Action - Species, Care And Reproduction

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

Deutzia is a wonderful garden shrub

Among the most beautiful perennial garden shrubs, it stands out for its fine-toothed leaves and abundant flowering. Planted in a semi-shady part of the garden protected from the winds, it will delight you with unusually delicate, graceful flowers for a long time.

No wonder the famous researcher of the flora of China E. G. Wilson put action on a par with roses, lilacs and hydrangeas. About 50 species of this plant are known, which live in the mountainous regions of East Asia, the Himalayas and Mexico.

Deytsia is a relative of hydrangeas and chubushniks, it belongs to the hydrangea family. The botanist Thunberg saw her for the first time in Japan, at the end of the 8th century, and decided to name it after the Dutch merchant, the mayor of Amsterdam, Johann van Deitz, who for a long time and very successfully led floristic research.

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Deytsia is a flowering deciduous shrub of a spreading or erect form, reaching a height of four meters. Its leaves are opposite, perfectly combined with very abundant, snow-white or pink flowers. Alas, they do not have a smell, but they stagger the eye with racemose inflorescences in which they are collected. Flowering occurs on the shoots of the last year. Deytsii feel great on any type of soil and are generally extremely unpretentious in culture.

The only drawback of most species of this wonderful plant is the almost annual freezing of the tips of annual growths, on which, in fact, flowers are formed. Already at a temperature of -25oС, some branches freeze, and at -30oС and below they completely freeze over the level of the snow cover. However, actions have an amazing property: even after severe frosting to the snow cover, the shoots grow again, and so quickly that they can bloom in the same year.

Types of action

The greatest winter hardiness is characterized by the Amur deytion, or small-flowered, which naturally grows in the Primorsky Territory, China and North Korea.

It is a densely branched shrub up to two meters high with spreading gray shoots, has elliptical leaves up to six centimeters long with serrated edges, pointed at the top and pubescent on both sides. Flowering is plentiful and begins in mid-June, when white flowers appear, reaching 1.5 centimeters in diameter.

They are collected in corymbose inflorescences that attract many bees. This is perhaps the most common cultivated species, which has been cultivated since 1862. Having shown imagination, you can create rather original compositions of weigela, forsythia and Amur action, placing shrubs next to conifers with yellowish or silver-blue shades of the crown.

The next species that attracts no less attention and grows in the mountainous regions of Japan is the graceful action. It is a short shrub, rarely exceeding a meter in height, with a rounded crown and white flowers, collected in paniculate inflorescences reaching a length of ten centimeters. Leaves are oblong-lanceolate with a long pointed and serrated edge, densely cover all shoots. Deytia graceful blooms much earlier than other species, but, like most of them, can freeze to the level of snow. On the basis of this species, by selection from seedlings, a form with golden yellow leaves was obtained, which contrasts very well with various types of action, forsythia and weigela.

Deytsia Lemoine is another interesting species that was obtained by crossing the Amur deytsia and the graceful deytsia. It has been known in culture since 1891 and is a low shrub reaching a meter in height. It is interesting for its arched shoots and beautiful gray-green leaves. In June, abundant flowering is noted: large flowers reach a diameter of 2.5 centimeters and are collected in pyramidal inflorescences. Deytsiya Lemoine in severe winters can freeze, but in spring it grows quickly. Its leaves are remarkable, they are rather graceful, do not fall off for a very long time and are colored in autumn in yellow and pinkish-red tones.

Another species is of interest - the rough action, which can be easily distinguished by the specific rough surface of the leaves. This species grows in the nature of Japan and China. It blooms with snow-white flowers, collected in narrow panicles, sometimes reaching a length of 12 centimeters and located on thin golden shoots, fancifully looming against the background of wide dark green leaves with a pointed tip and a crenate edge.

The rough action blooms at the end of July for two, and sometimes for three weeks. This species is good for everyone, with the exception of low winter hardiness. Therefore, her plants must be covered for the winter. The rough action has been grown in culture since 1822 and already has several forms that differ in white, pink and even purple flowers, sometimes double or gathered in crowded inflorescences.

I think that the most charming action of Vilmorin. Its beautiful white inflorescences appear in June and look amazingly harmonious against the background of pointed finely serrated leaves, densely covered with hairs. This species originates from China, and in our climate it does not tolerate winters well, freezing to the level of snow.

