Planting and caring for clover, a description of the 25 best varieties and species

Clover is found everywhere on the planet. It does not grow only in Antarctica. The crop is better known as fodder. But there are some types of decorative clover. Planting clover and easy maintenance will allow you to equip the site, the area around the house, breaking a green lawn in a classic style. A clearing of tens of thousands of emerald green leaves and flower balls looks elegant and natural.

Description

Plant from the legume family: annual and perennial:

1. Clover grows up to half a meter. Ball flowers are white, red, with many shades.
2. Leaves of three plates, extremely rare 4. No wonder the translation from Latin means trefoil (trifolium). A popular tradition says that finding a four-leaf clover brings happiness. When it's dark, the leaves "sleep", stretch upward, lining up along. With the onset of dawn, they blossom.
3. The roots are strong, sometimes stiff.
4. Clover is pollinated by bees and bumblebees. After flowering, a pod is formed containing no more than two seeds (yellow or purple).
5. The special bacteria that live on the roots of clover feed the earth with useful minerals, such as nitrogen.

Previously, the Russian people called the plant porridge. And for good reason. There was so much nectar in the flowers that it ran down the stem. Clover is one of the most valuable forage crops for livestock. Does not rot in hay, grows quickly after mowing.

The plant grows slowly at first. Fully develops by the age of two.

Beneficial features

The shamrock is endowed with medicinal properties, which is why it is widely used in traditional medicine:

• as a diuretic;
• anti-inflammatory;
• choleretic;
• antiseptic;
• expectorant;
• hemostatic.

Many other diseases were treated with the plant: decoctions, tinctures, lotions. Clover lotions help with wounds, burns, skin diseases.

Decoctions, tinctures treat inflammation in the body, cleanse the blood, relieve swelling, headache, remove unnecessary fluid.

Delicious and medicinal clover honey. It is fragrant with a pleasant taste.Thrifty housewives season the soup with seasoning of dried flowers, cut the stems and leaves into vegetable salads, since they are rich in essential oils and vitamins.

Types and varieties

There are three hundred known types of clover. More than 75 varieties grow in the area of ​​the former Soviet Union. In Russia, the plant is grown as a fodder crop for the needs of animal husbandry and agriculture. After threshing the seeds, the greens remained - an excellent fertilizer.

In addition to fodder clover, exotic species are planted for crop production needs. Red (meadow) clover and white (creeping) clover are the most common plant varieties. They differ only in color.

Lugovoy (red)

Clover is biennial or perennial, the height of which is from 20 to 60 cm. On the spreading shoots, fragile three-lamellar leaves, spotty white. Flowering occurs in late spring, early summer. Globular inflorescences are red, white, variegated.

There is no less protein in clover than in alfalfa, so meadow clover is no less nutritious. From it, feed is prepared for animals.

Winter and spring clover have been cultivated in Russia for more than two hundred years. The most popular Russian varieties:

• Vyatsky;
• Moscow;
• Yaroslavsky;
• Chernihiv;
• Pskov;
• Central Russian.

Meadow clover is found on forest edges, lawns, and meadows.

Creeping (white)

Perennial herbaceous half-meter plant. Creeping shoots take root in internodes. The leaves of three petioled plates are elliptical, whitish at the base. It blooms with small flowers: white, pink, light green.

Clover blooms in May, flowering duration - before frost. The variety is long-lived (at least 10 years) compared to other species. Resilient, able to quickly recover from trampling. In terms of calorie content, it is not inferior to other green food. A wonderful honey plant.

To create a natural green lawn, gardeners often choose creeping clover..

Breeders have discovered attractive new types of shamrocks that are suitable for creating decorative lawns.

Dark dancer

The literal translation is "The Dark Dancer". Exotic look. Bright, smart. The plant is not taller than 25 cm. White flowers among purple leaves, edged with greenery. Will take its rightful place in a flower bed, in a flowerpot.

The species is unpretentious, winter-hardy. Grows in sunny and shaded areas. He is not cut.

Dragon's blood

Low plant, below half a meter. "Dragon's Blood" is a literal translation of the name. On creeping stems, three-lobed leaves, dark green at the base. Cherry-colored streaks run in the center. The plant is beautiful. Decorate a lawn, flower bed, flowerpot. The clover quickly spreads over the site.

Blooms in summer with white flowers. The variety is undemanding to the soil. Frost resistant. Grown to create landscape compositions.

