resemble rudbeckia flowers: the cone-shaped center consists of tubular flowers and from them radiating reed-shaped flowers hang down. Flowers can be yellow, red-brown, brown, red with yellow or brown with purple. The flowers do not open immediately, but in turn, starting from the bottom and going up to the top. The fruit is a winged achene up to four millimeters in length.
Growing ratibide from seeds
You can grow ratibida using a seedling and seedless method. Plant the seeds of the plant in open ground, both in autumn and in early spring in frost-bitten soil. In order to plant the seeds of a plant before winter, they do not need to be specially prepared, it is enough just to evenly distribute them in the prepared groove, sprinkle them with sand and insulate them with spruce branches.
Growing ratibids from seeds in spring requires mandatory stratification. To do this, you need to put the seeds in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator for thirty days. But it is best to give preference to the seedling growing method. The best time to plant seeds for seedlings is mid-February. Seedlings are very difficult to leave after transplanting, so it is better to plant seeds immediately in special pots made of peat.
The soil should be light and moist, it is best to use a mixture of peat with coarse sand and turf soil. It is not advisable to deepen the seeds into the soil; it is enough to press them a little. After planting, the pots are covered with plastic wrap to create a greenhouse effect, and germinated in a warm and bright place. If favorable conditions are created, the seeds will germinate in ten to fourteen days. After that, they need to be placed in a room with diffused light.
Planting and caring for ratibid outdoors
How to plant correctly
Seedlings are planted in open ground when the soil warms up enough, and night frosts will probably not return. Before planting the ratibide in the open field, it is necessary to harden the plants for fourteen days. To do this, it is necessary to take out the pots with seedlings to fresh air, starting at ten minutes and gradually increasing the time. The seedlings will be ready for transplanting when they can be outdoors around the clock. During hardening, it is very important that the seedlings do not stand in a draft and do not fall on precipitation.
For planting ratibids, a sunny area or partial shade is perfect. The soil should have a good drainage layer, preferably clay or loamy. The plant calmly belongs to slightly alkaline, slightly acidic and slightly saline soil. Before planting the ratibide, wood ash and compost should be added to the soil during digging. Seedlings are planted in the evening or cloudy weather. The minimum distance between plants should be about twenty-five centimeters. If the seedlings were planted in peat pots, then they can be planted in open ground directly in them.
Flowering can appear under favorable hot conditions only by the end of summer. And if the weather is rainy, then flowering can only be expected next year. One year old ratibida can be grown in the garden for up to three years. To do this, it must be carefully dug up and planted, otherwise the stems will begin to lignify.
How to care for the garden
Caring for the ratibid is quite simple and does not take much time. If you want to control the process of plant reproduction, then you need to remove the family baskets in time. And if this is not done, then the ratibid will reproduce perfectly with the help of self-seeding. Watering the ratibide is necessary only in dry weather, if the summer is rainy, additional olive for the plant will not be needed. This should be done with warm, settled water. After each watering, it is necessary to carefully loosen the soil and remove weeds.
If during the digging before planting the ratibids, organic fertilizers were applied, then there is no need to additionally feed the plants during growth and flowering. An oversupply of fertilizer will result in lush green mass and poor flowering.
Ratibida rarely gets sick and is practically not attacked by harmful insects. Plants can rot due to rainy weather. The affected bushes must be removed, and the rest of the plants must be treated with a solution of fungicides. Powdery mildew can also sometimes appear, a solution with the addition of soda or special fungicides that can be purchased at any store for gardeners and gardeners perfectly helps to fight it. Heavily infested bushes are best removed from the flower garden.
Types and varieties of ratibide with a photo
Ratibida columnar is not the only species that is grown in culture. You can also find such a view as:
Ratibida pinnata (Ratibida pinnata = Rudbeckia pinnata) - perennial. The middle is convex, dark bronze of tubular flowers. The petals are bright yellow. Grows from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty centimeters. This species is unpretentious, drought-resistant, frost-resistant, rarely affected by pests and diseases. Popular varieties of this type of ratibide: var. Pulcherrima, Yellow Cheyenne, Red Midnight.
If you follow the simple rules for planting and growing ratibide, you can get a beautiful, healthy and lush plant that will surely please with abundant and long flowering.
