Thuja columnar western - description of varieties

Thuja columnar western - a wonderful solution for landscaping the garden throughout the year. With its help create hedges, compositions with other shrubs and evergreen flowering bushes. She looks great in solitary compositions, surrounded by flowers and succulents. Colon-shaped thujas are combined in compositions with thujas of the same type of crown, but of contrasting colors or with low thujas of another type of crown - the egg-shaped thuja of Wagner or the spherical Danica.

Types and varieties: description

The name "Thuja" the plant received because of its pleasant smell. From the Latin language, the name means "donation", since the fragrance accompanied such rites.

Column-shaped varieties are perfectly suited to the climate of the Moscow Region, Vologda, Arkhangelsk and to Siberia itself. They are characterized by frost resistance and ease of care, but have different characteristics.

Composition of thuja of different species

• Brabant (Thuja Occidentalis Brabant) is a fast-growing species. The annual growth of the tree is up to 35 cm. The ten-year-old thuja has parameters of 3.5 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter. Unpretentious in leaving, frost-resistant. The needles are painted in a saturated green color, in winter the color of the needles acquires a brown tint;
• Yellow Ribbon (Thuja Occidentalis Yellow Ribbon) is used for contrasting plantings, as the color of its needles is bright yellow at the tips. It grows to 3 m in length by 10 years. It has an unusual crown shape - a narrow loose cone. In leaving, the thuja yellow colony is demanding on the composition of the soil;
• Columna (Thuja Occidentalis Columna) is a great solution for hedges. With the change of seasons, the dark color of the needles does not change. It tolerates a haircut on its short branches. Annual growth of up to 20 cm. Frost-resistant appearance, unpretentious care;
• Smaragd (Thuja Occidentalis Smaragd) is not a frequent visitor to garden plots. Crohn is very dense and narrow, the annual growth is small. Very demanding tree to the composition of the soil and watering. The decorativeness of this variety is not inferior to its brethren: a narrow dense crown of bright green color does not change its color throughout the year;
• Aurea Pyramidalis (Thuja Occidentalis Aurea Piramidalis). Initially, a narrow crown grows in breadth over the years due to several branched trunks. It has a pyramidal shape, which is suitable for creating solitary landings. Frost-resistant variety will require a specific soil composition and individual watering;

Grade Yellow Ribbon

• Holmstrup (Thuja Occidentalis Holmstrup) - not too tall tree, by 10 years does not exceed 2 m. The crown is narrow very dense. It easily cuts, grows slowly, it is not demanding on soils and watering. It is universal in decor solutions: it can be used in creating hedges, in group and single compositions;
• Aurecens (Thuja Plicata Aurescens) is truly a giant. The variety grows to 12 m, has a dense wide crown. The frost-resistant beauty is not at all exacting to growth conditions. The color does not change seasonally, the dark green needles with white stripes are very effective. But because of its size it is more often used in open spaces with a large area: in parks, gardens, malls;
• Excelsa (Thuja Plicata Excelsa) is another giant for large-scale compositions. The height of the tree reaches 12 m, and the width is 3-4 m. Arched branches form a wide, columnar shape of the tree. The shiny surface of dark green needles distinguishes thuja from other evergreen stands.

Thuja columnar: landing and care

To land in open ground, you must prepare:

• a hole measuring 50 * 50 * 70 (± 10 cm). If the soil is heavy and moist, you need a 30 cm layer of drainage (pebbles, gravel, broken brick);
• nutritious soil. To the soil in which the young thuja grew, you need to add twice as much peat and sand.

When landing, an earthen clod, braided by roots, does not need to be disassembled. It is installed in a pit on a nutrient mixture, and from the sides it is covered with the remaining substrate. The root neck of the tree should be at the level of the soil.

After landing, watering and fertilizer are needed:

• in spring and summer planting is fertilized with a complex preparation;
• during late summer or autumn planting, superphosphate is needed.

To create a hedge of thuja, they are planted in a flat line at a distance of 0.5 m from each other (depending on the variety)

Young home trees should be looked after more carefully:

• watering every week;
• shelter at night from the cold;
• lure for coniferous crops;
• regular loosening and mulching of the soil.

An adult plant requires less attention to itself:

• thuja western colony-shaped grows remarkably in the sun or in partial shade;
• watering should be moderate and not frequent. The correct substrate retains moisture for a long time. Only in hot weather do you need watering twice a week and additional irrigation of needles.

Besides:

• it is important to saturate the roots with oxygen, for this you need to regularly loosen the soil;
• feeding is needed every spring. You can make ready-made mixtures for conifers (most often these are complex fertilizers);
• over the years, the needles on the lower branches turn yellow and fall. To hide bare branches, you need to plant undersized bushes in the first row of the hedge;
• in winter, an adult tree does not need shelter. But it is important to fix the young top so that it does not break under a layer of snow.

If the thuja was planted in the fall, despite the frost resistance, the tree needs to be protected from the cold, since it still does not have a supply of strength and nutrition for wintering. The crown is covered with light non-woven materials to preserve moisture in the needles. The roots are mulched with a thick layer of dry foliage.

Breeding

Coniferous trees are propagated by seeds and cuttings. Seed propagation takes up to seven years, so it is not successful among breeders. Cutting thuja is a long process, but not so laborious and with a greater guarantee of rooting.

Thuja propagation by cuttings

Cutting thuja in the fall. How to do it right:

• an adult branch with a lignified bark is needed for cuttings. To form the crown of the correct form, it is better to take apical shoots;
• the stalk needs to be torn off, and not cut, so that a part of the bark from the trunk (heel) remains on it;
• for 12 hours put in water with root;
• plant at an angle of 60 ° in a mixture of peat, sand and sod land;
• the seedling must be provided with heat not lower than 22 ° С and regular (not plentiful) spraying of the soil.

For greater endurance, the trees after the appearance of a good root system, the thuja is transplanted to schools for 2-3 years. For schools, the soil needs to be dug up and mixed with peat. In the process, you need to regularly loosen the soil, weekly water moderately and remove weeds. In the third year, the seedling will get stronger and will be ready to transplant to a permanent place of growth.

Why do colony-shaped thuja turn yellow

There are natural causes for the color change of trees.

• individual parts of the tree grow 3-6 years. In autumn, the aged parts turn yellow and die, this is a natural process of tree growth;
• the columnar arborvitae of some varieties change their color with the onset of cold weather to bronze.

The combination of varieties Smaragd and Brabant in the hedge

The most common cause of yellowing of needles is the wrong soil composition:

• the high content of sand in the soil does not allow moisture to linger at the roots of needles. The plant dries out;
• too clay soil does not provide sufficient oxygen access to the roots of thuja, which makes them also starve;
• inappropriate place for planting, which contributes to stagnation of moisture and decay of the roots.

Other causes of color changes:

• lack of fertilizer in the soil. With a lack of iron, the needles begin to turn yellow;
• fungal damage to the needles leads to a change in its color to red. For treatment, fungicides must be used.

Arrangement in the garden with other decorative plantings

The tree lends itself to shaping, pruning and combines wonderfully with other coniferous varieties and ornamental plants for the garden. The main thing in caring for the colon-shaped thuja is the right place and nutritious soil.