Monetary loosestrife (coin, Lysimachia Nummularia): photo and description, varieties, reviews, cultivation

Loosestrife is a perennial plant that is found everywhere in nature and has decorative value. Growing it in the garden is not at all difficult if you know the basic rules of caring for the crop.

General description of coin loosestrife

Coin loosestrife, or meadow tea, comes from the Primrose family and grows wild in moist soils, primarily in western Eurasia, as well as Japan and North America. The stem of the plant is smooth, knotty and creeping along the ground, densely covered with green rounded leaves with an uncut edge. The length of the stem can grow up to 60 cm, but it practically does not rise above the ground.

Loosestrife is a creeping ground cover plant.

Small yellow flowers consist of 5 pointed petals. At the core of the flowers there are large corollas. The bright yellow, round-shaped flowers vaguely resemble coins, which explains the name of the plant.

Perennial flowers look a little like gold coins

The flowering of the coin loosestrife occurs from the beginning of June to August, depending on the terrain and weather; it takes about 3 weeks in total.

Where and how does coin loosestrife grow?

The wild plant, coin loosestrife, is found in the southern and temperate latitudes of Eurasia; it can also be seen in Japan and North America. To grow, coin loosestrife chooses places with high humidity - damp meadows and ravines, forest clearings, banks of reservoirs and swamps.

The ground cover plant forms a dense carpet directly on the ground, and can grow both on horizontal surfaces and on slopes. The perennial is very unpretentious and frost-resistant, takes root well in any soil.

In nature, the plant can often be seen near bodies of water.

Important! In nature, coin loosestrife can grow in open, sunny areas. However, it develops worse there, so it can most often be seen in shaded and humid places.

Types and varieties of coin-leaved loosestrife

Monstrous loosestrife is distinguished by its beautiful flowering, which is why it is valued as a cultivated plant. There are decorative varieties of perennials; they maintain low crop requirements for growing conditions, but look more attractive than ordinary coin loosestrife.

Loosestrife Aurea (Aurea)

The Aurea variety is an ornamental plant with yellow-green and golden leaves. The perennial is capable of forming a low cover on the soil up to 5-15 cm above ground level and up to 30 cm wide. The flowering of the Aurea variety is usual, yellow, lasting about 20 days from June to August.

The Aurea variety is intended for growing in the sun

Unlike regular loosestrife, Aurea grows best in sunny areas. The variety can also be planted in the shade, but it will develop more slowly, and the leaves will acquire a darker and less beautiful shade. The variety is frost-resistant and unpretentious, prefers moist, fertile soils. It responds well to heavy watering, but also tolerates drought calmly.

Loosestrife Goldilocks

Goldilox is another decorative variety of perennial loosestrife. It differs from Aurea in the more saturated golden color of its leaves, but in general the varieties are very similar to each other. Goldilox feels good in sunlit areas of the garden and fertile soils, growing up to 30 cm in width and approximately 15 cm in height.

Goldilox has a very bright golden foliage color

Goldilox also blooms with yellow flowers 2.5 cm in diameter, and the size of the opened buds can be larger than the leaves. Flowering takes about 20 days from the end of May to August, but even after flowering the variety retains its decorative appearance due to the beautiful shade of the foliage.

Coin loosestrife in landscape design + photo

When decorating garden plots, the coin loosestrife plant is very popular because it is a fast-growing and unpretentious ground cover crop. Perennial is used:

to form a decorative flowering carpet in unoccupied areas;
Using meadow tea you can decorate an empty area of the garden
for artistic decoration of slopes, borders and stone gardens;
Meadow tea looks beautiful in stone gardens
for decorating gazebos, fences and low buildings;
Long stems of the plant decorate fences and walls of buildings
for decorating the banks of natural and artificial reservoirs;
Meadow tea revitalizes the banks of reservoirs
for growing in pots in gazebos or on the veranda of a house - ampelous coin loosestrife looks very beautiful if the long leafy stems are left hanging freely.
You can grow the crop in flowerpots and pots

Among the advantages of the culture, one can note not only endurance, but also very rapid growth. Typically, gardeners do not have problems decorating the desired areas with perennials. On the contrary, more often it is necessary to artificially restrain the plant so that it does not go beyond the designated area and begin to suppress neighboring plantings.

Important! Monetary loosestrife, or meadow tea, is resistant to trampling. You can plant it even in high-traffic areas without fear for the beauty of the decorative carpet.

In compositions and flower beds, perennials are often combined with ferns, phlox, irises, bells and other plants that have similar requirements for conditions.

Meadow tea looks beautiful in flower beds

Peculiarities of reproduction of the coin loosestrife

It is very easy to propagate coin loosestrife in your summer cottage. They do this in vegetative ways:

dividing the bush — adult perennials are dug out of the ground at the end of spring, divided into several parts and planted in new areas;
By dividing the bush, meadow tea reproduces very readily
cuttings shoots and branches taken from an adult bush in the spring take root very quickly and begin to bloom in the next season.
Meadow tea cuttings quickly take root

Both methods are highly effective, although dividing the bush makes it easier and faster to root coin loosestrife. But the crop is propagated by seeds very rarely; even with successful germination, you have to wait at least 2 years for flowering, and more often than not, meadow tea simply does not sprout.

Meadow tea is rarely propagated by seeds

Landing rules

It is very easy to plant coin loosestrife in your summer cottage. You just need to familiarize yourself with the crop’s preferences regarding the location and growing conditions.

Recommended timing

The herbaceous plant coin loosestrife for open ground is planted throughout the season. This is usually done in mid-spring, after the soil has completely thawed and the last frost has passed.

You can also plant meadow tea in the fall, although this method is usually used in the southern regions. In this case, the procedure is carried out in October after leaf fall.

