Growing and caring for maned barley and its use in landscape design

Barley has been known to man since ancient times as a valuable food crop. Even in ancient Palestine, 17 thousand years ago, Jews grew it for livestock feed and to produce cheap flour. For the poor population, barley bread was a popular and constant food product.

Over the long history of barley cultivation, people have mastered 12 of its wild species, one of which has an exclusively decorative purpose - maned barley. This grass can give a fascinating look to a mixborder and become a real highlight of the garden. Let's consider the features of planting and caring for this plant.

What is maned barley?

Popular plant of alpine slides and rockeries, maned barley has long earned its place of honor among other favorite plants of landscape designers. One of the main advantages of the culture is the combination of unpretentiousness with long-lasting decorativeness.

Description and characteristics of the plant

Maned barley (Hordeum jubatum) belongs to perennial plants of the Poaceae family (Gramineae). The root system is powerful and fibrous. The culture is a dense-turf perennial with a shortened rhizome and thin, smooth, gray-green stems growing up to 40-50 cm.

The leaves are arranged alternately on the stem. The leaf blade is bright emerald in color, linear in shape, with a pointed tip, silky, up to 3 mm wide and up to 12 cm long.

Inflorescence – complex spike. On one stem, three simple spikelets are collected into one spike, up to 8 cm long. The glumes are long, thin, and protruding. They are what make maned barley so beautiful. The lower glume has a long reddish-purple axis. The fruit is a grain.

Attention! Do not confuse maned barley with steppe feather grass! These are completely different species of the Poaceae family.

History of appearance

Under natural conditions, the plant grows in the steppes of northeast Asia and the grasslands of North America. The first scientific name for the cereal was given by Carl Linnaeus in 1954 for the characteristic pubescence of the spikelets. With the advent of new railway lines, the grain began to spread over longer distances.

The spread of maned barley in Russia occurred in the second half of the 20th century. Scientist D.P. Syreyshchikov, a specialist in the flora of Central Russia, first collected his herbarium in the Moscow region (Khimki) in 1914. Today this plant grows along the railways of Eastern Siberia and the Volga-Don region.

Economic purpose and application

Maned barley is an exclusively ornamental plant that is used in landscaping. both city squares and parks, and private gardens, as well as dried flowers for floral compositions.

In some literature, it is even found as a weed plant that clogs agricultural fields. It is also harmful to cattle. Its green mass, getting into feed or hay, causes irritation of the digestive tract and even ulcers in animals.

When does maned barley bloom?

In July, lush caps of inflorescences appear above the clumps of barley, floating and airy like clouds that sway with light blows of wind. Spike-shaped inflorescences are slightly curved in the stem.Young spikelets are colored silver-green; over time they become straw-yellow in color. The bristles of the spikelets are soft and long, and have a reddish-violet tint.

Magnificent flowering continues for two months, in September the seeds begin to ripen. When dry, the plant retains its decorative appearance until frost.

Reference. If you cut off the inflorescences in time (before the seeds begin to form), repeated flowering is possible.

Application in landscape design

Maned barley is ideal for mixed borders and perennial flower beds. The plant looks especially impressive in open rocky areas, rock gardens, and lawns.

Decorative barley is planted in flower beds, filling the voids after the early spring flowers have faded.

Barley inflorescences stand well in bouquets and retain their shape and color, which allows them to be used to create dry flower arrangements in the interior. Inflorescences for bouquets are cut only at the beginning of heading.

Late-cut ears may disintegrate into separate parts after drying in a bouquet.

Maned barley goes well with:

• decorative cereals and dried flowers (millet, blue fescue, cortaderia, miscanthus, haretail);
• beautifully flowering annuals (iberis, gillyflower, lobelia);
• perennials with silver-colored leaves (aster, bicolored groundsel, sage, lavender);
• flowers with bright purple, red or orange hues (marigolds, calendula, zinnia, low-growing amaranth, coleus).

Other ornamental crops:

Decorative pepper "Capsicum": cultivation and care

Growing decorative pepper “Little Miracle”

Amazing decorative pepper “Black Prince”

Landing rules

The technology for planting maned barley is no different from planting other flower crops. In order for plants to successfully take root, you need to know its preferences and the best sowing time.

Deadlines

Sowing maned barley can be done both in spring and late summer. When sown in spring, plants bloom in the same summer, but when planted before winter, they turn out stronger, with a well-developed root system and have built up sufficient vegetative mass. Autumn sowing is most rational for long-term cultivation of this cereal (in the southern regions, where winters are mild and moderate).

Optimal timing:

• first half of April (for flowering in the year of planting);
• second half of August – beginning of September (blooming next year).

