The flowers of the Pasque Flower, also called Pasque Flower, are delicate and bell-shaped and show an exciting color contrast between the outer, purple to violet shining petals and the inner, rich, yolk-yellow stamens. In the lower area and on the outside of the petals, the pasque flower has acquired “a fur” to allow water to evaporate in summer and to be protected from the cold in winter, and with this silvery hair the plants become real eye-catchers in the garden.
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Pasque Flowers – suitable locations for the plants
The pasque flower is one of our oldest well-known native plants (more on this below), but today it is mostly called Pulsatilla, at least since the flower and plant trade discovered the plant. As a result, the pasque flower was no longer allowed to remain the pasque flower, but became the Pulsatilla, bred in numerous flower colors. These intensely colored pasque flowers, blooming in purple, pink, cream and red are now available in every well-stocked perennial nursery and are particularly popular as an ornament in cottage gardens.
In the natural environment, pasque flowers grow mainly on dry or semi-arid grassland, where they find a dry, base-rich, humic soil.
So if you read (as you often do) that pasque flowers need lean (nutrient-poor), calcareous soils, that is not entirely correct. A base-rich soil is not necessarily a calcareous soil as the opposite of an acidic soil, but a soil that contains calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium as basic cations, i.e. is quite rich in nutrients. When the pH levels drop (i.e. the soil becomes more acidic) it can have several causes, some of which are fine with pasque flowers, others not.
Setting a soil “quickly” alkaline or acidic for the pasque flower is definitely not the way to success, either you have soil in the garden that is suitable for growing plants, then pasque flowers will also grow in this soil, or not , then you should first devote your thoughts to your garden soil and then to the plants that you want to plant in this soil.
In short and in a more success-oriented way: pasque flowers have nothing against nutrient-rich soils, on the contrary, as long as they are topsoils with a bit of sand, in which nutrients are naturally self-regulating and the nutrients do not consist of artificial fertilizers. But pasque flowers also grow in fairly poor soils, even in moderately acidic, stony and sandy soils, the nutrient requirement is generally rather low, any reasonably fertile soil is sufficient for the undemanding Pulsatillas.
This is why pasque flowers do not need any additional fertilizer, they are more sensitive to the addition of nutrients, especially to too much nitrogen, but they can tolerate a little fertilizer input from the neighboring bed.
The soil should be normally permeable to water, because pasque flowers are quite sensitive to moisture and they do not tolerate backwater very well.
The Pulsatilla is a light penumbra plant, so it thrives in sunny locations and in penumbra. The soil should be kept moderately moist in spring, otherwise it can be relatively dry. B. is usually the case in a rock garden in summer. In the case of longer periods of drought, however, this is no longer the case; too much drought affects growth at some point.
Otherwise, the pasque flowers have no special requirements in terms of temperatures, in our climate they grow without problems, like any warmth in summer and are frost-hardy to -20 ° C in winter.
Maintain the pasque flowers properly
If these basic needs are met, the cultivation of a pasque flower is really easy, you only need to water it in case of prolonged drought, you don’t actually fertilize at all. Pasque Flowers in a bucket naturally dry out faster than Pasque Flowers in a flower bed.
Apart from that, it should only be noted that the Pulsatilla can withstand the competitive pressure of vigorous plant species such as z. B. Riding grasses such as Calamagrostis villosa will not have long been able to grow. And you should finally think about the location for the pasque flower beforehand, older pasque flowers are difficult to transplant because they have only a few suction roots and are so sensitive to disturbances at the roots.
A care measure that is more decorative is the promotion of a second flower. As an early bloomer, the pasque flower unfolds its first splendor in March, which lasts into June. If you always remove the respective withered parts of the plant immediately during flowering, the pasque flower “shoots” flower roots, you can thus achieve a complete second flowering.
The cut back of the cow bells
Pasque flowers are allowed to go into winter in full leaves, it is not for nothing that they have grown hair, which also serves as a “winter coat”.
In early spring, shortly before the start of budding, you can make the start of the new growth year easier for the Pulsatilla by cutting it back close to the ground and thereby removing all old leaves and shoots from the previous season.
Grow or multiply Pulsatilla yourself
Because they are pretty much in vogue right now, you can of course buy pasque flower young plants from specialist gardeners and plant the small perennial plants immediately on site without any effort. The pasque flowers can be planted almost any time between spring and autumn, except when it’s 30 degrees outside. If you want to decorate entire areas with cow bells, at prices of € 2.50 to € 4.50 per shrub, however, you will need around 10 plants per square meter if you buy young plants.
