If you're looking for a wonderful, captivating flower in your garden, tigridia is the perfect choice. Planting and caring for it outdoors is incredibly simple, and any gardener can handle this exotic beauty. And how much joy will come from admiring this truly colorful and delightful flower! While tigridia blooms for only one day per flower, if you plant them in large groups, they'll delight you with their extraordinary beauty for almost a month.
This flower is bright, graceful, unusual, and colorful, resembling a wondrous butterfly. No one will take their eyes off it once they see such beauty in their flowerbed. Originally from America, this flower has taken root here and tolerates our summers well, though it needs to be dug up and preserved until spring, just like gladioli, for the winter. Tigridia can grow up to 70 cm tall with proper care, and each plant produces up to five flowers—one blooming each day. It thrives in sunny locations, tolerates heat well with good watering, requires minimal fertilizing, and is easy to care for.
Where to plant
As we've already mentioned, you should choose a sunny site, preferably sheltered from the wind. If this isn't possible, tie the plant to a support. Choose a site with loose soil, or, at a minimum, loosen it first, add sawdust or sand, and then plant this exotic beauty. If the soil is acidic, adding lime won't harm it.
How to plant from seeds
There are two ways to grow tigridia in your garden: from seeds or from bulbs. The seeds of this exotic plant germinate quite well, and even if you're not particularly experienced with growing flowers, you can handle the process. Buy a regular potting mix at the store, or make your own by adding a little sand and peat to turf soil. Fill pots (if you're starting seedlings indoors), scatter the seeds over the surface (it's best to space them 5 cm apart for best growth), cover with 2-3 mm of soil, moisten, and that's it. Just periodically moisten the soil gently, preferably with a spray bottle, to avoid washing away the seeds, as they're located close to the surface. Seedlings should appear in about three weeks.
If you do this in winter, you'll have bulbs by spring. Transplant them into the ground in May (the soil needs to be thoroughly warmed; this exotic beauty doesn't like cold and may die), and by fall you'll have an incredibly stunning display of flowers.
Tip: Be sure to add drainage to the pots where you will plant the seeds to prevent the plants from rotting.
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Planting with bulbs
If you stocked up on tigridia bulbs over the winter or bought them at the market in the spring, you need to do the following: Inspect the bulbs, remove any damaged areas, and if it's already May and the soil has warmed up to 20 degrees Celsius, it's time to plant. Choose a location according to the advice we gave above, dig holes about 15 cm apart to a depth of 12 cm, water them, and plant the bulbs.
If you want to get an earlier bloom, you can plant the bulbs indoors in pots at the end of March. Water them, and then, in May, simply transfer the rooted bulbs, along with a lump of soil, to avoid damaging the roots. This way, you'll get blooms much earlier. To avoid over-watering, try this: place pots with holes in the bottom and good drainage in a deep tray and add water. The plant will take as much as it needs, so just make sure there's enough water in the tray.
Top dressing
After planting the plant in the garden, it should be fed with nitrogen after 2-3 weeks, and once it blooms, add nitrophoska. A good rule of thumb is to use 30-40g of fertilizer per square meter of soil. If planting indoors, it should be fed after 2.5 weeks, then, when buds begin to form, use a complex fertilizer to help the flowers bloom.
Care
The flower is quite undemanding; just water it regularly, tie it up when needed, and trim off the faded flower stalks. Of course, for the winter, it should be dug up with the first frost and stored.
See also: When to sow petunias for seedlings in 2016 according to the lunar calendar .
How to store bulbs
While the plant is blooming, water it generously. Remove faded flowers after flowering. Reduce but continue watering after flowering to allow the bulbs to absorb nutrients from the soil. When the stems wilt, cut them off. When frost sets in, dig up the bulbs. Carefully remove the soil and spread them out on a windowsill to dry. After a month, carefully remove any remaining soil and any damaged or rotten parts, place them in clean paper, and refrigerate them for the winter.
If you live in a private house and have a basement, you can put the bulbs in boxes filled with sand. But if the basement isn't ventilated, it's better to put them in nets and hang them up to preserve them better. Take them out in the spring, and then follow the steps in the "How to Plant Bulbs" section.
Tigridia pests
The plant isn't problematic; the worst thing that can harm it is the cabbage moth. To protect our beauty, be sure to treat it with a special product against the larvae of this pest before planting.
Incidentally, you can easily grow this flower indoors in a pot on a windowsill, placing it in the sunniest spot. This way, you can have this beautiful, delicate wonder in both your garden and your home, delighting your eyes and warming your soul.
See also: Perennial phlox - planting and care, photos.