Green ice

The plant has special leaves: one half is light, almost white, the other is emerald green. The flowers are white. Nice decorative look. Unpretentious to growing and care.

Rivendell

The plant is low, with small leaves, viable. No haircuts required. Grown to decorate lawns. Demanding on fertile soil, grows well in peat bogs. It grows in shaded areas for a long time, for 10 years or more. The species is drought-resistant.

Klondike

Danish variety of upright trefoil with large leaves, which is why it is planted with large grasses. The species is early, viable, winters well. It often grows interspersed with other types of grass.

Silvester

The plant is very hardy. Early variety. Grown with tall grasses for livestock feed. It grows due to numerous shoots.

Pipolina

Due to its low growth (no more than 5 cm), the grass is called microclover. It turns green all year round. Grows back quickly after mowing. Viable, drought-resistant. Even in extreme heat, the lawn sown with microclover looks fresh. After low mowing, due to the dense structure of the rhizomes, the voids quickly overgrow.

Ronny

A low-growing type of white creeping clover with small leaves. It perfectly tolerates the harsh winter climate. Disease resistant. They are grown both for landscape design and for livestock feed.

Take a look also

Types and varieties of garden yucca, planting and care in the open field, how to cover for the winter

Volat

The variety was bred by Belarusian breeders. The plant is vigorous, the leaves are large, the stems are soft, juicy. Raised for livestock feed. Grows back quickly after mowing.

Dukhmyany

Large herb with medium sized leaves. The variety was created by breeders from Belarus in order to grow fodder for livestock.

Sorcerer

The variety is medium-sized. High-calorie for animals. Grown on pastures of grazing animals. It grows quickly after mowing, which is why clover is harvested for the winter for livestock.

Nanook

Grown as lawn grass. The plant is no higher than 15 cm. It looks like an elegant thick carpet with white and purple flowers. The variety is viable, undemanding to soil.

Swollen

Perennial herb 25 cm high. Pink spherical flowers. Stipules are elongated, ovate-lanceolate. Grows in the steppe, in the foothills. The leaves are attached to the stem with petioles.

Alpine

A half-meter plant with long roots deep in the ground. The stipules of the Alpine shrub clover are large. The leaf consists of three leaves. The flowers are small, pink-purple. Clover blooms in the middle of summer. Grows in dry, fertile soil.

Plowed

The popular name of the variety is "cats". The bush is fluffy-hairy. A plant with a straight, thin stem. The leaves are trifoliate, elongated, with small teeth. Pale pink flowers are oblong or round. Blooms in mid-July. Grows on sandy soils.

Cup-shaped

A half-meter plant, often found. Leaves of three elliptical petals sit on long petioles. The heads of the pale pink inflorescences are located on the legs.

Multileaf

The herb is perennial. Flowering stems are located on the main root. The apical inflorescence looks like an umbrella. Lilac flowers are large. Blooms in mid-summer.

Mountain

The plant grows from 20 to 60 cm. It has a developed main root. Stipules are ovate, leathery. Elliptical leaves are located on petioles. There are usually two flowers on the stem. Clover grows in the mountains. In Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia and other countries. The plant is used in the treatment of diseases.

Burdock

The grass is undersized, about 40 cm. The plant is branched. Petioles with coarse hairs. Lower stipules with pointed ends. Clover blooms in spring, in May.

Hybrid (pink)

The plant is perennial. It grows in the European part, Asia, in the north of Africa. The grass is high, the stems are at least 80 cm. The petioles have trifoliate leaves. Inflorescences are white-pink spherical in shape. Used for livestock feed. The leaves sit firmly on the stalks, do not crumble when harvested for the winter, the hay is softer.

Four leaf

Plant with four-leafed leaves. There are several varieties of four-leaf clover.

Egyptian

The plant is called Alexandrian or Bersim. Height of stems not less than 75 cm. Elongated leathery stipules with sparse hairs. The petioles are longer on the upper leaves than on the lower ones. The flowers are pale yellow. The plant is characterized by early death of leaves. Each fruit contains one seed. It is used as green manure and livestock feed.

Golden

It is sometimes called rustling. The annual herb grows up to 40 cm long. Flowering continues all summer with amazing yellow flowers. Over time, they turn brown. A natural paint is made from the plant, used in treatment. Flowers are excellent honey plants.

