The flowering plant Mirabilis is a member of the Nyctaginaceae family. This genus includes more than 50 species. Under natural conditions, they can be found in tropical and temperate regions, and they are most common in South and North America, but there is 1 species, whose homeland is South Asia. From Latin “mirabilis” is translated as “amazing”. This type of mirabilis, like jalapa, is also called the “night beauty”, and it has won great love among gardeners. These flowers are simple at first glance, but they have a mysterious appeal. When Mirabilis blooms, the garden is filled with a unique smell. It is distinguished by its unpretentiousness and undemandingness to growing conditions. Often, such a plant is used to form a not very high hedge, which looks bright and impressive.
Features of Mirabilis (night beauty)
The Mirabilis jalapa species is native to Mexico. This perennial has a tuberous swollen root and is cultivated as an annual plant. The bushes have a rounded-elongated shape, and their height varies from 0.3 to 0.8 m. The densely branched, erect shoots are painted pale red, their lower part becomes lignified over time. Opposite, entire, bare petiolate leaf plates have an ovoid-elongated shape, and they are colored green. The fragrant apical corymbose inflorescences consist of funnel-shaped flowers, reaching 2.5 centimeters in diameter, which can be colored crimson, orange, purple, white, violet, yellow, deep red, and also come in two or three colors. The flowers open after 4 p.m. and close at dawn. If the weather is cloudy, then the mirabilis flowers remain open throughout the day. Flowers of different colors can bloom on the same bush of such a plant. For example, one mirabilis bush can be decorated with flowers of various shades of pink (from crimson to salmon), and it happens that multi-colored stripes adorn the petals. The large single-seeded fruit has sharp ribs and a dark brown color. The seeds remain viable for three years.
Wonderful fragrant mirabilis flower. How to grow from seeds
Growing Mirabilis from Seeds
Sowing seedlings
Mirabilis jalapa species can be propagated by seed. Before you start sowing seeds, you need to scarify them; to do this, you need to injure their dense shell using sandpaper or a file. Pour lukewarm water into a thermos and add the seeds there, they should stay there for 24 hours. Night beauty seeds are sown for seedlings from early to mid-April. To do this, take individual cups, which are filled with a light, slightly alkaline or neutral soil mixture; you can buy it in a specialized store or make it yourself. To do this, you need to combine compost (humus), peat, turf soil and washed sand (1: 2: 2: 0.5), then add wood ash (for 5 liters of mixture ½ cup of ash) or dolomite flour (for 5 l mixture 2 large spoons of flour). Fill the cups with soil mixture to ¾ of the volume, remembering to compact it well. Then it is watered abundantly with a fungicide solution. A pair of seeds are sown in 1 cup, which are covered with a not very thick (from 10 to 15 mm) layer of loose substrate, then the crops need to be watered with a fine spray bottle.
Then the crops are harvested in a greenhouse, the air temperature in which should be from 18 to 20 degrees.
Growing seedlings
The first seedlings can be seen after 5 or 6 days. When the shoots appear, do not forget to remove the shelter and move the cups to a well-lit place. After the seedlings have one true leaf blade, it will be necessary to thin out the seedlings. To do this, in each cup, with scissors, it is necessary to cut off to the surface of the substrate the one of the seedlings that seems to be the weakest, so that it cannot interfere with the growth and development of a stronger plant. At the same time, the seedlings will need to be fed for the first time, using, for example, Fertika, Mortar or Krepysh.
You need to water the seedlings only after the lump of earth in the cup has completely dried, and all because it reacts extremely negatively to waterlogging of the substrate. After the height of the plants reaches 10–15 centimeters, they will need to be transferred to larger pots and fed a second time, using complex mineral fertilizer. After the seedlings have taken root well, they will need to begin to be hardened off. The duration of hardening of plants is half a month, during which time they will have to get used to the external environment. To harden seedlings, they must be transferred to fresh air every day (to the balcony or garden), and the time the seedlings spend outside should be increased little by little, until eventually the plants will be able to stay there for a whole day.
