Wildflowers - Chamomile

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

Beautiful "daisy-like" ones that adorn our gardens

Common lemongrass (meadow chamomile)

Chamomile … It seems that there is no simpler flower in the world. It is its simplicity and accessibility that attracts attention. There is not a single person who has never held a chamomile in his hand and, perhaps, rarely has resorted to the help of its "magical" power, capable of saying whether your soul mate loves you or not. However, chamomile is not as simple as it seems at first glance: in fact, chamomile is not a flower, but a whole inflorescence-basket!

There are a lot of "daisies" in nature, and only one of them has a true name, the rest are called so only because of their external similarity. Real chamomile is a pharmacy chamomile, a well-known and widespread plant. True, it, alas, does not attract the attention of decorators and flower growers because of its simplicity and inconspicuousness, but it has no equal among medicinal plants.

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Meadow chamomile (common daisy)

More widely used in decorative floriculture is the plant, colloquially referred to as meadow chamomile, although its correct name is ordinary daisy. It is 80-90 cm high, and the diameter of its inflorescence reaches 7 cm. There are species and varieties that bloom in the conditions of the Central Black Earth Region in late May - early June and delight the eyes of flower growers tired of grayness for 40-45 days.

There are also more decorative types. For example, it is very attractive in appearance and is often used in the design of cities, the largest daisy is a perennial with a short rhizome and a rather large number of branched stems that reach a height of 50-100 centimeters. Inflorescences are baskets, usually 10-12 centimeters in diameter. In forms with simpler inflorescences, white reed flowers (the so-called petals, which we usually tear off) are located along the edge in several rows.

The inflorescences of terry daisies are unusually beautiful, they are very reminiscent of chrysanthemum. In the conditions of our region - Tambov - this species and its varieties begin to bloom in early July and continue to delight the eye until the very frosts. The most common garden varieties - Alaska and Pobeditel - are long-term resistant varieties with dense stems that form a non-falling bush that reaches one and a half meters in height. Her inflorescences are very large, much larger than the ones we are used to in daisies, and sometimes reach 13 centimeters in diameter. These varieties usually bloom in June-July, and grow in a permanent place up to 12 years.

Usually decorative chamomiles prefer well-lit places, grow weak in the shade and give nondescript flowers. They prefer fertile, cultivated and moist soils, but with watering, try not to overdo it - flood it - destroy the plant.

All chamomiles are responsive to fertilization, especially organic ones.

Chamomile

Interesting are the inflorescences of another flower, reminiscent of a chamomile - autumn chrysanthemum. The author of this article first encountered this plant in the south.

I was struck by the size of the plant, it turned out to be much taller than me, according to my estimates, it was two and a half meters, on top of these tall stems huge white flowers swayed in the wind.

Imagine my surprise when, in our zone - in the central zone, I also met these flowers, they were slightly lower, about 30-40 centimeters in height, but also amazed.

The flowering of the autumn chrysanthemum corresponds to the name - it is autumn, but it lasts until the very frost, and some flowers even tolerate slight subzero temperatures and continue to bloom! This plant feels great in the sun and even in the shade, but it is quite demanding on the soil - it loves fresh and moist very much.

There are "daisies" and yellow flowers, such as navel. It is a perennial plant with erect and profusely branching stems, reaching a height of 80-85 centimeters and having dissected bluish-green leaves and yellow inflorescences reaching 6 centimeters in diameter. Pupavka blooms usually in June-July. An interesting fact: the whole plant smells, this smell is quite pleasant, for example, I like it very much, and since early childhood I have been familiar, we often collected these flowers and put them in a vase. The room was immediately filled with a very pleasant summer aroma.

Usually these flowers grow in open and sunny places, but sometimes I met in partial shade, and looked excellent. They prefer light sandy or stony soils - such is the contrast, and they respond very well to fertilizers on any soils.

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Heliopsis sunflower

Another interesting chamomile, which, of course, is not chamomile at all - sunflower heliopsis is an interesting plant with straight and branched stems about a meter high. Its inflorescences are baskets, reaching a diameter of 8-9 centimeters, but sometimes 10-12 cm are found. It usually blooms in June-July with tubular yellow flowers with golden yellow tongues.

Perhaps my most favorite plant, which has chamomile-like flowers, is a toothed buzulnik - a large perennial with decorative leaves corresponding to its growth and bright yellow basket flowers, collected in multi-flowered corymbose inflorescences.

Pink "daisies" are also interesting, for example, such a well-known and widespread culture as pink pyrethrum is a medium-sized perennial with an erect stem and inflorescences-baskets, reaching 6 centimeters in diameter. The reed flowers are very decorative pink, and the tubular ones are yellow. In the central zone of Russia, the flowering of this wonderful plant begins in early June and lasts almost 30 days.

Buzulnik toothed

Erigeron is often called "chamomile". Honestly, this plant makes me bored, but you can't ignore it - it's popular … This is perhaps the oldest garden plant - the plant of our grandmothers and even great-grandmothers. Differs in an abundance of varieties with a large palette of colors, height and flowering time, there are flowers for any, even the most sophisticated taste.

But, perhaps, the most common and famous pseudo-mash is purpurea echinacea. It is a perennial plant, reaching a meter in height. It has straight, rough stems and large baskets, which often reach 18 centimeters in diameter. The ligulate flowers of this variety of Echinacea, as the name implies, are purple-pink, pointed at the top, and the tubular flowers have a reddish-brown tint.

This gorgeous plant blooms with its no less gorgeous flowers, usually from July to September - for a very long time - about 60 days. Now, thanks to extensive breeding work with this plant, many attractive varieties have been created, differing in a variety of petals of literally all shades of flowers.

Echinacea itself, as, in principle, and almost all flower crops, is light-requiring, loves nutritious well-drained soils, however, on too light - sand - they grow very poorly.

Echinacea purpurea

So, we have listed all the most famous plants, whose pseudonym is the single name "chamomile". In this rather voluminous list, perhaps, there is only one plant missing, which can also, after a quick glance, be called dismissively - "chamomile". However, this plant has a very high opinion of itself, in view of this, it stands alone - it is autumn helenium.

It is a tall perennial (up to 160 cm) with strong straight and branched stems. His inflorescences are standard - baskets, they are small - 3-5 centimeters in diameter, however, they are collected in rather large apical inflorescences, which already have a more solid diameter - 30 centimeters. Yellow ligulate flowers are perfectly combined with dark yellow tubular flowers. All this splendor is available to our eyes from July to September. In addition to the traditional color, thanks to a significant number of varieties, you can see helenium with red, yellow, white and even blue flowers. It is important to remember that you need to use Gelenium flowers fully open in bouquets - because they do not open in water!