In this case, it is advisable to use the pasque flowers yourself, you can get 150 seeds for € 1.99 (e.g. via www.saatgut-vielfalt.de/product.php?products_id=910708, low shipping costs are added) . Even if the Pulsatilla are known for the fact that only some of the seeds germinate and only some of the seedlings turn into well-developed pasque flowers, this remains the much cheaper option.
The seeds are sown in sowing pots with loose potting soil or directly in the bed, preferably in autumn, so that the cold germs get the decisive incentive to germinate through the winter cold, and then simply left alone over the winter (sowing pots are placed in the garden). You can move pas-sands for the next season until the end of the year – the stocked sowing pots are initially kept warm and moist for about two weeks so that the seeds become soft, in January the sowing pots are put into the garden.
If you want to raise the Pulsatillas at other times, you would have to simulate the cold stimulus via your refrigerator. The length of time it takes to cool the fridge is then a bit of a matter of trial and error sure a risk. However, you could move on the artificially produced germs and simply put the rest (the seeds that did not sprout) in the garden and wait for one to several years, later stragglers often come.
In the spring, the pasque flower only needs a good water supply and temperatures above 10 ° C in the germination phase for germination. If you have sown in sowing pots, you should prick out the seedlings early. You should always sow a few more pasque flowers than you really need, both the germination phase and the first year of life are critical phases of life for the Pulsatillas.
When the seedlings have grown into splendid Pasque Flowers, you can then propagate the Pasque Flower much better from these mother plants. The Pulsatilla does not really like to reproduce generatively (through seeds), but it can reproduce vegetatively very well: It forms rhizomes that come out of the earth as long underground roots a bit away from the mother plant and then form small rosettes, that will become new pasquets.
This means that if you just let them grow, your pasque flowers will grow in size. They then gradually spread automatically in the beds. The young plants can be separated from the mother plant and if they are very young, they can also be transplanted (carefully, fine roots that want to grow long). By the way, stepping on the ground above the underground roots should encourage the sprouting of the root buds, so you can walk around on the beds between the pasque flowers.
The different types of pasque flowers
Our Pulsatilla – which you can usually find in flower shops – is the pasque flower with the botanical name Pulsatilla vulgaris subs. vulgaris, which is grown in many cultivars with particularly large or particularly colorful flowers, here is an overview:
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “Alba”, white flowering pasque flower
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “Fringed Forms”, red and purple flowers with fringes
- Pulsatilla vulgaris subsp. grandis, large pasque flower as the name suggests, with particularly large flowers
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “Papageno”, colorful mixture with white, orange and purple flowers
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “Red bell”, red-flowering cowbell
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “Serotina”, rare pasque flower variety with deep purple flowers
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “White Swan”, also rare, with creamy white flowers
- Pulsatilla vulgaris “Zimmermanii”, Zimmerman’s pasque flower, blooms in a delicate lavender tone
The pasque flower has a high ecological value
The pasque flower really doesn’t have to be restricted to the cottage garden, it is an enrichment for every garden. Especially in the wild forms (see below), which are still quite original despite their culture, it has a high ecological value.
Pasque Flower flowers are real attractions for bees and butterflies, so pulsatillas in bloom are always a colorful insect colony that will also be useful in other places in your garden. The birds in the area are also happy when a lot of plants grow in a garden that the insects like, so they are also well cared for.
Much more pasque flowers
The Pulsatillas form a whole genus of their own, so besides the Pulsatilla vulgaris there are many more Pulsatillas. Depending on the botanical classification, a good 20 to over 80 species can be distinguished from them, and these species can and will all grow in our gardens, namely the pasque flowers are a genus that is particularly popular in the northern hemisphere.
