- Type: conifers
- Flowering period: may
- Height: 1.5-30m
- Green colour
- Perennial
- Winters
- Shady
- Drought resistant
Unlike the southern and tropical regions, in the northern latitudes conifers have a special place in the garden landscape - in the off-season and in winter only they can revive the garden with their own colors. Evergreen conifers are usually "garden soloists" due to the rich colors of the needles, ranging from dark emerald to silver gray and golden. No exception - junipers, which have a wide range of shades of crown and successfully complement the "all-season" garden - a garden designed to be attractive at any time of the year. Planting and caring for juniper are not easy processes - knowing the nuances allows you to grow a conifer of high decorativeness, which fits favorably with landscape design.
Spherical, pyramidal, conical, weeping or creeping - the shape of the juniper crown can be any, which expands the possibilities of landscape design in the formation of compositions expressive in their geometry. By combining only conifers, you can compose an original garden, bright in originality and style: landscape or regular, avant-garde or classical, ethnic or modernist.
The rock garden created using a combination of juniper with other types of conifers will look advantageous at any time of the year.
Coniferous plants adorn the garden, creating a calm and elegant landscape. Large conical or columnar junipers will be good in a single or group planting, acting as the center of the landscape composition. A single juniper in the form of a topiary looks catchy. A single dimensional plant is always a dominant in garden design, which is desirable to surround with smaller plants.
The group planting of flake juniper varieties of Lodery with its conical crown will favorably complement the composition of the rockery
Junipers with a geometric crown look good in the gardens with a regular layout, creating species points and emphasizing the correctness of the outline of the flower beds. In landscape gardens, cone-shaped and spherical junipers coexist perfectly with less “official” perennial plants, and spreading varieties will add a curb, rock garden or reservoir of expressivity.
They are often used in planting hedges (molded, freely growing) and mixborders, in the design of the foreground of alpine hills and slopes, to outline the boundaries of lawns or flower beds.
Conifers in landscape design can be used in another way: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/xvojnye-v-landshaftnom-dizajne.html
Combining molded and unformed junipers with an exotic crown, you can create a spectacular rockery
Dwarf junipers in the form of compact bonsai and topiary are indispensable for laying an oriental-style garden - they will advantageously decorate the rocky composition and branching of the paths, advantageously combining with ground cover and undersized plants: saxifrage, loosestrife, stonecrops, cloves, phlox and cereal.
You can learn about how to choose ground cover perennials for garden design from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/pochvopokrovnye-rasteniya-dlya-sada.html
Junipers with a beautiful crown color:
- bluish-silver rocky juniper grade Blue Arrow,
- the bluish blue Meyeri and Blue Carpet,
- gray-gray rock grade Skyrocket,
- some juniper trees (Andorra Compact, Blue Chip) turn purple in winter,
- sprawling juniper golden tone Pfitzeriana Aurea looks advantageous against the background of the lawn.
The spectacular crown of junipers does not require frequent pruning, but varieties growing in the form of hedges are sheared regularly: in the middle of summer and spring, removing dry and some lateral branches that are knocked out of the formed crown. If the juniper grows in the garden like a bonsai, then the haircut is performed in April-May and in October-November.
Juniper variety for planting
When choosing a type of juniper for planting in the garden, you must have full information about its characteristics: winter hardiness, adult size of the plant, shape and color of the crown, growing and care conditions. Junipers, which are brought to us from Western European nurseries, can be both resistant enough to the harsh winters characteristic of central Russia, and non-resistant, successfully growing without shelter only in the southern regions.
After acquiring a new coniferous plant (even frost-resistant), experienced gardeners recommend covering it for the first winter with fir spruce branches or burlap, tying up branches to avoid sunburn of needles and spoilage of the crown from snow.
Gold Coast juniper middle grade, with golden needles, expressively contrasts with more emerald greenery
Employees of the botanical gardens of Russia identified suitable and unsuitable juniper varieties for growing in domestic latitudes.
Winter-hardy species of juniper (Juniperus):
- ordinary (J. Communis),
- Cossack (J. Sabina),
- flake (J. Squmata),
- horizontal (J. Horizontalis),
- Siberian (J. Sibirica),
- Chinese (J. Chinensis),
- solid (J. Rigida),
- Virginia (J. Virginiana).
