How many kinds of flowers does each of us know? Most likely a lot. These are roses, and chrysanthemums, and daisies, and peonies, and gladioli, and many, many others. However, there are those who not only delight with their unsurpassedness, but also surprise with their unusual appearance. For example, a lady's slipper is not to say that it is beautiful, but an unusually interesting and attractive plant. About him and the story.
Slipper large-flowered, or Venus slipper
The first species of this plant were found in northeastern India, China and Vietnam. After the flower came to Europe, and only then - to Russia. You can meet this interesting plant in Siberia and the Far East. The slipper belongs to the orchid family and is a perennial herbaceous plant. The genus of this plant has more than 30 thousand years. It is impossible to keep an accurate account of the varieties of the flower - this is due to the fact that some species are practicallycompletely destroyed for commercial purposes, while others suddenly reappear in the wild. It is not for nothing that the large-flowered slipper plant bears such a name - the shape of its flower is very similar to a shoe. In addition, the flowers have a bright, attractive color and a very pleasant aroma.
Types of shoe
There are a lot of species of this plant, but three main ones can be distinguished. The real lady's slipper is a plant with a horizontal rhizome, about 50 centimeters in height, leaves resembling an ellipse in shape, and an original flower. It starts blooming in July. The next type is the large-flowered slipper. It is widely used to create hybrids, as it has several natural variations. Its flowers are very large, a standard one can reach 10 centimeters in diameter. Their color is usually bright pink, but the shoes can also be white or red.
This variety blooms a little earlier than the first species - in May. Another species is the Venus slipper spotted. Its flower is truly beautiful - white or pink, it is covered with dark purple spots. This is the rarest large-flowered slipper. The Red Book of the Russian Federation has taken this endangered species under protection.
What are the conditions for growing a slipper?
Since there are actually a lot of varieties of the slipper, there are no uniform conditions for growing this flower. It is only indispensable that they should be as close as possibleto natural growing conditions. Among the cypripediums there are plants adapted to different areas of growth - these are orchids that grow on trees, and plants that are more at ease on stones and rocks, there are also those that prefer simple humus. Therefore, it is very important to know what kind of what is more suitable. The soil in which the shoe is planned to be planted must certainly be moderately alkaline, moist and with good air filtration. These flowers love both sunlight and shady places.
But there is another side that unites different subspecies of the slipper - almost all of them are frost-resistant.
Care
The large-flowered slipper does not require special care - the plant is considered not whimsical at all. All that is required is regular, moderate watering. It is important to know that in no case should you fill the soil. Just as it is impossible to overdry it - the plant in these cases will certainly die. If the air is very dry, it is better to periodically spray the shoe or try to create conditions that will allow you to maintain moderate humidity. When the slipper blooms, it is worth feeding it. The best complementary foods in this case will be mullein infusion. But you can’t overdo it with mineral fertilizers - they contribute to the formation of s alts in the soil, which will also destroy the flower. So, we have partially examined the large-flowered slipper - description, types, care.
What else you need to know aboutthis plant?
How does the slipper reproduce?
The lady's slipper reproduces in two ways - with the help of seeds and vegetatively. No matter how strange it may sound, but the seed propagation of a plant is quite difficult. Seeds can sprout only under certain conditions, otherwise they will simply dry out without giving a single shoot. Even if it was possible to germinate a microscopic slipper seed, the first flowers on it will appear no earlier than 8-10 years from the date of sowing. Therefore, such germination is practiced only by biologists who are engaged in breeding processes. Gardeners prefer to plant a flower by dividing the rhizome, the best time for this is August-October.
How to properly plant a slipper from the root
Orchid (large-flowered slipper) is planted from the root as follows. Part of the rhizome should have several daughter buds on it. The root is dug into a well loosened substrate to a depth of no more than 10 centimeters. After that, the substrate is covered with a thin layer of ordinary soil. Important - the substrate layer above the daughter buds should not be more than 2 centimeters. It cannot be trampled, tamped, or even simply crushed, otherwise the sprouts simply will not break through. So the large-flowered slipper will spend the whole winter, and in the spring it will start new shoots. And yet - for the period of wintering, it is better to warm the planted flower additionally - it can be dry leaves poured on top or ordinary foam plastic (not in pieces, but finely crushed).
Useful properties
We learned what a large-flowered slipper is. The description of the plant, care and planting were considered. However, there are other interesting facts that you need to know about the shoe. The plant contains many useful substances, so the infusions of the slipper, prepared according to old recipes, are widely used for insomnia, children's fright, mental illness, epilepsy, headaches, and incontinence. Preparing the infusion is quite easy - a teaspoon of dry grass is poured into 200 mm of boiling water, defended for two hours and passed through a sieve. They drink with headaches, bleeding, hernias, as a diuretic. But with depression and mental disorders, you can prepare another decoction - 10 grams of dry grass per 250 mm of water. All this is heated on a steam bath for 20 minutes. Chilled broth is best stored in the refrigerator.
For children, prepare your own decoction - half a teaspoon of dry grass is poured with one glass of boiling water, insisted for at least 8 hours, carefully filtered. The child is allowed to drink no more than 1/3 cup, always before meals - about 20 minutes. If the decoction is taken by a person as a course of treatment, then they drink it as follows. 20 days daily, then give a break of 10 days. The most remarkable thing about taking a folk remedy is the complete absence of contraindications. A decoction of the large-flowered slipper will only benefit, without bringing absolutely no harm.
