Spirea Billard - description, planting and care
Content:
Spirea Billard is ideal for garden decoration. Long-term beautiful flowering, spectacular appearance attracts the attention of even discerning gardeners. With its external attractiveness, the shrub pleases with its unpretentiousness in care, which makes the spirea (spirea) indispensable in the landscape design of park areas and summer cottages.
Description of Billard's spirea
The habitat of the plant is the land plots of Asia, Northern Europe, America. On the territory of Russia, the shrub mainly grows in the mountains of the Caucasus. But domesticated species are widespread throughout Russia.
Spirea Billard is a late flowering variety with luxurious flowers and long flowering
Spirea Billardii is a powerful shrub 2–2.5 m high with erect stems extending upward. The tops of the bushes are decorated with a lush spherical crown. The lower shoots are lignified, gray-brown, without leaves. Young shoots are resilient and flexible in a reddish shade with dense foliage.
Each leaf, which is 10 cm long, has an oblong lanceolate shape. The central vein is clearly defined. The outer side of the leaf is bluish-tomentose, the other is deep green. In autumn, the color of the leaves ranges from yellow tones to purples and purples.
Large inflorescences and lanceolate leaves adorn the bushes
The most popular is Billard's Triumphan spirea with crimson flowers, silvery leaves and a honey aroma.
Planting a plant
Shrubs of magnificent beauty are grown in the open field from seeds and with the help of seedlings.
Planting from seeds
Seed germination of species spirea 80%, yellow-leaved - 40%. But Billard's spirea is a hybrid obtained by crossing 2 species - Douglas and willow. Full-fledged seeds are not tied, and if they do appear, then their germination rate is 5%. Therefore, a seed culture is rarely grown.
Billard - a hybrid of Douglas spirea and willow leaf
Planting seedlings in open ground
In an illuminated sunny area, fertile soil with a neutral acidity level and permeable to water and air is chosen. Before planting, the earth is dug up, if necessary, flavored with sand, turf, peat. For the season before planting spirea, the soil is disinfected.
Saplings are planted together with a clod of earth
Saplings are bought with a clod of earth. 2 hours before planting, the roots are irrigated with water. This must be done carefully so that the earthen lump remains in place. With an open root system, the seedlings are examined. They remove the present rot, signs of disease, cut off damaged and too long roots.
Spirea (Billard's variety) is planted in open ground in the first half of September. Gardeners prefer to plant shrubs on cloudy or rainy days. In warm sunny weather, the procedure is postponed to the evening.
Holes are prepared in advance. Their dimensions should be at least 40 × 40 cm with a depth of 30 cm. Drainage is laid at the bottom: the first layer is crushed stone or broken brick, the second is expanded clay and the last layer is sand.
Next, the soil is poured with a slide, mixed with top dressing, on which the seedling is placed. When immersed in the hole, it is observed that the root collar is in the same plane with the surface of the earth. The soil is poured, tamped and watered with settled water. When planting several bushes, 40-50 cm are left between the pits.
How to care
Billard's spirea is a non-capricious plant. With a minimum of manipulation, it will be possible to grow a lush and long-blooming culture.
Care measures:
- watering. The shrub does not welcome drought. The leaves become smaller and dry, the stems are bare, the inflorescences lose their brightness and density. But waterlogging should also not be allowed, this will lead to no less severe consequences. At times, the bushes are sprayed with a spray bottle. The procedure is performed in the evening so that the foliage does not get burned;
- top dressing. No fertilizer is applied for the first 2 months after planting. Then the culture is fertilized. With a brisk growth of the aerial part, which occurs already in the first year after planting, they are fed with nitrogen. For this, mullein and chicken droppings are used. Nitrogen fertilizing is carried out once a month. In subsequent years, they switch to complex mineral fertilizers;
- pruning. The procedure is carried out annually in the fall. Weak and dried branches, dying shoots are removed. Healthy shoots are cut by a third. Bushes will not bloom without pruning. In this case, you will have to spend a lot of effort to restore the previous state of the spirea.
Autumn annual pruning
Reproduction methods
The following methods are used for reproduction:
- layering;
- cuttings;
- division of the bush.
The first method is used in the spring. Lignified shoots are tilted to the soil and fixed with a hairpin. Sprinkle with nutritious soil and watered. Roots will appear by next year. Layers are cut off from the bush with a shovel and planted in the right place.
Cuttings are cooked in July. Shoots are cut, cut into pieces of 7-10 cm, leaving 5 leaves on each. Each cutting is treated with a growth stimulant, then planted in boxes with nutrient soil, and the cuttings are placed at an angle of 30 °. The film is fixed on top. By spring, Billard's spirea seedlings will be ready for transplanting into open ground.
For separation, the bush is dug up, the soil is cleaned off, the roots are washed under running water, and dried. Then cut so that each part has roots and strong shoots. The division is carried out with a pre-disinfected sharp knife or pruner. Divided bushes are immediately planted in the ground.
Transfer
Spirea Billard tolerates the transplant painlessly. The procedure is carried out in autumn in cloudy weather. Choose the time before leaf fall, when the color of the foliage begins to change. Adult plants are transplanted. Before that, the shrub is cut off. They dig it out with a clod of earth, plant it in a new hole, and water it abundantly.
Diseases and pests
Insects rarely visit spirea, but spider mites, leafworms, and aphids are possible. For the destruction of pests, insecticides karbofos, phosphamide, metaphos, fury are used.
In case of errors in watering, the bushes are affected by rot. When fungi appear, fungicides phytosporin, foundationazol and some others are used.
Flowering period
Flowering begins in late July and lasts until the first frost in October. The bushes are decorated with large inflorescences up to 20 cm in diameter, resembling a pink candle. The peduncle is long (20 cm) with many flowers, each of which has 5 rounded petals and long stamens.
The flowering period of spirea lasts from late July to the first October frosts.
Preparing for winter
Despite the frost resistance, it is better to insulate the spirea for the winter.They prepare for winter in the fall: they reduce watering, clear the trunk circle of weeds and fallen leaves, loosen the soil and mulch to a thickness of 10 cm.
The branches are tied into a bundle, which is tilted to the ground and fixed. Then covered with straw, white propylene bags or agrofibre. The bush is enclosed with a nylon mesh to keep the snow out.
Use in landscape design
Billard's spirea looks great as a single planting, and in the vicinity of other plants, except for fruit trees. Hedges, rockeries, flower beds and paths decorated with spirea decorate gardens and summer cottages.
The variety looks great as a hedge
Spirea Billard in landscape design
Spirea can often be found within the city. It not only decorates the walls of houses, fences and fences, but also purifies the polluted city air thanks to the secreted active substances of phytoncides.
Composite fit
Despite the unpretentiousness of Billard's spirea to care, human intervention in the growing process will not be superfluous. In the cultivated state, the life of the bush is 15–20 years. Over the years, the plant will deliver many pleasant minutes to a person.