Preparation of soil and planting material
Light neutral soil is suitable for the “night beauty”, but it also grows on loam. The site must be fertile, with good drainage. Overmoistening and increased acidity negatively affect the development of the plant. It is recommended to prepare the sown area for planting mirabilis in the fall. During digging, fertilizers are added with a full shovel: potassium salt, humus, calcium nitrate, wood ash. Light soil is weighted with clay at the rate of 18-20 kg/m. Lime and dolomite flour are introduced when the soil is too acidic.
The following method has proven itself well. Dig a ditch to a depth of 30 cm, place removed weeds and food waste in it, and add earth on top. Before planting, sprinkle with ash.
Sowing mirabilis seeds in open ground
Night beauty seeds can be sown directly into open soil. You need to prepare seeds for sowing in the same way as when sowing seedlings. They are planted in the last days of April or the first days of May. Place the seeds in the prepared grooves, keeping a distance of 7 to 8 centimeters between them. The seeds need to be buried into the soil only 30 mm. Crops need to be watered with lukewarm water, after which the area is covered with film or non-woven material. When the first seedlings appear, the cover will need to be removed. When the flowers grow, they will need to be thinned out.
Watering
Mirabilis prefers the “golden mean” when watering; it does not tolerate overdrying of the soil, but it also does not tolerate excessive moisture. It is recommended to water the plant up to 2 times a week. If the summer turns out to be rainy, the watering process should be stopped completely. The water temperature should be at least 10-15°C; after the procedure, light loosening should be carried out around the bush.
Planting mirabilis in open ground
What time to plant
Mirabilis seedlings should be planted in open soil only after the ground has warmed up thoroughly and there is no threat of return frosts. As a rule, this time occurs at the end of spring. This flower is extremely heat-loving, so you need to choose a well-lit and sun-warmed area for planting it. Try to give this plant as much free space as possible, otherwise it will crowd out the flowers adjacent to it, as it is quite aggressive. To grow this flower, it is recommended to choose nutritious loamy or clay soil that contains lime. If the soil is acidic, then it must be limed. The plant does not tolerate stagnation of liquid in the soil; therefore, you cannot choose wet soil or lowland for planting it.
Landing Features
The seedlings are planted in a row, and a distance of 0.4–0.5 m should be maintained between the specimens. The size and depth of the planting hole should be such that the entire contents of the pot (the root system and a lump of soil) can fit in it. Water the seedlings 1–2 hours before planting; in this case, the plants can be very quickly removed from the container and planted in a hole that needs to be covered with soil. Planted plants need good watering.
Reproduction methods
Seedlings after picking
There are several proven ways to grow a night flower. The simplest and most common is growing from seeds or tubers.
Mirabilis seeds remain viable for two to three years after collection.
Sowing of seedlings begins in early spring. With this method, seedlings can be planted in a permanent place after the threat of spring frosts has disappeared.
The second method is cuttings. Not the most popular, but quite a working method. To do this, woody shoots are cut off from the mother bush, powdered with a growth stimulant and rooted in a glass of water or soil. After the roots appear, the seedlings are transferred to open ground or a permanent pot.
Mirabilis tap root
The third method is used very rarely. An adult plant is dug up, divided into equal parts and planted in new places. The resulting parts should have a formed root system and a fairly lush green mass.
Caring for mirabilis in the garden
When grown in the garden, the night beauty is distinguished by its undemanding nature, so it is relatively easy to care for. In order for the plant to bloom on time, it needs abundant watering, which is carried out from time to time. During a long dry period, such flowers need to be watered 1 to 3 times every 7 days. In rainy summers, most likely you will not water your mirabilis at all. When the plant is watered or it rains, it is necessary to loosen the surface of the soil and at the same time carry out weeding.
During the summer, the night beauty needs to be fed 2 or 3 times. The first time it is fed at the very beginning of the growing season, the second time in mid-summer, and the third time in the last days of summer. It is recommended to feed Mirabilis with compost and humus, but it is better not to introduce fresh organic matter into the soil. Complex mineral fertilizers are also used for fertilizing. Please note that during the second and third fertilizing, a minimal amount of nitrogen is used.