Juniper resistant species:
- Turkestan (J. Turkestanica),
- declining (J. Procumbens),
- Zeravshan (J. Seravshanica),
- red (J. Oxycedrus).
The successful rooting and growth of juniper largely depends on the quality of the purchased seedlings. When purchasing planting material, you should pay attention to such points:
- Plants with an open root system are best not to buy.
- It is advisable to purchase juniper in a container or with an earthen lump wrapped in burlap.
- The root system and branches should show the growth of the current year.
- There should be no cracks on the trunk of the plant.
- Fresh shoots must be flexible and brittle.
- The color of the crown should be uniform, without brownish spots and white flakes at the base of the needles.
- It is recommended to choose those plants that were grown in a container, and not in the open ground, and then simply transplanted into a container.
When choosing a juniper, do not be lazy to look at its coniferous neighbors. The most beautiful are: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/dekorativnye-xvojniki.html
Junipers with an open root system are planted in early spring or autumn, and seedlings with an earthen lump are planted throughout the period from spring to autumn. Planting in the spring is optimal for the northern regions - so the seedling will have time to take root in order to more successfully transfer the winter.
Combining junipers with different colors of needles, you can form a hedge unusual in color and shape
Planting Technology
Due to its decorativeness, junipers are a good choice for a young garden, when a group of several conifers is able to fill the voids in the landscape immediately after planting and form an attractive composition. For planting light-loving junipers, an open, well-lit area of the garden is selected, with loamy or sandy loamy soil - nutritious and sufficiently moist.
A silver molded juniper hedge will be a catchy element in the garden’s landscape design
If the soil is clayey and heavy, then a mixture of garden soil, peat, sand and coniferous soil (loose soil with needles, collected under spruce or pine trees in the forest) is added to the planting pit. In this case, the soil is pre-drained by pouring broken brick or sand to the bottom of the landing pit. Junipers grow well on lean soils, can easily tolerate drought, but stagnation of moisture in the soil is destructive for them.
You can learn more about what soil fertility depends on from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/ot-chego-zavisit-plodorodie-pochvy.html
The most successful soil mixture for planting juniper: 2 parts of sod land, 2 parts of humus, 2 parts of peat, 1 part of sand. It is also advisable to add 150 g of Kemira station wagon and 300 g of nitrophoska to the mixture, as well as epin after planting (for optimal survival) under each seedling.
Horizontal junipers with a spread crown fit well into the design of the zone near the pond
The dimensions of the planting hole depend on the size of the juniper root system, for example, for large species they dig a pit of the order of 60 × 80 cm.The plant is planted quickly so that the root system does not have time to dry, but carefully so as not to damage the earthen lump or young roots. After landing in open ground, the juniper is abundantly watered and covered from direct sunlight.
The density of juniper placement on the site depends on the landscape composition - whether it be a hedge, a solitaire or a group planting. For junipers, the distance between the seedlings during planting is selected in the range from 0.5 to 2 m. For a small garden, it is better to focus on compact types of juniper.
Also, material on the creation of coniferous compositions in the landscape design of the garden will be useful: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/xvojnye-v-landshaftnom-dizajne.html
Juniper seed cultivation
When collecting juniper seeds for sowing, it is important to observe the time intervals - it is better to prepare not fully ripened seeds at the end of summer than to finally ripen in the autumn. So the probability of germination will be greater. The collected planting material must be sown immediately, but you need to be prepared for the fact that, due to the hard shell, the juniper seeds sprout only for 2-3 years after sowing.
A group planting of Chinese juniper will revitalize the garden in the off-season and in winter
You can plant juniper dug in the forest on the site, having previously indicated on its trunk an orientation in parts of the world in order to maximally simulate the features of its growth in the natural environment when transplanting. The “native” land should be large, with the top layer of humus preserved.
How to apply fertilizers
Subject to the selection of juniper varieties that are resistant to domestic climatic conditions, care for young plants is minimal - junipers are almost not sick and are not affected by pests, they do not require intensive feeding and spraying. In the future, it is enough only to provide watering for juniper in dry years and to support it with nitrogen or complex fertilizers 2-3 times a season.
Different varieties of junipers have differently colored needles, but the needles of a bluish-blue color look especially beautiful
In no case should conifers be fertilized with bird or cow humus - this causes the juniper roots to burn and the plant will die. It is also impossible to loosen the soil around junipers - due to the fact that the root system of conifers belongs to the surface type, the nutrition of the trunk worsens, and the plant begins to wither. For the juniper, it is enough to mulch the soil with coniferous soil harvested in the forest.
