Growing Evergreen And Wintergreen Plants

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

It is generally accepted that evergreens, with the exception of conifers, are not for our gardens. For the most part, they are not winter-hardy, and if they winter under the snow, then what's the point in their evergreen, if the plants are not visible!

Although, of course, it is nice in early spring to see slightly frozen, but quite live leaves among the dead grass. In addition, in recent years, when the snow cover lays down only after the New Year, the role of such everliving crops in our gardens is growing noticeably. This means that the need for them appears.

Many evergreens have a rather exotic appearance, not typical for our region. These are shrubs, shrubs, semi-shrubs, lianas, herbaceous perennials, cereals, ferns. Only trees are missing.

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There is one subtlety in the classification of evergreens. Two groups overwinter in a green state under the snow: evergreens, whose leaves live for 2-3 years, and wintergreens, whose leaves live for one year.

Evergreens are all types of mosses, some types of rhododendrons, evergreen boxwood, shrubs: lingonberry, cranberry, bearberry; badans. They have a set of adaptation typical for all evergreens - a high content of non-freezing substances in tissues, a cork layer on the stems, a waxy cuticle or pubescence on the leaves. An interesting and very promising plant for our region is moss.

Mosses are not afraid of severe frosts, because drying out is absolutely not dangerous for them. They absorb water from the atmosphere through leaves and stems. Moss does not have real, well-developed roots, and plants absorb moisture with their entire aboveground part, like a sponge. If there is no rain for a long time, the moss completely loses moisture and dries out.

However, at the same time, he does not die, but goes into a state of rest. This phenomenon is explained by the properties of the protoplast - the living content of the cells of mosses - which does not die even after strong drying. The loss of moisture is not dangerous for them either in summer or in winter. Mosses tolerate frost in any conditions - both under the protection of snow cover and without it.

Plants are called wintergreen, the leaves of which, although they appear in spring, do not die off in autumn, but only next spring. Thus, the plant extends the duration of photosynthesis for itself - from early spring, when the snow has just melted, to the snow cover. They begin to generate energy from the overwintered "old" leaves as soon as the snow melts, i.e. light appears.

And only after new leaves appear, the old, overwintered ones will die off. These are herbaceous perennials: geykhera, European hoof, hairy sedge, acicular duckweed, yellow zelenchuk, common oxalis, noble liverwort, some species of hellebores, Veronica, and many ground cover.

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In nature, evergreens and wintergreens are most in spruce forests. The main reason is the light regime: the spruce forest is dark, and in all seasons.

In addition, the soils of spruce forests are not very rich, usually waterlogged and have high acidity. Under such conditions, the vegetation of the lower tier develops slowly, in spring the leaves bloom late, last year's at this time are very important, because plants need to prolong the possibility of photosynthesis.

Growing most evergreens involves some risk. Their widespread use in the garden is available only to experienced gardeners who have fertile soils and a good microclimate on their site. Snowless winters are destructive with temperatures down to –35… –40? ° C, cyclically repeating every 20 years. Therefore, growing evergreen and wintergreen plants in the garden should only be after the appropriate microclimate has been created.

If this is not done, then in snowless winters, the leaves will be damaged by severe frosts and suffer from "spring sunburn", which cause drying winds and direct sunlight. The ideal garden for wintergreen plants is a canopy garden that accumulates a lot of snow in winter, there is no wind and there is an openwork shade. The soil in such a garden should be light, with the addition of coarse sand.

Reproduction of plants overwintering with leaves is almost no different from similar deciduous ones. Conventionally, three main groups can be distinguished, similar in the way of reproduction:

- Representatives of the Heather family: rhododendrons, heathers, wild rosemary, podbely, gaulteria, kalmias, bearberry, lingonberry, - reproduce by cuttings and dividing the bush.

- Ground cover shrubs: dwarf euonymus, rooting euonymus and its varieties, Dammer's cotoneaster, pachisandra, periwinkle, ivy; herbaceous ground cover: thyme, hoof, loosestrife, tenacious, styloid phlox, zelenchuk, - form roots on their branches and shoots. In a spindle tree rooting, roots on twigs are formed even in the air. We just have to separate and transplant! All these plants are also excellent cuttings.

- Herbaceous "not sprawling" perennials with wintering leaves reproduce in two main ways: by seed and by dividing the bush. These are badans, geykhera, hellebores, liverwort, as well as representatives of mountain flora, such as arabis, aubriets, evergreen Iberis, mountain goats, dryads and others, widely used in rock gardens and rockeries. Do not forget that with seed reproduction, young animals may not inherit all the characteristics of the mother plant. The method of dividing clumps and bushes is simpler and more accessible, especially since almost all perennials periodically require rejuvenation.

A separate conversation about Mahonia holly, as the most typical wintergreen plant. Despite its exotic appearance, it reproduces very easily in all ways, sometimes even without our help. Under favorable conditions in the garden, it gives abundant self-seeding, crawls in underground stolons, and also partially takes root by branches lying on the ground. To obtain a large amount of planting material, rooting of woody cuttings can be recommended.