Eringium, or snowdog, are thorny and almost leafless flowers that are often confused with thistles. Nevertheless, they grow up specially and even create flower arrangements in bouquets. How to grow a plant and care for him - find out next.
Appearance
There are more than 200 types of ergium. Depending on the type of plant, its height can vary from 60 to 150 cm, and the color can be from light green to rich blue. The main stem is bluish, straight, strong and has many branches at the top.
Leaves a bit, they are all serrated and whole. The main ones are bottom ones, assembled in sockets. The inflorescences are small, like spines. Umbrella-shaped, egg-shaped. Under them - up to seven narrow-lanceolate toothed leaves. The fruit of the plant is covered with scales.
Using
Given the possibilities of using the eryngium, it happens:
- honey;
- medicinal;
- decorative.
It is planted to complement garden compositions, wild plants are being broken for bouquets.
For medical purposes, using the following functions of the plant:
- diuretic;
- antispasmodic;
- sweatshop.
Medicinal drugs from mordovnik, juniper, stonecrop, milkweed, swimsuit, goldenrod, lovage, safflower, chervil also have a diuretic effect.
Infusions on the grass help to get rid of cough, improve sexual function. Also, the therapeutic drink helps with pains in the stomach, heart, teeth, back.
In landscape design
The eryngium is often called a graceful thorn, because it does not spoil the general look of the garden, but complements it. All thanks to its little cosmic appearance. A soft blue flower will fit into a group planting - it grows normally in the company of plants and creates a background for them. 
Your garden will also be beautifully decorated with perennials such as trillium, garden geranium, carpenterium, alpine aster, atsidanthera, agapanthus, sanguinarium, small-scale stone and penstemon.
It is better to plant it next to large flowers (for example, lilies, echinacea), then it will shade them. In compositions with small flowers, it will also look advantageous, will give the overall picture volume.
To create bouquets
This flower will fit well in winter and dry bouquets. And all due to the fact that after cutting it for many years it can keep its appearance. The small almond bag is complemented by small wedding bouquets, Christmas wreaths, it is used as a separate composition.
In a bouquet with a lily or a tulip, blue-headed will play on the contrast of the textures of colors. He also well set off white and pink plants. 
Where to plant
Choose for planting open areas where there is a lot of light. The plant is resistant to heat, so the scorching summer sun is not afraid of him, but it also perceives partial penumbra normally. Land should be well drained. Suitable sandy and sandy soil.
Important! If before planting we add an alkaline component (ash or lime) to the soil, the color of the plant will be richer and brighter.
Sowing seeds in open ground before winter
Sowing is the most effective way to reproduce the grasshead. The flower can multiply and self-sowing, but such shoots are rare. It is necessary to collect seeds in the first months of autumn, and then they are sown in open ground. Within a month you can see the shoots.
The area on which seedlings are planted, or seeds are sown, must be loosened and hydrated the day before planting. Sowing places for the winter can be covered with an oilcloth so that the seedlings appear earlier and do not die. 
How to care
The eryngium does not need watering, it has a high drought resistance and does not particularly like moisture. Even a slight increase in humidity can destroy the plant.
The soil around the flower should be loosened about once a month. You should also get rid of weeds as needed, although it is possible to mulch the soil, for example, peat. Stems that exceed the height of the meter must be tied to a support, otherwise they will bend.
Important! Fertilizing eringium also does not require, because it can grow even on the poorest soils, and the excess nutrients will go to the detriment of its flowering and resistance to frost.
It is not typical for a plant to hurt. These perennials tolerate the winter well - only certain varieties need additional shelter. 
But before wintering, the ground part is cut, leaving small hemp, then next year the eryngium will bloom even more abundantly.
Breeding
There are two breeding options: seed and bush dividing. Consider each one of them.
Sowing on seedlings
It is better to sow the seeds in February-March in containers, and plant beds on the beds in May. You will need to do this with a lump of earth, so as not to harm the roots. Between plants, you need to keep a distance of about 40 cm. Only young seedlings can be transplanted - the older it gets, the less chances of survival.
