Five-leafed girl’s grapes can be found in many gardens and parks. Bright leaves attract attention in the autumn, and many gardeners want to plant this vine on their site. Features of the variety, the rules for its cultivation and propagation can be found in the proposed article.

Description of a variety Maiden five-leaf grapes

The plant belongs to large vines and belongs to the family of grapes. Its homeland is central and eastern parts of North America.

Bush characteristic

The botanical features of the Murorum variety are as follows:

• liana with dense bark up to 15 m long;
• palmate leaves (5 leaves), large, up to 10 cm;
• antennae have branches with suction cups;
• in the summer the leaves are dark green; in the fall they change color to purple;
• the flowers are white, small;
• fruits are blue-black, up to 1 cm in diameter, inedible;
• annual growth of up to 2 m.

Advantages and disadvantages

• The advantages of this variety are:
• decorativeness and spectacular coloring in the fall;
• unpretentiousness and rapid growth;
• good adhesion to the surface of the support due to suction cups;
• carries polluted air;
• easily propagated;
• resistance to diseases and pests;
• frost resistance.

Did you know? The ability to form fruit without pollination caused the name «maiden» or «virgin».

• The disadvantages of the plant include:
• aggressiveness of roots and shoots;
• relatively late spring awakening.

How to grow girl's grapes

It is not difficult to grow girl’s grapes, however, the decorative effect of the vine is fully manifested when certain placement conditions are observed. The color brightness and growth rate depend on the landing site.

Where to plant girl's grapes

The best place for a decorative creeper is near the wall in the bright sun. In such conditions, you can get a beautiful foliage color and fast growth. In the autumn, the support will protect the plant from the cold wind. If you place the bush on the north side in the shade, you can not wait for the purple color of the leaves.

Important! Do not plant the vine near power wires, sewers, and water pipes to avoid possible damage.

Loamy soils with neutral acidity will be the optimal soil, however, the plant will take root in any cultivated area.

When and how to plant girl's grapes

You can plant a plant in the first half of autumn or early spring. The prepared hole should be deeper than the earthen coma. A drainage layer of about 15 cm from crushed stone or large expanded clay is laid at the bottom.

When planting, it is necessary to place the root neck exactly in line with the soil. After falling asleep pit vine need to be abundantly watered.

What care is required for wild grapes?

Maiden grapes will require minimal attention from the gardener for top dressing and watering, but you should pay attention to pruning the vine to keep control of its distribution throughout the site.

Watering and fertilizing grapes

In a long dry period, the plant needs to be abundantly watered, pouring about 10 liters of water under the root. Such irrigation per season may need 3-4 times.

At the beginning of summer, nitroammophos dressing can be carried out by adding dressing to water for irrigation. It is advisable to mulch the earth under the vine with compost or peat, which will help to avoid loosening and the appearance of weeds. Roots must be covered by earth.

Pruning

After planting a young plant, it is important to properly form the base of the liana in order to obtain the desired shape of the desired density. The main skeletal lashes need to be trimmed to lignification, directing them to the desired position and fixing on the support.

A pruning shear is performed over the kidney. Every spring, before the leaves appear, sanitary pruning is performed and dry lashes are removed, as well as limiting the growth of vines.

Wintering Girl's Grapes

Girl's grape is resistant to winter cold and does not require wrapping. Even after a small frostbite, the liana is quickly restored from sleeping buds. If desired, the young plant can be removed from the support and laid between the layers of the spruce for additional protection.

Disease prevention

Liana is rarely affected by disease and is not interested in pests.

In conditions of constant high humidity, rot may appear on the leaves. In this case, it is necessary to remove the damaged shoots, stop watering and dry the earth, and also treat the vine with fungicides.

Did you know? The berries of girl’s grapes contain oxalic acid and are poisonous to humans, but the birds eat them in the hungry winter.

How to propagate a five-leafed girl's grape

The plant propagates easily in any way. Germinating seeds will take more time, but can be done year-round.

Propagation by layering

For this method, you must select a long whip with kidneys and perform the following steps:

1. Lay out the lash in full length.
2. Attach the whip to the soil near the kidneys and sprinkle with earth. Previously, these places can be deepened to 5 cm.
3. Periodically water the powdered places with the kidneys.