Application

Due to its rich chemical composition and healing properties, clover is used in folk medicine, cosmetology, and cooking.

Healing properties

Clover honey is a powerful medicine against many diseases.

Prepare from flowers:

• infusions;
• medicinal tea;
• decoctions.

The flowers of the grass, the leaves contain:

• vitamins of the B-group, as well as E, C, K;
• minerals: potassium, phosphorus, selenium, calcium, iron;
• essential oils;
• phytoestrogens;
• flavonoids;
• salicylic and other organic acids.

Clover is an antiseptic, antiviral, diuretic, choleretic. Lowers blood sugar, cholesterol, calms the nervous system, fights fungus, cures female diseases, cleanses the blood, lymph, removes toxic substances from the body.

Clover honey

Bees extract nectar from the flowers of the plant. This is clover honey. It cannot be without admixtures of other herbs. Since it is impossible for bees to tell which plants to plant, where - they cannot.

Clover honey is light with an amber hue, floral aroma. If the nectar is harvested from red flowers, the product turns yellow-pink. Honey is sweet, not bitter. Fresh product is not liquid, but flows easily, over time (over several weeks) thickens.

It is used to treat tonsillitis, inflammation, cough, colds. Restores immunity, calms the nerves.Clover honey is especially useful for the female body, it is not for nothing that it is called ladies'. Helps maintain female youth and beauty.

Contraindications

There are restrictions on the use of clover preparations. It is forbidden to use in certain conditions:

• pregnant women;
• under reduced pressure;
• with rapid blood clotting;
• oncological diseases of female organs.

If a person has suffered a heart attack, stroke, do not treat drugs with clover.Before being treated with clover, you need to consult a doctor.

ethnoscience

In the field of traditional medicine, clover is widely used. Means made from the plant are used both for the treatment and prevention of diseases:

1. Tea brewed with clover improves immunity, relieves insomnia, relieves nervousness.
2. Clover honey treats colds. It is also used instead of sugar, since it is not as high in calories.
3. Flower tinctures help with high blood pressure, headaches. Tinctures are prepared both with water and with vodka.
4. Decoctions reduce sugar, cholesterol. Treat colds.
5. Clover ointments help with skin diseases, heal wounds and burns.

Fodder crop

Clover is high in protein and therefore nutritious. It contains all the necessary elements needed for winter feeding of cattle.

The varieties bred specifically for livestock feed are planted on pastures for grazing animals and for harvesting grass for the winter. Due to the nutritional value of clover, even in dry form, milk yield does not decrease in winter, animals do not get sick.

Cooking

Due to its beneficial properties and composition, the plant is added to culinary dishes. They make from clover:

• drinks, tea;
• dressing for the first hot dishes;
• salads;
• side dishes;
• cabbage soup;
• casseroles with vegetables.

Landscape design

Trefoil decorates the adjoining territories, garden plots, create landscape design: alpine hills, colorful rocky gardens (rockeries). The varieties of meadow clover are suitable for these purposes. Several species have been bred by breeders. Designers use many varieties of plants to translate ideas.

Take a look also

Description of the best varieties of perennial matthiola, growing from seeds

Lawn grass

Lawns are mainly decorated with creeping clover, a perennial with white flowers. They plant low-growing varieties, thick, unpretentious, which quickly rise after mowing, trampling. Clover lawns decorate the site, give an elegant, well-groomed look.

Growing

Under natural conditions, the shamrock grows without care, no one weeds, loosen, or feed it.But to grow a beautiful green lawn without human intervention will not work. Separate rules for planting clover still have to be taken into account.

Soil preparation

First, choose a place: sunny or shaded. Depending on the type of plant: some like a lot of sun, others - shade. They dig up the earth deeply, remove weeds, level the area for planting.

Sowing dates

Clover is planted both in spring and autumn. To sow 1m² area, a little more than three hundred seeds will be required. You can buy them at the store. You can prepare seed material yourself, manually.

In the spring

The plant is sown in late April, early May. It depends on the region and the average daily air temperature. The main thing is to wait for the soil to warm up. If you sow seeds in cold soil, they will not sprout, lie in the ground for a long time and rot. And if seedlings appear, they will be rare.

In autumn

When sowing in autumn, seeds germinate longer than in spring. It is necessary to calculate the sowing time so that young seedlings grow by at least 10 cm before the onset of frost.

