Dorotheanthus - Crystal Chamomile

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

A beautiful African flower will decorate flower beds and windowsills

This fall, I happened to observe the following picture: all the letniki have already been killed by frosts, and only one African flower continues to delight with its crystal beauty.

It was dorotheanthus or crystal chamomile. Its closest relative, mesembriantemum, is a perennial, which is unjustifiably rarely used in our country as an annual or as a house plant. Crystal chamomile propagates by cuttings or seeds, which very rarely appear on sale.

Magazines and “flower” reference books and calendars practically do not write about this ornamental plant. And the seeds of this culture can not be seen in every store or garden center. Meanwhile, it is a remarkable plant in many ways.

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In culture, the most common dorotheanthus mesembriantemum: a perennial native to South Africa, grown as an annual in the middle lane. He has numerous creeping shoots; small oval fleshy leaves (the lower ones are opposite, the stem ones are alternate). Both the stems and the leaves are covered with glandular shiny hairs that sparkle in the bright sun like crystal drops.

Flowers - numerous chamomile or daisy-like: white, pink, lilac-red, yellow-orange, lilac, sometimes two-colored.

Dorotheanthus blooms profusely, brightly and for a long time. Its flowers are fully revealed only in sunny weather (by the way, the name of this plant and its relatives comes from the Greek words "noon" and "flower" - hence the popular name of the plant "midday").

Connoisseurs note that this flower has a very interesting, exotic look. This plant is perfect for creating bright spots in carpet flower beds, it is planted in rock gardens, rocky gardens, on dry slopes, placed in containers, vases ("crystal grass" goes especially well with plants with silvery leaves). This culture is propagated by seeds and cuttings.

This plant, according to articles and reference books, prefers heat, it is photophilous, does not tolerate stagnant water, prefers well-drained, light lands (it feels great on sandy, stony soils) and also does not tolerate frost. But I can say with confidence that in the artistic flower bed (which I had to destroy in connection with the death of other plants - asters, begonias), these flowers continued to grow in buds!

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Despite the fact that the seeds of this flower are difficult to get from us, I can advise the lucky ones who succeeded: the seeds are sown for seedlings in mid-March in bowls with a light soil mixture (with a predominance of sand).

After about a month and a half, the seedlings dive into small containers. Seedlings are planted in the ground at the end of spring frosts (the distance between seedlings is 10-15 centimeters).

In order to propagate a variety by cuttings, the mother plant is preserved from autumn. It is at this time that it is best to carry out cuttings of young shoots. When working with them, you need to take into account that dorotheanthus is almost a succulent (and an indigenous inhabitant of Africa), and dive the cuttings into the washed coarse sand. In winter, its bushes, crops and cuttings are kept in a cool and dry (relatively dry) place in bright (if possible) light and at a temperature of 8 … 10 ° C. Cuttings are carried out from October to March and from June to August: the cuttings are rooted in slightly damp sand under the jar; make sure that they do not rot from excessive moisture.

Rooted cuttings are seated in cups. Young plants are planted in the ground at the same time as seedlings.