Snow berry (wolfberry) - a shrub belonging to the family Honeysuckle. Widely distributed in the North. America. The plant is not used for food, because it is poisonous and can cause adverse health effects. But due to its decorativeness it is often used in landscape design.
Features and description of the snowman
Up to 20-300 cm. Whole leaves are planted on underdeveloped petioles, located opposite. Branches are well bent, in the winter season they do not break under thick snow cover.
The buds form racemose inflorescences located in the leaf sinuses. Petals of various shades. Flowering can be observed in the second decade of summer.
After the inflorescences wither, black-lilac rounded berries appear. In a circle of 2 cm, have a delicate pearl flesh. It is forbidden to eat them, they provoke dyspeptic disorders.
Types and varieties of snowman
The genus includes 15 species. However, only some of them are cultivated:
| View | Description | Berries | Height (m) Varieties |
| White (carpal, snow) | The first variety that was included in the genus. It grows in forests, on the slopes of mountains, along the coastal lines of rivers. The branches are thin, arched, form a spherical crown. The leaves are oval, malachite from the outer region, and bluish from the inner. The flowers are small, pinkish. Grow along the entire stem. Resistant to severe frosts. It has been cultivated since 1879. | Rip simultaneously with the buds. You can watch the whole winter season until the birds peck. | 1,5. The most popular is slightly brilliant. |
| Pink (ordinary) | It can be found in meadows and floodplains. Emerald green, grayish on the underside. In the fall gets scarlet color. Frost resistance is worse, but tolerates winters in our country. | Red, dusted with ash. Scattered throughout the bush. | 2-3.
|
| West | It lives near water bodies, mountains. The greens are light malachite, pubescent from below. | Crimson or pudding-white, close-fitting to neighboring ones. | 1,5. |
| Ambitious | Grows in the west of the North. America. Leafy sheets are fleecy. The flowers are single or paired, pinkish or snow-white, in the form of bells. | Whitish two-seeded drupe. | |
| Soft | With creeping shoots. Petals bright: pudding or amaranth. | Large, pearl. | |
| Small-leaved | Homeland - Mexico, New Mexico, Guatemala. Stems with thick pile. The greens are dark emerald, lighter. It happens with a pile and without. | White with a raspberry glow. | 3. |
| Chenot | Hybrid form. It does not tolerate frost. Greens occur in early spring and do not fall until late autumn. | From snowy to purple. | 1,5. The most sought after is Hancock. |
| Dorenboza | Hybrids, named after the breeder who bred them, Dorenboza. This is a cross between a white and ordinary snowman. Flowers are densely planted throughout the bush. | A variety of tones. | Up to 1.5.
|
Landing of a snowman in open ground
The tree grows in the sun or in sparse partial shade, on a flat terrain or slope. The substrate may be wet or dry.
Landing is carried out in May or September-October. During spring planting, the land is prepared closer to winter, until snow falls. In the fall - about 30 days before placement in the soil mixture in the garden.
Step by Step Actions:
- Dig a plot, making limestone flour 1 cup, ash from burnt wood 3 tbsp., Superphosphate 2 tbsp. Dosage is indicated for one bush.
- 30 minutes before planting, place the underground part in a mixture of water, clay and mullein so that it is saturated with moisture.
- Dig holes with a depth of 0.4 m, a circumference of 0.5-0.6 m, leaving a gap of 1.2-1.5 m.
- On the bottom pour sand, peat, humus, compost and additives that were used for digging.
- In the center, place seedlings so that after sedimentation of the substrate, the root neck is above the ground.
- Tamp the ground so that there are no voids. They will lead to drying of the roots.
- Water abundantly.
When planting a hedge, dig grooves 60 cm deep, 40 cm long. The bushes must be four years old, they must be placed on one horizontal line (for example, along a stretched thread) at a distance of 20-25 cm.
Caring for a snowman in the garden
Planting and caring for the shrubs are quite simple. The most important thing is to follow these recommendations:
| Factor | Description |
| Watering | The first few days daily. Then enough natural rainfall. In dry weather, water using 10-15 liters of water for each instance. To keep moisture longer, mulch the bushes with peat. |
| Loosening | Produce after precipitation and each moistening of the soil. In the process of pulling weeds. |
| Top dressing | In spring, apply mineral or organic fertilizers. In the middle of summer, pour Agricola solution (2 tablespoons with a slide on 10 l of water). |
| Pick | Produce only in emergency cases. For example, with a strong growth of the root system or damage to the soil by infection. In the process you need to be very careful not to damage the rhizome. In adult specimens, it is extensive, so you need to start digging away from the main trunk so as not to touch the roots. |
| A haircut | To produce in the spring before the movement of juice on the stems and leaves. It is necessary to remove dried and broken branches, shorten the shoots growing in the wrong direction. Treat the cut sites with garden varieties to prevent infection. Anti-aging pruning is done at a level of 50-60 cm from the ground. Thanks to this, new shoots will grow during the summer. Pruning does not affect flowering, as flowering buds are located on the branches of the current year. |
| Other care | At the end of the growing season, dig a plot with a snowman. |
Propagation of the snowman
It can be propagated by seeds and vegetatively.
