Content
- The silver leaf - hardy in the garden?
- Various plants with the name Silberblatt
- Misunderstandings about the life and hardiness of the silver leaf
- Tips for the successful culture of the silver leaf
- Tips
The silver leaf do not mind minus degrees
The silver leaf - hardy in the garden?
The one-year silver leaf (Lunaria annua) is mainly known for its eye-catching seeds, which due to their parchment-like structure are also often cut for decoration purposes and brought into the house. On the other hand, the living plants do not need to be brought into the house, as they can cope well with winter temperatures.
Various plants with the name Silberblatt
Occasionally hobby gardeners also come across the so-called Weißfilzige Greiskraut, which is marketed under the Latin names Jacobaea maritima and Senecio bicolor in specialist shops. This plant is not frost hardy and can be wintered in Europe only in the house. However, the cost of hibernation is only partially worthwhile for Greiskraut. Unproblematically frost hardy, however, is the annual silver leaf of the genus Lunaria (Lunaria annua), after all, it also occurs in nature in many places without human intervention.
Misunderstandings about the life and hardiness of the silver leaf
In the case of Lunaria annua, there are three factors that contribute to the uncertainty of many gardeners over the life and frost resistance of this plant:
The so-called one-year silver leaf is actually not one year old, but two years old. Therefore, you will not be able to look forward to flowers and seed buns for the second year after sowing the seeds. After flowering, the plant dies by itself, which some gardeners mistakenly interpret as a lack of winter hardiness. Some specimens of the silver leaf are also the weeding of weeds in the bed to the sacrifice, because the plants in the first year look inconspicuous and are then sometimes pulled out with the "spring cleaning".
Tips for the successful culture of the silver leaf
To keep your silver leaf in the garden well through the winter, you should not cover it with mulch or leaves. Otherwise you could damage the hardy plants by mold and waterlogging. Only in very dry winters with cold frosts should be poured moderately, so that the plants do not dry out. Every year, take care of the propagation of the silver leaf by sowing the seeds in suitable locations, so as to regularly obtain flowers and seeds of the biennial plant.
Tips
So that the poisonous seeds of the Lunaria annua, which can even be used in foods with their leaves, can not accidentally cause damage, they should be kept out of reach in a clearly labeled children's screw-cap. Special caution applies also to the decoration with the seeds in the house, if children or pets are present.