Beauty, or kalikarpa , stands out from other shrubs, especially in autumn. It is then that her fruity beads, with a unique violet color, make the beauty a contrasting accent and is one of the last plants to decorate the garden in winter. See whatgrowing a beauty in the garden looks likeand learn about the recommendedvarieties of beauty , available in Polish nurseries.
Beauty, callicarpa (Callicarpa)
Fig. pixabay.com
Beauty - plant description
Beauty (Callicarpa) , also called callicarp, belongs to the Verbenaceae family. The genus Callicarpa contains about 140 species, most of which are found in East and Southeast Asia. The name Callicarpa comes from the Greek words callos - beauty and carpo - fruit. And indeed -the distinguishing feature of the beauty pie are the spherical and shiny fruits, gathered in clusters, in an unusual, usually purple colorThe fruits of the Calicarp ripen in autumn and remain on the shrubs in winter, decorating the garden for Christmas.
An additionalbeauty is adorned with long (12 cm), lanceolate, serrated leaves that turn bright shadesin autumn and constitute a contrasting background for the fruit. At the turn of July and August,tiny light pink or purple Kallicarpa flowers , gathered in clusters, bloom in large numbers in the leaf axils. However, they are hidden under the leaves and do not have a decorative function.
Beauty - cultivation
The beauty requires a sunny, warm and sheltered positionIn semi-shaded places the beauty becomes smaller and blooms less, which translates into a smaller number of fruits. The place for growing the beauties must be sheltered from winds. Shrubs freeze easily in open spaces.
The beauty is susceptible to frost, especially in the first 2-3 years of cultivationIn winter it is necessary to protect the plant, also in warmer regions of Poland. For this purpose, we cover the lower part of the calicarp with a mound of soil and bark, and cover the upper part of the shrub with agrotextile in the colder regions of the country. Frozen beauty shoots recover quickly after strong pruning in spring.
The beauty requires a soil rich in nutrients, humus and moderately moist.Tolerates soil from slightly acidic to slightly alkaline.Calicarpus shrubs should be watered regularlyto keep the soil slightly moist.It is worth using bedding that will prevent the substrate from drying out.
The ornament of the beauty is its fruits and leaves
Fig. pixabay.com
Well-rooted 2-year-oldFertilizer bushes should be fertilized regularlyThis will ensure more flowers and thus more abundant fruiting. We start fertilizing the beauty plant in March and continue for the next months (once a month) until July. The lack of nutrients in the soil causes the shedding of fruit buds. The exception isJapanese beauty, who has low nutritional requirementsand reacts badly to intensive fertilization.
Beauty - trimming
Regular pruning is an important procedure in the cultivation of each species of beauticianAt the turn of February and March, in the first year after planting, trim the beauties bushes very much, shortening them over 2-3 eyelets . In the second year, the shoots are shortened by half, giving the shrubs the appropriate shape.From the third year on, we only perform conservative pruning, which consists in cutting 1/3 of the oldest shoots right next to the ground. Every year we also remove all frozen, sick and broken shoots. There is no fear that such heavily pruned shrubs will not have many fruits in a given year, because the plants bear fruit on this year's shoots. We do not prune new shoots, only last year's ones.
Good to know!Beauties are best grown in groups. Shrubs growing alone bear poor fruit.
Beauty - varieties
In Poland, the most commonly cultivated species of the beauties isthe beauties Bodiniera (Callicarpa bodinieri)The shrub grows from 2 to 4 meters in height and has a slightly broom-like habit. Bodiniera's leaves are attractive from the beginning to the end of the growing season - in spring they are purple, in summer they have a deep dark green color, and in autumn they turn yellow and purple.
Bodiniera's beauty doesn't have many varieties.The cultivation mainly includesBodiniera 'Profusion'Shrubs of this variety reach 2-3 m in height. Leaves turn yellow in autumn. The fruit has an intense purple or purple color. Bushes bear fruit abundantly even when they do not have a partner next to them.
The fruits of the Calicarp last long after the leaves have fallen
Fig. pixabay.com
There are also two other species of beauties in cultivation -Japanese beauty (Callicarpa japonica)andforked beauty (Callicarpa dichotoma)Japanese beauty it is shorter than Bodiniera's beauty (it reaches 120-180 cm in height), and its shrubs have a spherical shape. In the fall, the leaves of the Japanese beauties turn pink-purple and yellow. The bifurcated beauty plant initially forms straight, then overhang, almost bare shoots. Bushes grow up to 1-1.5 m in height. In autumn, the leaves of the forked beauty turn gold and purple.
The most popular varieties of Japanese beauty are:
- Leucocarpa- about white fruit,
- Heavy Berry- about fruits in violet-violet color, larger than in other varieties, and the leaves that turn yellow or burgundy in autumn,
- Koshima-no-homate- with white fruit and creamy variegated leaves.
We can also find a we alth of varieties in the bifurcated beauty . Particularly interesting are:
- Issai- miniature variety (40-60 cm), the most popular, creating abundant clusters of tiny, shiny, dark purple fruits
- Duet- about green leaves with yellow discoloration on the edges and white fruit
- Early Amethyst- about the most intense violet color of all the varieties of the beauty
- Shirobana- with snow-white fruits, red-brown young growths and fragrant flowers. The disadvantage of the bifurcated Shiroban is the blackening of the fruit in winter.
MSc Eng. Agnieszka Lach
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