If the cut is short, most of it is laid in a groove and sprinkled with soil, and the apex is raised by 10-15 cm. After new shoots appear, the lashes with new roots are separated from the main bush and transplanted to a new place.

Propagation by cuttings

The easiest way to use the shoots remaining after trimming.

It is possible to carry out cuttings throughout the spring, summer and early fall.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Cut the whip into cuttings.
2. Dig holes 10 cm deep with an interval of 1.5 m.
3. Set the cuttings so that 2 buds are underground and sprinkle with ground.
4. Seal and pour.
5. For the first time, a landing.

In the summer, the cuttings are regularly moistened to active growth.

Important! The best cuttings are obtained from lignified lashes with a thickness of not more than 1 cm and a length of 25–30 cm from 3–5 kidneys.

Seed cultivation

The germination period of seeds is up to 1 year. Before sowing, for 3-4 days, the seeds must first be soaked.

For spring and summer sowing, stratification is recommended:

1. Put the seeds in cold water for 3-5 hours.
2. Transfer seeds to wet sand.
3. Place the container in a cool place at a temperature of + 5 ° C.

When sown before winter, soaking will be sufficient, and stratification will occur naturally in the soil.

Seeds are sown in loose soil to a depth of 1 cm. After irrigation, the planting site must be protected, and the sprouts that appear in the hot sun need shading.

Root offspring

An easy way to propagate the vine is to extract the root shoot and transplant it to a new location. The pit for the appendix is ​​prepared in the usual way, with a layer of drainage. During transplantation, the same level of the root neck is maintained, and the interval between plants should not be less than 1 m.

Girl's grapes combined with other plants

A vine-lined wall or fence will be a great backdrop for most plants. Flowering bushes of roses and peonies look especially beautiful against its background.

In the fall, red foliage will look spectacular next to yellow and green shrubs, for example, trehlyulyukovy gledichiya, black elderberry or Aurea Tunberg barberry, golden varieties of viburnum.

Girl's grapes in landscaping

In gardening, girl’s grapes have been known since the 17th century and are used for decorating terraces, pavilions and arbors, fences and gates, vertical gardening and economical formation of hedges.

To create a hedge, you can stretch a grid between the posts, and for quick landscaping of the wall, such a grid is pre-mounted on the desired surface. Virgin grapes are also planted in containers for balcony gardening.

Other varieties of the variety

In addition to the Murorum variety, other forms are used in gardening that differ in appearance and frost resistance. Some, like Star Showers, have lower growth and growth rates. The Troki variety, whose length can reach 20 m, is highly resistant to frost. The most popular species are discussed below.

Tripartite Girl's Grapes

The birthplace of this species is Japan and China. This highly branched vine also has suction cups.

The main characteristics of the plant:

• smooth “varnished” leaves up to 20 cm of various shapes on one bush, triangular, rounded, heart-shaped, three-lobed;
• in the spring, the color is bright purple, in the fall it changes to bronze and red;
• fruits up to 0.6 cm blue-black;
• tolerates short-term frosts up to –15 ° C, less frost-resistant than Murorum;
• resistant to dirt and smoke.

The most popular are three forms of this type:

Attached Girl Grapes

This type of North American liana reaches 3 m in length and grows up due to the entanglement of the antennae and underdeveloped suction cups.

Characteristics:

• green bark at a young age, yellowish-gray on mature lashes;
• palmate leaves with 3-5 leaves with a sharp tip;
• dark green top and light bottom of leaves, red-burgundy in autumn;
• frost resistance is average.

This species often spreads and is less adapted for vertical gardening than five-leafed.

Engelman

Variety Engelmannii refers to a five-leaf species and has all its features.

Differences from the Murorum variety are as follows:

• yellow-green flowers;
• sheet length up to 12 cm, serrated;
• moisture-loving variety, tolerates short-term drought;
• less frost resistance.

Henry

A tall liana from China has tetrahedral green shoots and leaves up to 4-6 cm long in dark green color. A leaf plate with pronounced silver streaks attracts attention. Autumn color changes to purple, maintaining contrasting veins. Annual growth is up to 1.5 m, the total height of the vine is 3-5 m. It freezes up in frosts –18 ° C.

Girl's grapes are an excellent solution for creating dense hedges, decorating vertical surfaces and arbors. Unpretentious care allows the plant to take root in any garden, but do not forget about restraining pruning.