Seeds
This method of cultivation is rarely used, because It is long and laborious. Training:
- To clear seeds from fibers.
- Fold in nylon cloth and squeeze.
- Pour into a bowl of water.
- Mix well.
- Wait until seed has settled and the remaining pulp will float.
- Get the seeds and dry.
Sowing is done in late autumn. Do this not in open ground, but in containers for seedlings. Step-by-step landing:
- Fill the container with sand, humus, peat mixed in equal parts.
- Spread the seeds evenly and sprinkle with a thin sand layer.
- Cover with foil. It must be removed daily for spraying through a spray bottle with a fine nozzle, ventilation and collection of condensate from the walls. You can also produce lower watering.
- The first shoots can be observed in the spring. Dive seedlings to the street produce at the end of the vegetative period.
Root shoot
The shrub gives a lot of offspring that form dense curtains. Therefore, the snow berry grows rapidly in breadth and may shift.
This method is the simplest. It is enough to separate a well-formed curtain and transplant. This will help not only to obtain new specimens, but also to prevent excessive planting density.
Division
This method is resorted to in the spring before the start of the movement of the juice in the shoots or in the autumn after the leaves fall:
- Dig and divide the rhizome into several lobes. Each of them should have a developed root system and strong shoots.
- The places of cuts should be treated with charcoal.
- Plant delenki in the garden.
Layering
Stepwise reproduction:
- Choose a healthy, well-formed branch that grows closer to the base.
- Dig a trench in the ground, place a branch there and fix with brackets.
- Cover the ground, leaving the apex on the surface.
- Take care of the usual shrubs during the summer.
- In the fall, when the roots are formed at the lay, separate from the main bush and transplant where it was planned.
Cuttings
Already hardened or green cuttings are suitable for propagation. In the first case, the preparation is done before the growing season or after. Shoots should be 10-20 cm, with 3-5 shoot primordia. Before planting, young branches are stored in the sand in a cool room.
Harvesting green cuttings done at dawn in early June. Shoots should be long, developed. Determining whether the shoot is ready for planting is quite easy: you need to bend it. When a branch breaks and crunches, it means that the stalk is ripe. Billets must be immediately placed in water.
Stepwise propagation by cuttings:
- Fill the boxes with the same mixture as when sowing the seeds.
- Deepen branches by 5 mm.
- Put the container in greenhouse or greenhouse conditions (for the formation of the root system requires high air temperature and moderate humidity of the substrate).
- In autumn, the roots will be ready for transplanting into the garden.
- For the winter, you need to cover young bushes with spruce spruce branches or dried leaves to prevent freezing.
Diseases and pests
Since the wolfberry is a poisonous plant, it is not affected by pests. It is also resistant to various infections. In rare cases, with poor care, infection with ashtray, gray rot can occur. To save the bush, it is necessary to use chemicals: Strobi, Falcon, Maxim, Skor, etc. Alternative methods (for example, wiping with soap or alcohol) will not help.
To prevent disease in early spring, bushes need to be treated with Bordeaux liquid 3%. This will reduce the likelihood of developing a fungus.
Mr. Dachnik recommends: medicinal properties of a snowberry
Wolfberry is poisonous, but only in large quantities. The use of small doses helps with:
- wounds, cracks in the hands (fresh berries);
- various skin lesions and ulcers (gruel from foliage);
- tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases (decoction of the bark).
The healing properties of the snowberry are not fully understood, therefore, any non-traditional method of therapy should be agreed with the doctor. Otherwise, you can cause serious harm to your health. In addition, folk remedies can only facilitate the course of a pathological condition, and not cure it completely.
To avoid undesirable consequences, wolfberries should not be planted in the territory of preschool institutions, schools, playgrounds. Children are very curious, they can taste the fruit and poison. The main symptoms of intoxication will be vomiting, nausea, poor health, digestive disorders, diarrhea. In this situation, you need to immediately wash the stomach and call an ambulance.
Wolf berry is a very beautiful ornamental shrub that will be an adornment of any landscape design. It is unpretentious to the conditions of detention, resistant to diseases and pests, tolerates the polluted atmosphere perfectly. Therefore, the plant can be used for urban landscaping, planted next to factories, highways.