Pests and diseases
This flower is highly resistant to diseases and pests. But at the same time, if water systematically stagnates in the soil, the plant may develop root rot. The infected bush should be dug up and burned, and the area where it grew should be spilled with a solution of a fungicide, for example, Fundazol. For prevention purposes, the watering regime should be reviewed.
In rare cases, the night beauty may develop rust or one of the spots. Such fungal diseases can be gotten rid of using fungicide solutions, but before you start treating the affected specimen, remove the infected flowers and foliage.
After flowering
If you wish, in the autumn you can dig up the black tubers of the night beauty, which are similar in appearance to carrots and cut off their shoots at a height of 10 centimeters. When the stems dry out, they will fall off on their own. Wrap the tubers in thick paper sheets, but they will be better stored covered with sand. They are stored in a place where the air temperature is kept between 3–7 degrees. In spring, such tubers will need to be planted in well-warmed soil, or you can germinate them in flower pots, placing them on the window, and after it becomes warm outside, the flowers are transplanted into open soil.
Mirabilis, roots of flowers for storage. (Mirabilis jalapa).
How to collect seeds
When collecting Mirabilis seeds, the main attention should be paid to the purity of the variety. If different varieties grow nearby, cross-pollination of plants is possible. Especially when hybrids are grown. Such seeds will not convey the characteristics of the variety.
The procedure for collecting mirabilis seeds is very simple. The inflorescences are tied with a piece of gauze.
Important! The binding should not be tight so as not to squeeze the branches.
When the mirabilis seeds fall, you need to dry them and sort them. This is necessary to separate empty boxes. Seed sorting can be easily done using a weak stream of air, for example, from a hairdryer. Empty boxes will fly away, but suitable ones will remain on paper.
It is recommended to store Mirabilis seeds in a cool, dry place, wrapped in paper packaging.
Important! Do not place Mirabilis seeds where there are temperature fluctuations or condensation.
Therefore, you should not store planting material in the refrigerator, on the balcony or kitchen.
Types and varieties of mirabilis with photos and names
As mentioned above, gardeners cultivate mainly 1 type of mirabilis - jalapa, or night beauty, or mirabilis laxative. This species was described in detail at the beginning of the article. The most popular varieties of night beauty:
- Iolanta . The shape of the half-meter bush is round. Powerful and thick knotty shoots in the upper part are highly branched. The funnel-shaped flowers are of medium size and rich in color; there are stripes on the surface of the entire corolla. Flowering lasts from the last days of June until frost.
- Red lollipop . A large bush reaches a height of 0.9 m. Smooth thick shoots, branching in the upper part, are painted pale green. The oval-oblong simple leaf blades are wavy along the edge. The diameter of the funnel-shaped deep red flowers is about 6 centimeters.
- Elvira . The fluffy bush is of medium size. Branched smooth shoots are very strong. The oblong leaf blades with a pointed tip are dark green. The diameter of the richly colored flowers is 3.5 cm.
- T Time Red . The size of the plants is average. Knobby, smooth shoots in the upper part are highly branched. The dark green leaf blades have an oblong-oval shape. The flowers are medium-sized and bright pink.
- T Time Fomyula Miksche . The shape of the bush is spherical, it reaches a height of 0.7–0.9 m. Simple leaf plates with pointed tips have an oblong shape. The branched, smooth shoots are bare at the bottom. This variety series has funnel-shaped smooth flowers with a wavy edge, their color is variegated, and they reach 2.5 cm in diameter.
Mirabilis multiflorum is also cultivated. This perennial herbaceous plant reaches a height of 0.8 m. The erect shoots are bare. The smooth leaf blades have an ovoid-elongated shape. Flowering begins in May, with the formation of axillary inflorescences, which include from 2 to 6 tubular purple flowers, which are located in one bell-shaped cover. The diameter of the flowers is 4–6 centimeters.
Mirabilis rotundifolia is also grown. The height of the compact bush is about 0.3 m. The sticky oval leaf plates reach from 5 to 7 centimeters in length. In the general veil of the apical inflorescence, about 3 flowers of pink purple color are formed, the diameter of which does not exceed 10 mm. The flowers bloom in the evening and close at dawn.