Winter Care
In winter, the formed juniper crowns may break up under the weight of snow, some branches may break. To avoid such troubles, the crowns of the formed junipers are tied in advance in the fall. Some species of junipers are sensitive to differences in day and night temperatures in early spring, active winter and spring suns and require shelter in February-March. Burns of needles lead to a change in the green color of the crown of conifers to a brown-yellow hue and, therefore, to a loss of decorative juniper.
The horizontal juniper of the Plumeza variety acts as a groundcover for rock garden
If the conifer buds remain alive during a sunburn, the young shoots gradually cover the burned places, but if the buds die, the branches affected by frost must be cut to healthy wood and treated with garden varieties.
In order for the juniper needles to remain bright in winter, the plant must be regularly watered, fertilized in spring and late summer with granular baits, and sprayed with needles with micronutrients.
Gardeners practice these types of shelters for juniper for the winter:
- Snow. A great option for miniature and creeping forms - snow is simply thrown onto the branches of the conifer. But with heavy snowfall it is recommended to make a protective frame.
- Lapnik. Fasten on branches in tiers, moving from bottom to top of juniper.
- Non-woven and woven materials. The conifers are wrapped in spunbond, burlap, craft paper (in two layers), light cotton cloth and tied with a rope, leaving the lower part of the crown open. The film can not be used - the plant will sing.
- Screen. It is installed from the most lit side of the plant.
Lutrasil is not suitable for sheltering the juniper - it lets in the sun's rays, and shelter from cardboard boxes is also not very successful. According to the experience of gardeners, metallized insulation used for laying laminate is excellent as a shelter for conifers. To do this, in October (while the earth is still not frozen) pegs are driven around the juniper, and the plant is wrapped in the plant in November.
The horizontal juniper Bar Harbor with a rounded crown effectively complemented the solitary planting of hardwood
Frost-resistant species of juniper that does not burn in the sun: Cossack, medium varieties (Hetzi, Old Gold, Mint Julep), Chinese Gold Star, varieties Pendula and Pfitzeriana. Subspecies of common juniper are badly burned in the winter and spring sun.
Features of the preparation of conifers for winter: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/zimnyaya-spyachka-xvojnikov.html
Location on the flower bed: 8 beautiful schemes
Juniper Cossack - one of the most frost-resistant varieties, ideal for planting in central Russia
Columnar juniper Hiberika acts as a focal point on a flower bed
On the flowerbed, you can combine several types of juniper: rocky, horizontal, Chinese - any combination will be successful
1. Thuja western "Holmstrup". 2. Barberry of Thunberg "Red Chief". 3. Mountain pine "Mops". 4. Juniper medium "Old Gold". 5. Juniper Cossack "Tamariscifolia". 6. Ground cover perennials (bryozoans, stonecrop)
1. Juniper rocky "Blue Arrow". 2. Juniper rocky molded "Skyrocket". 3. Juniper scaly molded "Meyeri". 4. Mountain pine "Mops". 5. Juniper horizontal "Blue Chip". 6. Juniper leaning "Nana"
1. Juniper Chinese "Blaauw" or "Blue Alps". 2. Thuja western "Stolwijk" or "Rheingold". 3. Thuja eastern "Aurea Nana". 4. Canadian spruce "Conica". 5. Thuja western "Tiny Tim" or "Little Champion". 6. Mountain pine "Gnom". 7. Spruce spruce "Glauca Globosa" or European "Nidiformis". 8. Juniper horizontal "Blue Chip" or "Prince of Wales". 9. Juniper horizontal "Wiltonii". 10. Cotoneaster of Dammer. 11. Groundcover roses. 12. Flowers: petunia, awl-shaped phlox, shaving, thyme, verbena. 13. Spirea "Snowmound"
Juniper with an original crown plays the role of an emphasis on an alpine hill
1. Juniper Cossack molded. 2. Scroll of Siebold. 3. Stonecrop is caustic. 4. Dwarf iris. 5. Garden iris (bearded, medium-tall). 6. Ear primrose. 7. Iberis is evergreen. 8. The meadow is turfy. 9. Hybrid young. 10. Saxifraga sod. 11. Muscari crested. 12. Campanul bell
Types and varieties of juniper
The decorativeness of planting from junipers essentially depends on the right variety - its size, taking into account the growth, shape of the crown, color and texture of the needles. Varieties belonging to the same species of junipers can vary significantly in their external characteristics - this is also worth considering.
