Purple lavender lavender perennial herbs or shrubs, although called grass, are actually purple-blue flowers. Lavender is clustered and branched, usually growing vertically. According to different varieties, the plant height is 30 ~ 40 cm and 45 ~ 90 cm. In mountainous areas with quite high altitude, a single plant can grow to1m. Leaves alternate, elliptic-lanceolate, or large needle-shaped, and the leaf margin rolls back. Spike terminal, 15 ~ 25 cm long; Corolla lower tubular, upper lip-shaped, upper lip 2-cleft, lower lip 3-cleft; The flowers are about 1.2 cm long and have blue, deep purple, pink, white and other colors. The common color is purple-blue, and the flowering period is from June to August. The whole plant has a faint aroma with a slight woody sweetness. Because the villi on flowers, leaves and stems contain oil glands, they will burst when touched lightly and release fragrance.

Color feature

Blue, purple, blue purple, pink, white, yellow. The hometown of most blue and purple lavender is the Mediterranean region in southern Europe and the southern foothills of Alps (including Provence). There are two kinds of pink lavender: French lavender is produced in the French plateau; Lohden pink lavender is produced in Scotland. White lavender is produced in Scotland, northern England and Wales.

geographical distribution

Originated from the Mediterranean coast, Europe and Oceania islands, such as Provence, a small town in southern France, are widely planted in Britain and Yugoslavia, and now Tennessee in the United States and Hokkaido in Japan are also heavily planted. The northern foot of Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang is at the same latitude as Provence in France, with similar climate and soil conditions. It is a lavender planting base and the hometown of lavender in China. Lavender in Xinjiang has become one of the eight famous varieties in the world. Like to do it. These flowers are spike-shaped and have slender stems. The flowers are covered with star-shaped fine hairs, with purple-blue florets at the tip and gray-green narrow leaves. When they grow up, they can reach 90 cm tall and usually bloom in June. Whenever the wind blows, a whole lavender field fluctuates like a deep purple wave, which is very beautiful.

Cultivation management

It is a perennial shrub and can be used for about 10 years. Wide variety, easy cultivation, sunshine-loving, heat-resistant, drought-resistant, cold-resistant, barren-resistant and salt-resistant. The cultivation site needs sufficient sunshine and good ventilation. The time from sowing to flowering (or harvesting) is 18 ~ 20 weeks. Lavender should be cultivated in large containers. But in order to prevent it from getting too wet, you can use a pottery jar or a smaller plastic jar, and don't use a big jar unless it is quite large. Lavender can't stand high temperature and humidity, and it will die after being flooded for a long time. When planting outdoors, be careful not to let the rain directly rain on the plants. After May, it is necessary to move the place out of direct sunlight, increase ventilation to reduce the ambient temperature and keep cool, so as to spend the hot summer safely. Pay attention to sunshine, moisture, temperature and patience. 1. Soil: Suitable for weak alkaline or neutral sandy soil. Special attention should be paid to the selection of substrates with good drainage, which can be mixed with 1/3 pearl clay, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 sphagnum moss. If it is cultivated in the open field, pay attention to the drainage of the soil, and raise the mound into a border before planting. 2. Watering: Lavender doesn't like to keep water in its roots. After the first watering, water should be supplied when the soil is dry. The surface medium was dry and the inside was moist, and the leaves wilted slightly. Water in the morning, avoid the sun, and don't splash water on leaves and flowers, otherwise it will rot and breed pests and diseases. Continuous humid environment will make the roots grow poorly, there is not enough air to breathe, and even the whole plant will die suddenly. This is often the reason for the failure of lavender cultivation. 3. Illumination: Lavender is an all-day plant, which needs sufficient sunshine and a suitable humid environment. The environment that can give full sunshine is better, and it can grow in half sunshine, but there are few flowers. In summer, lavender should block at least 50% of sunlight when it opens from May to 10 every year, and increase ventilation to reduce the ambient temperature, so that although it grows weakly, it will not die. Lavender can grow well on the flat ground in winter, so it should be cultivated in sunny places. 4. Temperature: Lavender is semi-heat-resistant, so it is cool. It likes warm in winter and cool in summer. The suitable growth temperature is 15 ~ 25℃, and it can grow at 5 ~ 30℃. Limit temperature: above 35℃, above 38 ~ 40℃ for a long time, and the top stems and leaves turn yellow. In northern winter, when the temperature is lower than 0℃ for a long time, the seedlings begin to hibernate, during which the seedlings can tolerate the low temperature of -20 ~-25℃. 5. Fertilization: When fertilizing, you can put bone meal as the base fertilizer (once every three months) in the pot soil, and then apply a fertilizer with higher phosphorus fertilizer, such as Huabao No.3 (20-30-20). Apply light fertilizer. 6. Pruning: Lavender flower essential oil is the most abundant, and it is mainly used in flowers or inflorescences. In order to facilitate harvesting, some small inflorescences in the early stage of cultivation may wish to be leveled with scissors, and the newly grown inflorescences are of the same height, which is conducive to one-time harvesting. Some varieties can be as high as 90 cm, and this method is also used to make plants low, promote more branches and flowers, and increase harvest. Pruning must be carried out after flowering, and the plant can be pruned to 2/3 of its original size, so that the plant type will be stronger and conducive to growth. Pruning should be carried out in cold seasons such as spring and autumn, generally in spring, and pruning in autumn will affect cold tolerance. When pruning, be careful not to cut off the lignified part, lest the plant weaken and die. 7 Common diseases: When the annual sowing seedlings or cuttings are damaged, the plants wilt, lose water, the leaves are dull, and the top of leaves and branches bend downward, which is most obvious in bud stage. Light can recover at night, and heavy will die in two or three days, with rotten roots and brown and shiny stem ducts. In addition to pathological manifestations, seedlings over three years old have wilting symptoms at the center or edge of the plant, which gradually develop inward and outward, and the branches wilt and die, and finally the whole plant dies. The degree of damage varies with the age and variety of trees. Generally, it starts in May and reaches its peak in July and August. The incidence of lavender in France is serious, and the varieties of 2-4 17 in the former Soviet Union are relatively light.