Dividing bush
This is an inefficient method of breeding plants. Carry out the procedure no earlier than in the middle of May, when warm weather has already established. A weak root system must be carefully dug out of the ground, otherwise the bush will disappear. 
The root is divided into several large parts, which are planted 40 cm apart from each other in the soil loosened in advance. If the plant has taken root, then shoots will appear in a month.
Popular species
Eringium can be perennial, and can live only a couple of years - it depends on the type of plant. Bushes bloom from June to August. In the landing used 6 of the most popular perpetrator.
Alpine
Originally from Eastern Europe. The plant is up to 70 cm tall. Its straight stalk becomes ribbed on top, has many branches, the leaves are ovoid at the root, prickly along the entire stem, flowers of blue-violet color are collected in the head. 
Leaf crown consists of prickly and dissected leaves that exceed the size of the inflorescence. It tolerates winter. It is used for decorative and therapeutic purposes.
The name "Eryngovillus" can also denote many other plants that have mostly blue flowers clustered in the head, such as a corbel, cornflower, mordovnik, gentian.
Amethyst
Grows in the south and in the center of Europe. Height - 70 cm. The straight stalk of the Eringium is rarely littered with prickly leathery leaves, lilac-blue flowers are collected in rounded heads. For winter, the plant needs shelter. It is used, as the previous form, for decorative and medical purposes. 
Did you know? It is believed that the eryngium can protect against the evil eye. Most often, our ancestors hung bunches of such grass above the entrance to the house.
Giant
Distributed in the Caucasus Mountains. It reaches a height of 150 cm. A biennial plant, needs support - without it, the stem will bend. At the bottom of the foliage is petiole, and from above - sessile, has flowering streaks during flowering. 
The flowers are light blue, collected in ovoid heads above the crown of thin leaves, there can be up to 100 inflorescences on one bush. By the winter cold, this type of eryngium is resistant. In addition to therapeutic and decorative use, it can also be used as a honey plant.
Such plants as sverbig oriental, phacelia, bruise, reseda, lythrum, sunflower, rapeseed, heather, snyat, oregano, medunits also belong to honey plants.
Flat sheet
Place of growth - the center and south of Europe. It grows to a height of 1 meter. The stem of the flower is straight, strongly branched from above, the leaves are round, leathery and hard. Blue-green flowers are small and multiple, inflorescences are placed on crowns with toothed leaves of awl-needle and lanceolate forms. 
The plant is resistant to low temperatures. Used in medicine.
Did you know? In the Middle Ages, it was believed that the candied roots of eringium increase sexual desire.
Seaside
Found in the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Baltic States. The height reaches 70 cm. The stems are thick, silver-gray in color, the leaves are heart-shaped and round, with jagged, sharp edges, spiny. The head with blue flowers is round, the flowers are small, pale, the leaf crown is wide, from whole leaves. Seaside eringium has good winter hardiness. Used for decorative purposes. 
Flat
Growth place - steppes and wastelands of Europe. The lowest of all described species is up to 50 cm. After drying, it looks like a tumbleweed.
Branched stem densely dotted with sharp leaves, they are pinnate and deeply dissected; inflorescences are white-green, small, gathered in an oval head; leaf crown exceeds the size of the heads, has up to 6 thin leaves. This eryngium has good winter hardiness. It is used for medicinal purposes.
Due to its interesting appearance, the eryngium is becoming more and more popular among landscape design fans and florists, and the possibility of using it for medicinal purposes makes it even more attractive.
Reviews
about the transplantation of the eryngium. This should be done very early in the spring when the ground is wet. By the same principle that you remove dandelions - gently dig under the dustpan or with a digging stick to remove weeds and pull them out by the roots. But I do not advise you to start an asylum planum, it is sown like a beast. I now only growing behind the fence. One, by the way, grew white.Roc
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I bought a flathead from the Search. This is probably quite specific? B-o Which grows in a meadow? But Alpine from store seeds after a double “warm-cold” shake finally changed its mind, the beaks of several seeds appeared. I really did not hope, more than a month, no tpru well.Helen
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I bought the root of Eryngium planum 'Jade Frost'. Got well acclimated, self-seeding does not happen. The second variety did not catch on.Lvovna
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