Site selection and soil preparation

It is necessary to plant meadow tea on loose and moist soil, preferably near a pond or close to groundwater. It is better to choose fertile and loose soil. Although the perennial tolerates drought well and is able to grow on heavy soil, in this case it will not be able to please with abundant flowering.

You can plant meadow tea in the sun and shade

Advice! Cointail loosestrife can even be planted directly into a pond, but not deeper than 10 cm.

If we are talking about decorative loosestrife with a golden hue of leaves, then it should be planted in well-lit areas. Common coin loosestrife grows well in the shade.

To achieve beautiful flowering from a perennial, it is advisable to fertilize the soil before planting. The selected area is dug up and manure or rotted compost and peat are added to the soil; if the soil is poor, complex mineral fertilizers are also added.

How to plant correctly

To plant on the site, you need to dig a small hole; its depth should be twice the depth of the loosestrife root system. When planting several plants at the same time, leave a space of 50 cm between them.

For a creeping perennial you do not need to dig a deep hole

The hole is half-sprinkled with a mixture of garden soil, compost and peat, and then the seedling is lowered into the hole and covered to the top with soil. The perennial is watered abundantly and the soil is lightly compacted.

Many gardeners, already at the time of planting, fence off the area with meadow tea by digging slate or stone into the ground around the perimeter. This prevents excessive growth and makes caring for the plant easier.

Aftercare

Cointail loosestrife is a hardy and undemanding ornamental crop. When growing, you need to remember only a few rules.

Watering and fertilizing schedule

If a perennial grows in the sun, then it must be watered - twice or thrice a week. It is necessary that the soil at the roots of the coin loosestrife always remains moist.

When growing crops in the shade or near water, you can get by with watering only on dry summer days.Gardeners should focus on the actual condition of the soil.

The soil at the roots of meadow tea should always be moist

It is recommended to fertilize loosestrife only if the perennial grows on poor soil. In this case, in the spring, when watering, add a complex mineral fertilizer containing nitrogen to the water. You can also mulch the area with loosestrife with peat or humus - this stimulates the rapid growth of the crop.

Attention! They often practice planting and caring for coin loosestrife in flower pots. Recommendations for growing in this case are similar - the plant also requires fertile soil and regular watering.

Loosestrife in the ground and in pots is cared for equally

Pruning rules

Pruning of the ground cover coin loosestrife is carried out mainly to prevent its excessive growth. As the culture develops, it is necessary to cut off excess shoots; this will not allow the loosestrife to go beyond the designated area.

Trimming is usually done in the fall or after the end of flowering. In the latter case, it is recommended to remove all inflorescences, as well as cut off dried stems to preserve decorativeness.

Transplant tips

Loosestrife should be replanted from place to place no more often than once every 10 years. This is usually done in October, after the autumn leaves have fallen, but spring replanting is also allowed immediately after the snow melts. The plant can be replanted either entirely or partially. In the latter case, young shoots are separated from the loosestrife or the rhizome is divided into several parts and the divisions are transferred to a new place.

The culture grows quickly and needs to be replanted every 10 years

Preparing for winter

Frost-resistant loosestrife tolerates cold winters and can grow even in Siberia.The above-ground part of the plant dies off during the winter, so shortly before the onset of frost, the lashes of shoots are cut off flush with the ground.

It is not necessary to carefully cover the plant for the winter. As part of the preparation, it is enough to mulch the area with coin loosestrife with peat or humus, and then cover it with straw or spruce branches. When growing loosestrife on an open balcony, you can use dry shoots of the plant itself as winter shelter.

For the winter, cut meadow tea can be mulched

Diseases and pests

The hardy perennial rarely suffers from insects and diseases. The only dangers for him are:

powdery mildew, Usually, plaque on the leaves appears in damp and humid summers; copper sulfate or Fundazol is used to combat the disease;
In damp summers, meadow tea may suffer from powdery mildew.
aphid - if green insects appear on the leaves, the loosestrife is treated with insecticides, for example, Biotlin or Antitlin.
Of the insects, only aphids are dangerous for the crop.

Very rarely, the leaves of creeping loosestrife are affected by slugs. In this case, the pests are collected manually, and then the plantings are sprayed with copper preparations.

Slugs can seriously damage the growth of meadow tea

Application of coin loosestrife

The loosestrife flower has not only decorative, but also medicinal value. The plant helps well:

with cough and shortness of breath;
for rheumatism;
for gastrointestinal disorders;
for inflammatory diseases of the throat and oral cavity;
for headaches and anemia;
for vitamin deficiency and seizures;
for skin ailments and thrush.

The leaves, stems and roots of the perennial are used in folk medicine

Infusions and decoctions with anti-inflammatory and strengthening effects are prepared from the leaves; powder from the roots helps with bleeding and pain. The leaves of the plant can be applied as a compress to irritations and wounds on the skin, and fresh juice can be used to lubricate insect bites. Loosestrife-based drops help stop nosebleeds.

Collection, preparation, storage of raw materials

For medicinal use, it is customary to harvest the whole perennial, along with roots and shoots. Harvesting is usually carried out during flowering, since during this period meadow tea contains the maximum amount of vitamin C.

Raw materials for treatment are harvested during the flowering period

The coin loosestrife bush must be carefully dug up and removed from the ground, shaken off lumps of earth, washed thoroughly and dried under a canopy in the open air. Store raw materials in a paper bag in a dark and warm place with low humidity, and the plant retains its beneficial properties for up to 3 years.

Conclusion

Loosestrife is a beautiful and unpretentious ground cover plant. The crop can be grown in the garden, in closed containers and at home; with regular moisture, the perennial grows very quickly.