Riddle for florists:
"With a comb, but not a cockerel"
A new, 2017, year is about to come. Already briskly striding beyond the threshold in the guise of the Fiery Rooster. Waiting for its hour. He can't wait to step into his own rights, to take control of the situation. Someone to get off the ground with their pressure and temperament, and someone just to cheer up, pour bright colors according to life plan. And how he becomes the owner, let him watch, shaking his comb, so that everything that we have conceived will come true! One of my wishes will come true for sure - in the new season I will sow the crested comb.
Recently, with the dominance of chic varieties of petunias, calibrachoa and other breathtaking plants, the favorite "scallops" have somehow been forgotten. Since childhood, I have been feeding some inexplicable, touching love for this plant. It seems that this plant is so warm, cozy, soulful. I want to pet him like a kitten. So be the symbol of the year both on my flowerbed and on the windowsill! By the way, on the windowsill in the pot I like it even better.
Yes, yes - this is such a universal plant. And it will easily fit for cutting, and it will perfectly cope with the role of dried flowers.
Although, not all household members share my tastes ... They say, these scallops are too simple. They judge it by my plants from childhood. We just haven't seen modern varieties!
In addition to the standard red and burgundy plants, you can find on sale plant seeds with incredibly thick inflorescences, proportionally folded, wonderfully curved, with deep convolutions along the upper edge, with fluffy edges curled ornate on top. These scallops can be yellow, pink, cream, salmon, bright orange, lilac and even pistachio. There are even varieties with purple and burgundy leaves. It is not for nothing that she belongs to the amaranth family, this celosia.
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Celosia varieties
I'll make a reservation right away that the plant's name is actually silver celosia (Celosiaargentea), comb shape (Celosiaargenteaf... withristata). And her scallop is nothing more than an overgrown receptacle, on which small flowers sit very tightly.
For growing on a windowsill as a houseplant, you need to select only undersized varieties, with a declared size of no higher than 20 cm.For example, a variety TOred roshka should not grow more than 15-20 cm. I would order a series of professional seeds Amigo (colors in the assortment are different) - the plants are only 15-20 centimeters tall, with a dense and spectacular crest. Will look spectacular in containers and balcony boxes. But you can also try to depict a carpet flower. Just keep in mind that a full-fledged ridge will nevertheless appear somewhere in mid-July, but it will delight until the very frost. On a flowerbed, "dwarfs" should be placed at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other.
Tall ones will not look in a pot, they will stretch too much. They have a place only in a flower bed, and it is even better to grow them in order to use them for winter dry bouquets. If I took up this business, I would sow the seeds of the variety Crown. Him unusual bright dense ridges of double creamy red color. Stem 70 cm tall.
The owners of greenhouse farms have adapted to cultivating cut-crested celosia in greenhouses, and at the same time the inflorescences are large, and the stems are strong and long.
For me, this is more proportional in the flower garden and generally more pleasing to the eye of the average variety, crowned with a weighty "head". For example, cellosities like Cherry or Orange coral will grow by 20-25 cm. Such cellosis should be planted according to the 25x25 cm scheme.
Plants from the series Armor (different colors) slightly higher - 30 cm. The same height and dark-leaved The empress... The most common mixture is Coral garden, but these plants are 30-40 cm high.
When buying seeds, you need to be more careful and choose the proper comb shape.Somehow I didn’t finish watching and instead of scallops some kind of nondescript elongated panicles grew ... Although, to whom - how. Maybe someone prefers bright (again, multi-colored) torches feathery (Celosiaargenteaf... Rlumosa). Again, I will make a reservation, modern varieties and hybrids are not like the old ones. Looks good in flower beds and in pots in the garden. I also advise you to choose varieties no higher than 25 cm in height, for example, series Glow and Gloria (colors are different). And here are the dwarfs from the series Kimono (height only 15 cm) I would love to try to place it on the windowsill.
I'll return directly to the scallops. Let me take a look at my childhood for a minute. When I first saw the celusion at a friend's window sill, while still at school, I thought it was an artificial plant. But a friend in the fall gave me very real seeds, personally collected from those specimens, advised me to put them in a paper bag and forget about them until April. I did, however, put the shiny seeds in a champagne glass, not in a bag. And the next year, several "scallops" in 2-liter pots also bloomed on my windowsills. Now I myself collected the seeds from the flowers, somewhat similar to poppy seeds, only smaller, ripening in the lower part of the comb, where there is no "ruff". You can contrive and shake them into some kind of container directly from the plant. You can cut off the celosia, put it in a vase and periodically shake the dried seeds over the paper, or even hang it upside down to dry it, putting a paper envelope on the scallop. But here's the catch - I'm not sure if it is worth collecting seeds from modern hybrid forms. Why not give it a try though!
Growing cellosis from seeds
Sowing seeds for seedlings before the beginning of April in the conditions of central Russia simply makes no sense. Sown too early, deprived of natural (or at least artificial) light, they will certainly stretch out and lose their appearance. By the way, we have already passed this ...
Small seeds, spread out on the surface of the soil, need only be lightly sprinkled with soil, do not overdo it. It is advisable to sow not with a pinch, but immediately place the seeds at a distance of 1 cm from each other. The fact is that the thickened crops will first of all be chosen by the black leg as its target. It remains to thoroughly sprinkle the surface of the soil in a jar with water from a spray bottle, place in a bag or cover with a lid and send the jars to a warm, well-lit place for 5-7 days. And shoots should be expected. Then gradually remove the "shelter", before airing the seedlings daily. Then a pick will follow. It is not necessary to plant the seedlings immediately in a 2-liter pot, let it first gain strength in a small glass.
Never pinch seedlings. The plant has a genetically inherent feature to build up the largest inflorescence at the top of the stem. Lateral inflorescences are usually underdeveloped.
The grown seedlings can be divided - leave a little for the windowsill, where the plants will show themselves in all their glory a little later than in the open field, around the end of July. But what in the wild, what in the room, celosi will flaunt, as if nothing had happened, until October. Then it remains to put the plants in compost or cut them and put them in a vase without water, or hang them upside down and use them as dried flowers. When dried, celosia does not lose the brightness of its inflorescences and retains its fresh appearance for a long time.
Celosia is incredibly thermophilic, so she has nothing to do in the beds before mid-June. And a place must be found protected from the winds, not flooded, more than illuminated by the sun. By the way, the same is about the windowsill. Without light, full-weight thick ridges will not work. Stretch out.
It is advisable to pick up the soil easier so that there is no stagnation of water, that is, add river sand or other baking powder to the heavy garden soil. Manure - no! On the contrary, high-quality, ready-made humus, on the contrary, has great respect. In general, light, neutral soils are best.With an excess of nitrogen, and in particular organic fertilizers, the celosia will grow out, and it will bloom poorly. For the same reason, it is better to feed seedlings and adult plants with complex fertilizer no more than 1 time in 15 days and make the solution two times weaker than indicated in the instructions.
What is also remarkable - celosia only in the first periods of the growing season is anxious about watering ("young people" really need regular moisture), and later it will become drought-resistant, so it is worth paying attention to "weekend summer residents".