Before winter

To improve the soil on the site, it is better to plant clover before winter. He will enrich the earth with nitrogen. Long roots go deep into the ground, making it easier for air and moisture to reach. For fertilization, the grass is mowed until the stems are coarse.

How to plant

To plant evenly, the seeds are mixed with sand in a large container (for example, a garden cart):

1. Scattered on the site.
2. Sprinkle on top with a thin (no more than 1 cm) layer of earth, turf.
3. Planting needs to be watered. But not from a hose with a strong pressure, but with a fine spray nozzle.
4. For the first 10 days after sowing, the area should be moist. After 2 weeks, young shoots will appear.

Weeding and loosening

If the area sown with a shamrock is small, then you can weed the plant by hand when there are a lot of weeds. In large areas, plant seeds are mixed with cereals. They will drive out all weeds. During the period of clover growth, cereals are mowed.

Watering

For the growth of the shamrock, lush flowering, watering is necessary. Water it no more than 1 time a week to keep the lawn looking fresh.

The plant does not like waterlogging of the soil, although it does not like a long drought either, with the exception of certain varieties.

If the gaps between trees, lawns, the plant is not irrigated with a shamrock, the rains are enough for it. It is convenient to equip drip irrigation, especially for a well-groomed lawn.

Top dressing

The grass does not need feeding. But it won't be harmful. When digging up the earth, organic matter (manure, peat, humus) can be added. If you don't like the way the shamrock blooms, you want a more lush, long-lasting flowering, the plant is fed with minerals: phosphorus, potassium. Ashes are suitable from folk remedies.

Diseases and pests

Many shamrock varieties need to be trimmed. Otherwise, the grass will thicken, snails and slugs will start in it due to high humidity. From thickening, the process of decay can begin, the occurrence of fungal infections. Preventive grass cutting will help to avoid troubles.

Neighbors

A good neighbor of the shamrock will be Timofeevka meadow. She does not oppress clover, so she will keep him good company. Meadow fescue will also live peacefully with shamrocks.

Aeration

Owners of shamrock lawns should be aerated 1-2 times per season to keep the lawn looking neat, tidy and fresh. The aerator loosens the soil, providing better access of air and moisture to the roots. He brushes the lawn grass, pulling out moss, weeds.

Lawn mowing

Some gardeners believe that an autumn haircut can be omitted, since fallen leaves will warm the shamrock in frosts and prevent it from freezing. Experienced gardeners say that the foliage must be cleaned, the lawn is cut:

1. If not trimmed, the stems that have died out under the snow will attract rodents and harmful insects.
2. New roots of young plants will not have time to prepare for the cold.

The grass is cut at least 15 days before frost. Leaves and debris are removed before clipping.

Lawn shelter

Covering or not covering the lawn depends on the climate in the region. If winters are severe, frosts are strong, then it is advisable to cover.

If the lawn is prepared for winter correctly, it is not afraid of the cold. Experienced gardeners share their experience:

1. The snow is not removed, the paths are cleared.
2. It is advisable not to walk on the lawn.
3. An ice crust sometimes forms due to thaws. It is broken to provide air access.

When you follow the advice of gardeners, the trefoil will not freeze.

Collection and storage

During the flowering period, the inflorescences are collected by hand or cut with a knife. Fold into baskets without pressing. Dried outdoors, in a shaded place. An electric dryer is used for drying, but the temperature should not exceed 75 ° C. The grass must not be allowed to dry out, otherwise it will not be curative. Flowers are stored for no more than two years. The roots of the plant are dried in the same way.

Answers on questions

Often there is a question about when to aerate the lawn. Gardeners say that it is desirable to hold it in late spring. After the first shoots, you will see what the lawn looks like: voids and thickening. The place where aeration is needed will immediately become noticeable.

One of the most common questions: "What kind of clover to sow on the lawn?"

Gardeners are advised to choose a white creeping shamrock. He has many species of undersized, viable. There are even those who do not cut their hair.

Reviews

Gardeners, who have shamrock lawns, say that "porridge" is better than special lawn grass, which is not cheap and requires a lot of maintenance.

Alexander: “The lawn with white creeping clover is 'unkillable'. You can ride on it in a car, you don't have to mow. "

Some gardeners like the clover to get rid of the dandelions. But at the same time they warn that one must walk barefoot on the lawn carefully, since the shamrock attracts bees like a magnet.

And if a leaf with four plates comes across, happiness and good luck await.