Juniper flake:
- Meyeri. Height 1 m, growth rate 10 cm per year. The needles are silver-blue. Mixborders and bonsai.
- Blue Carpet. Height 0.6 m, diameter 2-2.5 m. Creeping branched crown. The needles are silver-blue. Unpretentious, growing fast. The lower tier of landscape compositions.
Juniper medium:
- Old Gold. Height 0.4 m, diameter 1 m. A wide, rounded crown of yellow-gold color. Single landing on the lawn, in rock gardens.
- Mint Julep.Height 1.5 m, diameter 2-3 m. Spreading crown with curved branches and scaly green needles. Group plantings, alpine hills, lining tall bushes.
- Gold Star. Height 1 m, diameter 2.5 m. Low-growing shrub with a spreading crown and needles of golden-green tone. Low sheared or unformed hedges, decoration of gutters and drainage wells.
- Pfitzerian compact. Height 0.8 m, diameter 1.5-2 m. Spreading crown, needle-shaped green needles. It grows fast, tolerates a haircut. Borders, curtains from evergreens with different colors of needles, molded and unformed hedges, the organization of the lower tier in large-scale landscape compositions.
Red cedar:
- Hetz. Height 1 m, Diameter 2-2.5 m. An increase of 30 cm per year. Spreading roundish crown with scaly silver-blue needles. It tolerates a haircut. Single and group landing.
- Canaerty. Height 5-7 m, diameter 2-3 m. Annual growth of 30 cm. Column-shaped crown with dark green needles. Tapeworm, groups, hedges.
- Gray Oul. Height 1 m, diameter 2.5 m. Growth 20 cm per year. Spreading crown with scaly silver-blue needles and purple shoots. Molded compositions.
Juniper horizontal:
- Blue Chip. Height 0.4 m, diameter 2 m. Low-growing dwarf shrub with needle-shaped needles of a bluish-blue tone. Rock gardens, heather gardens, retaining walls.
- Blue Forest. Height 0.3 m, diameter 1.5. Creeping ground cover with blue needles. Strengthening slopes, lower tiers of rock gardens, container landing.
- Andorra compact. Height 0.4 m, diameter 1.5 m. Flat-circular cushion-shaped crown with blue-gray scaly needles. Low borders, decoration of the slopes and tiers of the garden.
- Andorra compact Veriegata. Height 0.4 m, diameter 1.5 m. Pillow-shaped crown with radiant shoots and bright green needles with whitish spots on the tips of branches. Mixed groups, rocky gardens.
- Wiltony. Height 0.1 m, diameter 2 m. Branched ground cover with silver-emerald needles. Large groups, rock gardens, juniper lawns.
Juniper Chinese:
- Stricta. Height 2.5 m, diameter 1.5 m. Cone-shaped crown with greenish-blue needles. Single and group plantings, growing in flowerpots.
- Obelisk. Height 3 m, diameter 1.2-1.5 m. Column-shaped crown with bluish-green needles.
- Monarch. Height 2 m, diameter 1.5 m. Asymmetric columnar crown. Single and group landings.
- Curivao Gold. Height 2 m, diameter 2 m. Spreading openwork crown of rounded shape with green needles and young shoots of golden hue. Single landing, mixed and coniferous groups, rock gardens.
Juniper is rocky Skyrocket. Height 3 m, diameter 0.7 m. Annual growth 10-20 cm. Pyramidal crown with a short bluish-green needles. Vertical emphasis in rock gardens, alley landings, on lawns, in contrast compositions and hedges.
Juniper Hibernika. Height 3-5 m, diameter 1-1.2 m. Column-shaped crown with bluish-steel barbed needles. Tapeworm, group plantings and hardwood compositions.
Juniper Cossack. Height 1 m, diameter 2 m. Spreading crown with grassy-green needles. Hedgerows, single and group plantings.
A variety of colors and shapes of junipers allows you to create spectacular landscape compositions, combining them with other coniferous and deciduous species of shrubs or trees, as well as flowers and other garden plants.
