Choosing beautiful, easy-care, cold- and heat-tolerant flowers for summer: a six-month blooming period, growable in both north and south

Introduction

Green plants and potted flowers are essential decorative touches for home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it beautifies your living space and lifts your mood. "Flower Sound Potted Plant Diary, Issue 1178" introduces you to a flower suitable for growing in summer.

Today's star

Summer weather is hot, and many plants enter a dormant mode to get through the tough summer, such as succulents, rose begonias, and fuchsias, looking poor and becoming harder to care for, so there are not many flowers to choose from for summer growing. The flower introduced today is just the opposite: it does not fear high heat and scorching summer, and the hotter the weather, the more beautiful its blooms, and it is easy to grow as well. Let's take a look.

China aster

This flower is called China aster (Callistephus chinensis), a herbaceous plant in the Asteraceae family, about 30-100 cm tall, native to East Asia. In China it is widely distributed from Yunnan and Sichuan in the southwest to Liaoning and Jilin in the northeast. It has many varieties and diverse flower forms: some look like chrysanthemums, some like peonies, and some like dahlias, with rich colors including pale white, pale red, and blue-purple, giving it high ornamental value. Many European countries have introduced it for ornamental display.

A six-month blooming period

Traditional chrysanthemums generally bloom only around the Chongyang Festival in autumn. Horticultural varieties of the China aster have broken through this limitation: this flower's blooming period can last from May all the way into autumn, as long as half a year, a very long ornamental period. It is an ornamental plant highly valued by the horticultural circles at home and abroad, mainly used for potted cultivation and garden viewing, and has become one of the important potted flowers.

Easy to cultivate

The China aster is a shallow-rooted plant and is not particular about soil; ordinary soil can grow it, and cultivation is very easy. It prefers fertile sandy soil. During growth, be sure to give it enough sunlight; insufficient light will lead to leggy growth or failure to bloom. It is not tolerant of waterlogging, so watering should follow the rule of "dry then wet, don't water if not dry." It is very good at tolerating both cold and heat, and can be cultivated in both southern and northern regions of China.

Worth having

Summer is not a good season for growing flowers. Besides pothos and spider plants, the China aster is also a very good choice, with features such as rich flower colors, a long blooming period, and good ornamental effect. It is a high-quality plant for greening and beautifying micro-spaces such as balconies and roof gardens.