Plant delphinium (DELPHINIUM) belongs to the Buttercup family. It is often called larkspur or spur because of the small spur in the flower bowl.
According to an ancient Greek legend, a young sculptor sculpted his deceased beloved from stone and breathed life into her. The angry gods turned the young man into a
dolphin, and when the girl mourned her lost love, sitting on the seashore, a dolphin swam up to her and laid a beautiful flower at her feet. It was he who was named after the deceased sculptor.
On this page you can familiarize yourself with the description of the delphinium, find out about the varieties and types of this plant, and also see photos of these beautiful perennial flowers that came into culture from mountain meadows.
Types and varieties of perennial delphinium (with photo)
In total, about 350 species of delphinium are known – these can be both tall and low plants with a rosette of basal leaves, usually rounded, often
deeply dissected. In summer, stems appear, bearing the apical inflorescence in the form of a loose or dense brush, composed of numerous flowers of a wide variety of colors.
Pay attention to the photo: Delphinium flowers have a small spur in the middle of the bowl.
The most often grown varieties of the cultivated delphinium (D. x cultorum) – under this name all forms of hybrid origin are combined.
In the international classification, the following delphinium groups are distinguished:
1. Group Elatum (elatum Gruppe) , participated in the creation of varieties of views d. High (D. The elatum) .
As you can see in the photo, these are varieties with a height of 150-180 cm with dense blue-blue flowers (“Ariel”, “Malvine”, “Persival”, etc.).
2. Group Belladonna (Belladonna Gruppe) – hybrids of large-flowered delphinium (D. grandiflora) and D. cheilanthum, differ in lower (80-120 cm) bushes with loose inflorescences (Casa Blanca, Capri, “Lamartine”, “Piccolo” and others.
3. The Pacific Gruppe group is represented by tall (140-160 cm) bushes with dense large inflorescences, often with double flowers (Astolat, Black Knight, Blue Bird, Galahad, King Arthur and etc.).
4. Group Marfinsky hybrids – the work of the breeder N.I. Malyutin from the Moscow region.
Look at the photo of these perennial delphiniums – they all have a dense, unbreakable bush and a multi-flowered inflorescence of semi-double flowers of different colors (Lilac Spiral, Daughter of Winter, Blue Lace, Morpheus, Pink Sunset and others).
Delphinium care and reproduction
All varieties of perennial delphinium prefer sunny areas with neutral, fertile, well-drained soils, best of all loamy and sandy loam. When caring for delphiniums, it is necessary to apply complex fertilizers annually (in spring) and water the plants in a timely manner.
Delphinium is easily propagated by seeds (sowing in spring for seedlings and before winter), seedlings bloom quickly (1-2 years). But at the same time varietal
characteristics are not transferred , since delphinium varieties are easily re-pollinated. To preserve the variety, reproduction of the delphinium should be done by dividing the bush (in spring and late summer) or stem cuttings (in May and August).
An excellent plant for planting in a mixborder in the background, since the lower plants cover the unattractive lower part of the bush. Interesting planting between large bushes of peonies. Used in bouquets.
