" The author of the following text is the reader of the magazine Przepis na Ogród - Andrzej Pach from Świebodzice. "
It is difficult to briefly describe my passion, because this is the only way I can call my love for these beautiful plants. Of course, I am thinking of hosts, also known as funkies.
Habit
Funkie are shade-loving and frost-resistant perennials. They have extremely decorative and showy leaves of various colors - yellow, green, blue and even white.Depending on the variety, they are flat, convex or concave, with shapes - from lanceolate to round, and dimensions - from several to several dozen cm in diameter. Their surface can be smooth or wrinkled, dull, covered with a wax coating, with a satin texture, or shiny. Hostas come in many sizes and shapes - from miniature (a few cm high) to even gigantic (1.5 m).
They have a vase shape, very majestic and form spherical mounds. Sometimes the leaves hang down like a fountain. They bloom from mid-June to September.Bell-shaped, often fragrant flowers are white or in pastel shades of blue and purple.
Job title
Hosts are usually treated as shadow plants.It is true, but when preparing a suitable position for them, we must take into account some exceptions.More sun is needed for the host variety with yellow leaves (for their proper coloring) and fragrant flowers (then more abundant and more intensely bloom).
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(zdj .: Fotolia.com) |
Growing funkii
It is not difficult and will surely bring a lot of satisfaction to anyone who decides to do it. We should just remember that the hosts:
-Must have position shadedorsemi-shadedand should grow in fertile, well-drained and slightly acidic soils.
-They need a lot of water water , although they should also be provided with adequate drainage. Ideally, they should be planted in a mixture of native soil, peat and ground bark (1-1-1).
-They need power.We should feed them in spring with a fertilizer with N-P-K 10-10-10 or a similar composition. The letters N, P, K indicate the presence of the elements: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and the numbers - the percentage of their content in the mixture.
- After fading, they requiretrimming stalks flower . Then the nutrients they need will go to the leaves, not to the seed pods.
- They can be attacked by snails and fungal diseases. To avoid this, we use appropriate preparations during the season, and in late autumn, when
the leaves die off, we tear them off.Then the pests will have no hiding places and the risk of diseases will decrease.
Growing in pots
Hosts can also be grown in pots, although it is not a perfect location for them. If we decide to do so, we should rather choose plants of small or miniature sizes - larger varieties will need a suitably large container.Funkie in pots must be watered more often, keeping the substrate constantly moist during the growing season.
Frost resistance
These plants in our climatic conditions do not require protection for the winter. The exception are hostas grown in containers, which during the winter should be provided with an airy, cool place, sheltered from wind, rain and sun. During the rest period, we should not pour them, so as not to expose the roots to rotting.
When the temperatures drop below zero, it is worth moving the pots to an unheated garage, shelter or other roofed room and store there until spring.In low temperatures without watering the plant without problem survive the winter.