In many nurseries, wild forms of pasque flowers are cultivated, which develop a very natural and special charm in beds or rock gardens. If you prefer nature rather than breeding in your garden and you also like to do something for the conservation of endangered species, you can purchase young plants or at least seeds from the following natural forms of the Pasque Flower:
- Alpen-Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla alpina subsp. alpina
- Berg-Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla montana
- Blue Siberian Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla turczaninovii
- Chinese pasque flower, Pulsatilla chinensis
- Dahurische Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla dahurica
- Finger-Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla patens
- Spring Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla vernalis
- Yellow pasque flower, Pulsatilla alpina subsp. apiifolia (or subsp. sulphurea)
- Georgian Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla georgica
- Bell-shaped pasque flower, Pulsatilla campanella
- Golden yellow pasque flower, Pulsatilla aurea
- Halers Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla states
- Innsbruck pasque flower, Pulsatilla oenipontana
- Caucasian Pasque Flower or Yellow Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla albana
- Small Alpine Pasque Flower or Brocken Anemone, Pulsatilla alba
- Korea-Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla koreana
- Kostyczewis pasque flower, Pulsatilla kostyczewii
- North American pasque flower, Pulsatilla patens var. Wolfgangiana
- Rote Kuhschelle, Pulsatilla rubra
- Slavic Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla slavica
- Black pasque flower, Pulsatilla nigricans
- Styrian Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla styriaca
- Multileaf pasque flower, Pulsatilla millefolium
- Western pasque flower, Pulsatilla occidentalis
- Meadow Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla pratensis
- Two-flowered pasque flower, Pulsatilla ambigua
Now you have a first overview of the variety of pasque flowers. It would overload this article to go into the details of the species, although many of these species would have deserved just that: Among the cultivated wild forms of the Pulsatilla are pasque flowers on the Red List, pasque flowers that live to be 20 years old, species with sulfur-yellow flowers, and species with Siberian frost tolerance and pasque flower, which is one of the 50 essential herbs of traditional Chinese medicine.
Buy rare pasque flowers
If you are looking for pasque flowers away from the artificial world of floriculture, if possible original types of pasque flowers, you will find 17 different types of pasque flower seeds at www.plant-world-seeds.com/store/flower_seed_categories/PULSATILLA_SEEDS.
You can also contact the botanical garden in your area, many of our botanical gardens have reintroduction and rearing programs that involve different types of pasque flowers. Often times, if you want to participate in the reintroduction, you can get seeds there.
Interesting facts about pasque flowers
There are only a few pebbles in the wild, which is why they are under nature protection. That is why you are not allowed to pick or dig up pas-pelts that you see in the wild in order to place them in your garden. As already mentioned, that would not be very promising anyway, since pasque flowers are difficult to transplant.
The distinctive flowers were botanically classified as a separate genus Pulsatilla in the buttercup family, only recent genetic studies have shown that all Pulsatillas can actually be assigned to the anemones, another genus of the buttercup family. The perennial, herbaceous plants are native to the vegetation areas from Eurasia to North America and therefore all bloom in spring, many species very early.
Like every buttercup plant, cowpeas contain the poisonous protoanemonin, which qualifies it as a medicinal herb plant, but it is also classified as a plant that should be handled with some care. When caring for the pasque flowers, you should avoid any direct skin contact as this could cause skin irritation (for consumption see below for names).
This is how the pasque flower got its name
First of all: The pasque flower is not called pasque flower at all, but “pasque flower”, a diminutive of the pasque flower. A couple of centuries, pronounced sloppily, and a flower has a new name …
The term pasque flower comes from the fact that the shape of the half-open flower is very similar to the bell that cows used to wear around their necks, the pasque flower. The scientific generic name Pulsatilla is also derived from the Latin word pulsare = to strike, to ring.
But it has many more names, after the beautifully hairy fruit heads it is called goat beard, grumpy hunter, wolf paw, hairy man, witch broom, peter’s beard, strublbuabn, devil’s beard or wild man. After the similarity of the flowers with bells, bells or cymbals, there is not only the “kitchen bell”, but also the bell and the cymbal bells. The fact that the pasque flower, which is rich in toxic active ingredients, is called poisonous flower, Schlotterhose and sleep flower, is probably related to the poison (which when ingested probably causes digestive disorders so quickly that your trousers shiver, and if you are unlucky you will sleep a lot after consuming it Long).
Why she bears the names noodle eggs, rabbit flower, cuckoo flower, mother flower and hackerkraut, would be interesting to find out, and the regional names drive it even more violently, the author is certainly not the only one who comes up with unchaste thoughts or wonders about the name Fotzabäsa whether snow flowers were so named in memory of various drug thugs early on …
Conclusion
Bells are much more exciting than most of us realize, and a gardener with bells in the garden is doing “good work” for nature and the environment. The fact that the pasque flower has adapted so well to our climate makes it really easy to care for, and it also has a lifespan of at least 10 years – the Pulsatilla is an asset for every garden.
