Healing and effective Rhodiola rosea - grow in the garden

Send

It is no coincidence that the legendary Rhodiola rosea earned its nickname Siberian ginseng. This is one of the most valuable medicinal plants with a wide range of properties, which are actively used by both official and traditional medicine. Rhodiola rosea is considered a species so valuable and rare that it is almost not perceived as a garden culture. And completely in vain. It is enough to choose the right conditions and do not forget about regular care.

Plant description

Rhodiola rosea (Rhodiola rosea) - old synonym name stonecrop pink (Sedum rosea) But no matter how officially named Rhodiola rosea, her legendary old name is still the most common. The popular nickname "golden root" is given to the plant for a special "metal" bark on the roots. The name "pink root" the plant received not for color, but for the rose-like aroma of freshly broken rhizome. In addition, stonecrop pink is popularly known as Tibetan or Siberian ginseng.

Rhodiola rosea is a grassy succulent with powerful, thick roots - shortened, bearing dozens of renewal buds, from which succulent shoots develop. The roots are covered with a special, “mother-of-pearl”, bronze-golden bark with a sheen. At the slightest damage or scraping under the bark, you can notice a bright lemon layer.

Similar to the “snakes” of other stonecrops due to their particular foliage, the straight, not branched, juicy shoots of Rhodiola create a very beautiful “bump”. At a height of 10 to 40 cm, one bush produces from 10 to 100 shoots. They are decorated along the entire length with sessile alternately obovate, whole leaves, the size of which all increases upwards of the shoots, up to 3.5 cm.

On the tops of the shoots, small flowers of unexpectedly light yellow color are collected in small shields. This is a bisexual plant. After flowering, rhodiola develops many-leafed fruits with very small seeds.

Endangered Cultural Alternative

In nature, Rhodiola rosea is found in narrow ranges, but on all continents of the northern hemisphere. It is associated primarily with the Urals, Altai and Yakutia, the mountains of Eastern Siberia. But in the wild you can find it in all European mountains and even in North America.

This plant is under protection (as an endangered species). Transferring Rhodiola rosea from the natural environment is a criminal offense. But here is how a garden culture can be grown by acquiring seeds and seeds in specialized garden centers and nurseries.

The medicinal properties of cultivated Rhodiola are inferior to a wild plant, but on the other hand, the garden Rhodiola forms much more roots (and bushes are more charged). In the garden, Rhodiola can be placed not only on decorative beds and in gardens of spicy herbs, but also on flower beds, rockeries and rock gardens.

When planting, it should be borne in mind that pink Rhodiola in the second half of the season loses its attractiveness and it is better to combine it with moisture-loving species that can disguise it - for example, ferns, hosts, volzhanka, rogers.

Reproduction and planting of Rhodiola rosea

Rhodiola can be grown by dividing the bushes, or from segments of rhizome about 5-6 cm long - always with 2 or 3 buds of renewal or shoots. With vegetative propagation, you need to make sure to buy a pair of delenki - from male and female plants.

The easiest way to grow Rhodiola rosea in the garden remains through sowing seeds. They are very small, require surface seeding and mixing with sand. Rhodiola needs stratification (at least a month) or sowing in winter in light soil. Seedlings grow very slowly in the first year. Rhodiola dive at the age of 2 weeks very carefully, seedlings are transferred to the soil after the formation of sufficiently large stems in early summer.

The distance when planting Rhodiola rosea should be about 60 cm. It is planted almost superficially, not deeper than 1.5 cm - so that the renewal buds remain in line with the soil and look up.

Conditions and care for Rhodiola rosea in the garden

This medicinal succulent is a moisture-loving plant that normally grows only with good care and watering, but in completely ordinary soil. If it is possible to plant Rhodiola in moist, fresh soils, to place it near water bodies (excluding damp, marshy zones and the risks of flooding), plant care can be greatly simplified.

Rhodiola rosea is quite sunny, open area, it does not tolerate drafts, but it is frost-resistant. The soil must be drained, sandy, sandy loam or light loamy, not acidic, without the risk of compaction and impairment of breathability.

Rhodiola care usually comes down to watering, weeding weeds with careful loosening of the soil or mulching. Rhodiola is watered regularly, deeply soaking the soil and keeping it stably moist. To support the nutrition of the soil, a single top dressing in the spring is enough - with any organic or full mineral fertilizer. Rhodiola is prone to bulging roots, so several times a season the plant needs to be mulched with high-quality soil or spud, not allowing the roots to be exposed.

Rhodiola is relatively resistant to pests, with the exception of specific species - badan and sedum weevils.

In winter, the plant is additionally mulched with peat, humus or compost - a layer of about 5 cm.

Benefits of Rhodiola rosea

Medicinal properties are possessed not only by the rhizomes of Rhodiola rosea, but the main healing properties are attributed to them. They can be harvested only after flowering is completed and until the fruit fully ripens, from three to four years of age.

Roots require thorough cleaning and washing, rejection of damage. The roots are cut into small pieces and dried at a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees. Dried rhizomes can be stored for no longer than 3 years in a dark, dry, ventilated place.

The plant is used mainly to obtain alcoholic extracts and tinctures, but rhodiola can also be used in the form of decoctions or lotions.

The roots of the plant contain unique essential oils and more than one and a half hundred biologically active substances - from antraglycosides, glycosides, rhodiolosides, sterols, lactones, flavonols, tyrosol, rare acids, to ten microelements, including silver. This plant has become famous as an adaptogen, neuroprotector and stimulant - a means to reduce fatigue and anxiety, stimulate mental activity.

The adaptogenic qualities of rhodiola are compared with ginseng, they are so strong that they appear even with a single use - and in situations of extreme stress or unexpected events, and with systemic disorders. Tincture of Rhodiola roots is used to prevent and treat all disorders associated with stress, depressive and depressed conditions, anxiety, fatigue, loss of working capacity, and disorders of the nervous system.

Rhodiola rosea is indispensable in the treatment of hypotension, vegetovascular and neurocirculatory dystonia, depression, neurasthenia, asthenia, psychiatric disorders, and addictions.

Also it is used:

in rehabilitation after protracted diseases and disorders;
as a cardio and neuroprotective agent;
as a means of protection against aging and preservation of youth;
as a stimulant of immunity, increasing resistance to negative factors - from psychological and emotional to toxic, radiation and infectious;
in the prevention and treatment of cancer;
as an anti-inflammatory agent;
in the treatment of diseases of the digestive system, respiration, skin, heart and blood vessels;
with fractures;
as an antipyretic and healing agent;
in the care of sensitive and aging skin.

A strong stimulating effect requires careful use of rhodiola. This is such a medicinal herb, before using which it is better to consult a doctor and psychotherapist.