Place on site

For planting perennials choose a level place that is well lit throughout the day. The plant loves bright sun and is not afraid of drought. If there is no such place on the site, plant the cereal in partial shade. Flowering will not be as abundant, but the decorative effect of the flower will not suffer greatly.

The choice of soil for cereal crops should be taken seriously. The plant does not tolerate the slightest stagnation of water and close groundwater. Heavy soils with a high clay content are also not suitable for it. Fertile, well-drained loams are considered the best soil.

Soil preparation

For barley, loose soil is ideal, nutritious, light in mechanical composition, permeable and slightly acidic or alkaline. Preparing the soil at the site for planting crops should consist of several events:

1. Autumn digging with the addition of 1 bucket of humus and 2 tbsp. l. phosphorus-potassium fertilizers per 1 m².
2. Manual thorough removal of weeds and their rhizomes.
3. Spring loosening of the soil two weeks before planting to a depth of 15 cm.

On sandy soils, poor in organic matter and mineral composition, although the grass will grow, it will not form a lush turf.

Seed preparation

Typically, decorative barley is sown in the ground with dry seeds., but if there is a desire, the germination process can be accelerated using simple methods of pre-sowing seed preparation using stratification (keeping in the cold). To do this, pour a layer of sand and peat into a flat container, on which barley seeds are laid (photo).

The crops are covered with a layer of peat and moistened. The containers are covered with film and placed in a cool place (on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator or an unheated balcony) for two weeks.

Rules for planting seeds in open ground

The technology for sowing seeds in open ground consists of several stages:

1. In May, when the threat of frost has passed, grooves 15 cm deep are made along the prepared area.
2. Seeds are placed in the grooves at intervals of 3-3.5 cm.
3. Cover with fertile soil and water.
4. When the seedlings appear, they are thinned out so that a distance of 5-6 cm is maintained between plants.

Growing seedlings and planting in seedlings

The seedling growing method is used if you want to get barley to flower a month earlier. Seeds are sown in mid-March. For this:

1. Seedling containers are filled with a mixture consisting of 2 parts humus, 1 part peat and 1 part sand.
2. The seeds are placed on the surface of the soil, lightly pressed into the soil and sprinkled with peat.
3. The top is moistened with a sprayer.
4. Water as the top layer of soil dries.
5. When the seedlings have their fourth true leaf, they are planted in separate pots.
6. Plants are kept on a warm windowsill (+20…+22°C) until May 10, after which they are planted in open ground.
7. When planting in a permanent place, it is important not to damage the fragile root system.

Optimal conditions for seed germination:

• temperature – +14…+16°C;
• air humidity – 65%;
• diffused light.

If you want to make a beautifully flowering grass bloom earlier, but there is no desire to deal with seedlings, plant barley in a greenhouse in March. With this sowing, the plants will quickly begin to grow, and flowering will begin in June.

Read also:

What does the decorative pumpkin “Little Red Riding Hood” look like?

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Features of care

Only young, immature plants need careful care.:

1. Grown seedlings often suffer from choking by weeds. To ensure that they have enough air, nutrition and light, regularly weed the weeds and lightly loosen the soil crust.
2. To ensure that cereals quickly grow clumps, fertilize them with complex mineral fertilizer (“Fertika Universal-2”). Application rate – 30-40 g per 1 square. m.
3. Young plants need moderate watering, adults - sparse. Drought-resistant barley only needs water during the dry period (if there is no rain for 1.5 weeks).

Further care for adult plants includes rare watering, systematic loosening and weeding, one fertilizing with mineral complex fertilizer per season. In addition to the traditional cultivation of barley as an annual or perennial, there is also a “shift” method of cultivation. At the end of September, the plants are dug out from the flower garden and transplanted into containers. Planted flowers are kept in the house (if there is a room with a temperature of +18...+20°C) or on a heated balcony.

Tips and tricks

There are usually no difficulties with the agricultural technology of maned barley. Many gardeners grow it as an annual crop; in winter, this perennial often withers or freezes out.

If the winters in your region are suitable for long-term cultivation of cereals, rejuvenate the bushes in the spring. With good care, cereals can reach a height of 50 cm. To make the clumps look neater, tie them to an inconspicuous support, for example, bamboo sticks.

Conclusion

Maned barley is an unpretentious crop. In addition, it is almost not affected by pests and diseases. Only prolonged rains and lack of soil air exchange can seriously harm the plant.

Using it in landscaping, you can create a romantic garden or an imitation of a flowering steppe, revive the mixborder and add a fountain of silky ears to it.