Bacopa in recent seasons breaks all records for popularity among ampel colors. This plant is interesting in that it is rarely grown in open ground, mainly in pots. Bacopa in a flower pot with its lace foliage and a waterfall of small flowers is so good that inevitably becomes a star of a balcony flower garden, and a flower bed or rock garden in the garden.
Bacopa ampelous: landing
Since bacopa seedlings are quite expensive (the price for a bush, as a rule, exceeds 50 rubles *), the issue of how many seeds need to be bought and how much can be planted is relevant for gardeners. It follows from the fact that in one cache-pot with a volume of 5 l, two, at most three plants are planted. This flower grows as if in bunches, so even two bushes in a pot with good care grow so much that by the end of summer you can get a cloud of foliage dotted with small flowers.
Bacopa in bloom
Despite the fact that this flower is often planted in flowerpots, bacopa looks spectacular in hanging baskets and flower pots. When planting a plant in this way, it is important to make sure that the container retains moisture well in the soil, and also stands in a well-lit place.
For your information! In the shade, the flower tends to stretch out and the shoots become less leafy.
Bacopa Compositions
The tender green bacopa with a scattering of small flowers is good in itself, but enthusiastic gardeners in landscape design use the composition, using it as a background plant. It is interestingly combined with dichondra, nasturtium, pelargonium and, of course, petunia. Almost any potted plant only benefits from such a neighborhood.
Note! Bacopa practically does not meet bright colors. Known varieties have a white or blue color. Although in recent years hybrids with a pink-purple color of a flower have begun to occur. The compositions of a white bacopa with bright pelargoniums or terry petunias of red or yellow shades will look incredibly beautiful.
Colorful bacopa plants in one pot
When planting bacopa in one cache-pot with petunia, it is necessary to pay attention to the selection of varieties. It is better if they are undersized varieties, minutunia, bush varieties of petunias. Cascading or ampelous, tall with long shoots will inevitably come into competition with bacopa and will most likely win in the struggle for light and moisture. Such a combination is possible only if the conditions for development are guaranteed to be created for both plants. For example, when planting in a long deep flowerpot in rows: in the background are tall or large-flowered petunias, and in front of them is a row of bacopa, which will serve as a frame for the flowerbed.
Bacopa: planting in a cache-pot, how much is needed
When planting bacopa in a flowerpot with other flowers, in no case should thicken the planting. Many are interested in how many plants will develop normally in combination with petunia? 2-3 bushes should be planted, while the bacop should be placed around the perimeter of the pots, and the bright bush of petunias should be placed in the center.
Bacopa combined with terry petunia
Successful bakopa options in landscaping
When decorating the garden, there are a lot of options for planting bacopas. You can try to grow it as a groundcover by giving it a small lawn next to roses or chrysanthemums. Interesting solutions when this flower is used to decorate arches, terraces, create vertical flowering walls.
Note! Bacopa looks charming, being planted in wicker baskets mounted directly on the lawn. It seems that someone forgot a basket of flowers on the grass.
You can use a flowerpot with this plant to design a pond or fountain. Bacopa loves high humidity, so if she is provided with enough light and nutrition, she will turn an ordinary pond into a beautiful romantic corner.
Features of care for ampelous bacope
But, like any ampelous plant, even planted in a suitable place, the bacopa needs the formation of a bush that will allow it to maintain its curly appearance. Carrying out such pruning is simple: you need to shorten the shoots that grow more than 50-60 cm. The plant tolerates this procedure well and responds by growing additional shoots from the center of the bush. When pruning, you must try to maintain symmetry, giving the plant a ball shape.
Is Bacopa an annual or perennial plant? On a bag of seeds, this flower is labeled as an annual, but not so simple. Everything will depend on what kind of wintering conditions it provides. Bacopa in the ground is unlikely to survive the winter, so it can be grown as an annual plant. If it grows in a pot, then when the temperature drops to 5 ° C, it needs to be moved to a cool room, then there will be a chance to keep the flower until the new season and grow as a perennial.
There are different opinions regarding the cultivation of bacopa, the care of it and the reproduction. Many experienced flower growers believe that growing this flower is no more difficult than the same petunia, which means that even novice lovers will cope with it. But for the bacopa to look chic, you must strictly adhere to the rules of agricultural technology.
The initial cultivation of bacopa from seeds is produced through seedlings. There are few seeds in the package (maybe 5 pcs.) And almost always they are released in the form of dragees. But you need to know that each dragee contains not one, but several microscopic seeds, which means that the bacopa grows with a bush of several stems.
Note! All coated seeds cannot tolerate even the slightest drying out during germination. If they were moistened and then dried, then the dragee coating turns into a solid substance, which the sprouts cannot penetrate, which means that the seeds simply will not sprout.
Sowing seeds of bacopa for seedlings is performed superficially in the finished peat substrate. The optimal time for this is the end of March - the beginning of April, when there is already a rather long daylight hours. If you sow this flower earlier, you need lighting. Peat tablets can also be used, but they dry out very quickly, which, as mentioned above, is detrimental to plants. Therefore, shallow planting containers are suitable for seed germination, which are 2/3 filled with peat soil. The substrate is well moisturized, spread dragees with seeds, sprayed on top with warm water and cover with a transparent film or glass.
For seed germination, constant humidity and a temperature of at least 22-25 ° C are required. Keep container better in the light. It will take 2-3 weeks to wait for the sprouts. After germination, the glass should not be removed immediately, so as not to disturb the moist atmosphere inside the container. You can begin to regularly air the seedlings at this time by raising the glass.
Note! Gradually, within a week or two, the bacopa is accustomed to less humid room air and the glass is removed.
When the seedlings will already have two real leaves, it's time to dive.
Spiked Bacopa Seedlings
Important! In no case, when picking, you should not separate plants that grow in a bunch. This will damage the microscopic roots of young seedlings and their death. Bacopa is dived into separate cups, while in the peat soil you can add garden soil and literally a teaspoon of heather substrate. This will create the acidic environment necessary for the plant.
In the future, bacopa, care and cultivation in the garden of this flower will not cause trouble. If there is enough moisture and light, it will quickly grow. She can go to open air not earlier than the danger of return frosts passes. This plant is tropical, therefore the basis of care for ampelous bacopa is to provide it with heat and constant humidity. For the ideal development of the plant, about 2 liters of soil for each are required. Therefore, when transplanting a bacopa into a pot, one should proceed from the fact that a maximum of two plants can be planted in three-liter plates, and then it will be cramped.
This beauty is demanding for watering, therefore, if you water it once a week in hot weather, it will not be possible to achieve abundant flowering. You should carefully approach the choice of material for the pots. For example, cheap coconut baskets hold moisture very poorly, it passes literally through, so it’s better to make an inner liner that can hold water.
As for top dressing, bacopa is demanding on the presence of trace elements; it is better to feed it with complex mineral fertilizer with a complete set of trace elements for flowering plants.
Note! As a rule, such fertilizers are produced in a water-soluble form. Recommended application frequency is once every 1-2 weeks.
Bacopa breeding is good because it retains curly green foliage during the summer. Flowering occurs in waves: a few days ago the flower was covered with lace foam of flowers, today their number is much smaller, and after a week or two you can again admire the abundant flowering. Already for this, it should be chosen for growing at home in a cache-pot or garden.