breeding method

There are four propagation methods of lavender: sowing, cutting, layering and rooting. Cutting and sowing are the main methods. 1. seed propagation: lavender seeds are small and suitable for seedling raising and transplanting. Generally, the sowing date is in spring, March-June or 9-165438+1October in warm regions, April-June in cold regions and winter in greenhouses. The germination days are about14 ~ 21d. The optimum temperature for germination is 18 ~ 24℃. Proper light is needed after germination, and weak light is easy to grow white. Because of the long dormancy period, seeds should be soaked with 12 hours before sowing, and then soaked with 20-50ppm gibberellin for 2 hours before sowing. Before sowing, level the land, water it, soak it underwater and sow it evenly, then cover it with a layer of fine soil with a thickness of 0.2 cm, and cover it with grass or plastic film to keep it moist. Keep the seedbed moist at 15 ~ 25℃, and sprout in about 10 days. It takes a month to germinate without gibberellin treatment. It takes 1 ~ 3 months to germinate below 15℃. Pay attention to spraying water at seedling stage. When the seedlings are too dense, they can be properly thinned and transplanted when the seedling height is about 10 cm. 2. Cutting propagation: Cutting is generally carried out in spring and autumn. Softwood cuttings can also be used in summer. The cutting substrate can be 2/3 coarse sand mixed13 sphagnum moss. Select the well-bred plants with vigorous development, select the terminal buds of one-year-old semi-lignified branches with short pitch and no pilling, and cut at the top 8 ~ 10 cm. The cut of the cutting should be close to the stem node, so as to be smooth and not break the phloem. Remove the leaves from the lower two nodes, soak them in clear water for 2 hours, then cut them into the soil and take root in about 2 ~ 3 weeks. You can also choose 8 ~ 10 cm annual branches and take root in about 40 days under the conditions of good drainage, humidity and bed temperature of 20 ~ 24℃. Don't use the terminal bud of inflorescence, because the aging of flower branches will have an adverse effect on future growth. Plastic film cutting, soil preparation and soil preparation. Cover with plastic film after watering and cut immediately. 5 ~ 8 cm deep and 20 ~ 25 cm row spacing. Pay attention to raising ground temperature and promoting root development; Prune extended branches frequently, remove spikes in time, promote branching and cultivate strong seedlings. The plant spacing is 60cm, and the row spacing is 120cm. Water immediately after planting. 3. Propagation by ramets: It can be carried out in both spring and autumn, with 3-4-year-old plants, and with mature old roots in March-April in spring, each branch has bud eyes.