You don't have to water it at all: this flower is a perfect option for your summer garden

Every gardener dreams of a plant that can be forgotten in their garden without any care at all and that would bloom and flourish. In Ukraine, you can grow at least one such flower: nolana or, as it is also called, the Chilean bellflower.

Nolana blooms almost as soon as the weather is stable and pleases with flowers throughout the summer season. But it practically does not need to be watered. OBOZ.UA tells you more about the flower.

Appearance and origin

The plant originates from South America, mainly Chile and Peru, and belongs to the Solanaceae family, that is, it is a relative of potatoes and eggplants. There are annual and perennial species. Annuals are usually grown in gardens.

The calyx of the flower looks like a tubular bell. Nolana blooms in various shades of blue, pink, bright red or white. There are dozens of varieties of the plant that can be combined with each other in the flowerbed to create colorful compositions.

Growing conditions

Since nolana grows in a desert climate, it does not like shade in the garden. If you plant it in a semi-shaded place, it will bloom, but the flowering will not be abundant.

When a plant is grown through seedlings, it is important to provide it with a long daylight hours of at least 8 hours. Otherwise, the sprouts will stretch too far and may become unviable.

All types of nolana like light and well-drained soils. The acidity does not matter, but nutritious types such as loam and black soil will be too much for them. Therefore, the area for planting nolana should be improved with sand.

The plant does not need watering. Excessive moisture can even kill it. You need to add additional water only if the summer was dry and there was no rain at all. You do not need to feed nolana with fertilizers. Among the pests, it suffers mosty from aphids and spider mites.

Propagating

The best way to propagate the plant is to grow it from seeds. It is best to sow them about 4-6 weeks before the night frosts are supposed to stop. At this time, the seeds are sown for seedlings. Transfer the flower to the open ground when the night temperatures are consistently above freezing. In this case, the plant will bloom in early summer.

The distance between the plants should be 20-30 cm so that the flower has room to grow. However, when transplanting, it should be borne in mind that the stem of the nolana is very fragile, so it must be handled carefully.

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