As a result of crossing the Vilmorin action and the rough action, a shape was obtained that reaches a height of two meters and is distinguished by a spreading bush, which is decorated with numerous brushes of pure white double flowers from mid-June to the first ten days of July. However, due to low winter hardiness, flowering mainly occurs on shoots below the level of snow cover, and after a harsh winter the bush does not bloom at all. This action in the conditions of central Russia was not widespread precisely because it is quite thermophilic.

Perhaps the largest and most attractive flowers have a long-leaved action. White, reaching 2.5 centimeters in diameter, they delight the eye for twenty days. This type of action comes from Western China and got its name from the elongated leaves with a finely toothed edge, pubescent on the underside. In addition to the leaves, the annual shoots of the shrub are also pubescent, reaching a height of two meters. This species also has varieties with lilac and pale pink flowers.

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Requirements for planting and caring for action

Action, as already mentioned, is thermophilic and especially demanding on the choice of a landing site, conditions of maintenance and care. Slightly shady places under the crowns of large trees are most favorable for it, where air humidity and diffused light are preserved. The action, placed in a secluded place during flowering, looks interesting, it surprises everyone with its extraordinary intensity.

In addition to light, the action prefers fresh rich soils, especially loamy, but can tolerate rather poor soils. If you want to see lush flowering, you need to plant the plant in nutrient soil and provide it with moderate moisture, since it does not tolerate waterlogging and salinization of the substrate. If there is a close standing groundwater, drainage is required.

The optimal time for planting plants in open ground is the period after the soil thaws and before bud break, when there is enough moisture in the soil and the air temperature is sufficient for plant growth. After planting, it is important to provide the action with balanced nutrients. The optimal feeding area for an adult action bush should be at least 1.5 m2.

When planting plants in a permanent place, they dig holes 35-40 centimeters deep, then fill them with fertile soil with the addition of mineral fertilizers. The approximate rate of fertilization in each hole is 1.5–2 buckets of compost and 100–125 g of nitrophoska. Plants are planted at a distance of 1.5-2 meters from each other, or, at the request of the gardener, there can be various types of formations.

It should be noted that under optimal growing conditions, the action plant can live and please your eye for several decades. Of the work on caring for it, it is necessary to highlight the shelter of bushes for the winter and sanitary pruning of frozen shoots. In the case of fairly strong freezing, for example, in winters with little snow, you can cut the shrub "on a stump" after which the plant quickly recovers, giving good growth.

Reproduction of action

As for reproduction, you can easily get by with traditional methods: sowing seeds, green cuttings and dividing the bush. With seed reproduction, there are nuances: small seeds are sown superficially, lightly sprinkled with sand and pressed tightly with glass.

During the period of seed germination, the soil is regularly (2-3 times a day) watered using a fine sprayer, and the seeds are constantly under glass. The first shoots appear within 1.5 months. When the leaves develop on the seedlings, they can be dived into the open ground.

Propagation by cuttings. Good cuttings are obtained only from well-developed, leafy semi-lignified shoots (usually in June). When cutting cuttings, leaf blades are halved with pruning shears or scissors. The lower cut of the cutting is made obliquely, directly under the internode, and the upper one - above the leaf node.

Thus, cuttings are cut with a length of 12-15 centimeters, then they are planted in coarse-grained river sand, poured into a layer of 3-5 centimeters on the nutrient soil of the greenhouse. After planting and for the entire period of root formation, the plants must be watered: in hot weather - at least 6-7 times a day, in cool and rainy weather 3-4 times are enough.

You need to dig out the cuttings no earlier than mid-September. After digging, the rooted cuttings are buried in the garden or in the garden plot, and in the spring they are planted in open ground. Already in the fall, you can start selling seedlings.

Reproduction by dividing the bush is perhaps the easiest way of vegetative propagation. It consists in digging up the entire plant and carefully dividing it with a sharpened pruner into two or more parts, and then planting them in a permanent place.

Using action in landscape design

Low-growing species of action are used as curb plants, and the rest - in the form of small groups near paths, mainly for single plantings and tamping of tree groups. Due to the fact that the actions are resistant to the conditions of the city, they are used with pleasure to decorate parks and squares, where the action looks great both in a single planting against the background of a lawn, and in compositional groups with a badan, a saxifrage, a mountain woman and even a host.