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Coniferous crops are distinguished by unique decorative features. This is a win-win option for decorating the site. Juniper Golden Carpet is one of the varieties of creeping horizontal juniper. The culture has its own characteristics of planting, requirements for care and pest control.
Description of Golden Carpet juniper
The description of the horizontal Golden Carpet juniper indicates that it is a creeping variety with a height of 10-15 cm and a diameter of up to one and a half meters. Shoots are long, resilient, strong, with the ability to take root. Translated from English, the name of the variety sounds like "golden clover".
This variety grows slowly by 10 cm per year. Has small scaly needles of golden color. Above, the color of the needles is golden yellow, and below it is yellow-green.
Fruits occasionally appear on this plant - whitish-blue small-sized cones.
Juniper Golden Carpet belongs to frost-resistant plants, but loves sunny places for planting.
This variety is found in the wild throughout the Northern Hemisphere, as well as in mountainous areas.
Juniper horizontal Golden Carpet in design
Due to its pleasant appearance and unpretentiousness in care, Golden Carpet is used in design everywhere. It can be seen near schools, hospitals, not to mention decorating private areas.
Juniper Golden Carpet is used as a ground cover plant. Regular guest of the lower tier of rock gardens, flower beds, rockeries. Designers use creeping juniper to decorate rocky gardens and juniper lawns. Another plus for the design of the juniper is its unusual color, which practically does not change throughout the year.
Planting and caring for the horizontal juniper Golden Carpet
To maintain the appearance of a horizontal juniper, care should be taken from the moment of planting. The Golden Carpet variety is not considered capricious, but there are still some nuances in care. They must be taken into account in order for the creeping juniper to become a real decoration of the site. A feature of the Golden Carpet juniper is its unpretentiousness to the soil. It can be planted in almost any area, so the plant is used to decorate rocky gardens.
Seedling and planting plot preparation
After choosing a sunny place, you can start preparing the soil and deepening for planting juniper. The optimal soils, despite their unpretentiousness, will still be loams with a neutral level of acidity.
The depth of the hole should be 70 cm, the diameter is 2-3 times larger than the root system of the seedling together with the earthen clod. The recipe for the optimal substrate: mix well two parts of peat, part of river sand and part of sod land.
Drainage should be laid out at the bottom of the fossa. For this, broken brick, gravel and crushed stone are used. It is better to make a drainage layer 20 cm. If the groundwater does not lie close, then the drainage layer can be made smaller.
If you plan to plant several juniper seedlings, then you need to make a distance of 1-2 meters between them, taking into account the size of the future decoration.
Landing rules
When planting, it should be borne in mind that the Golden Carpet juniper has a very fragile root system. Therefore, it is recommended to plant it in a lump of old earth, so as not to damage the roots.
When planting, it is necessary to carefully spread the existing roots, put them in a hole and sprinkle with a substrate. In this case, it is important that the root collar is not buried. The soil around the seedling must be tamped and watered.
After planting, the shrub should be abundantly moisturized for the first week.
Watering and feeding
Juniper Golden Carpet does not like moisture at the roots, but it also does not tolerate dry air. Therefore, the optimal irrigation regime for this shrub is rainwater. Especially on dry, hot days. In this case, it is imperative to ensure that the root system is not subject to waterlogging.
Mature plants in normal summer with enough rain do not need to be watered often. Enough 2-3 watering per season. Up to three buckets of water are poured under each bush.
The juniper does not need frequent feeding. Young seedlings are fertilized in April and May. For feeding, you should take 40 grams of nitroammophoska or any complex mineral fertilizer and apply it to the trunk circle. Then be sure to water the shrub.
Mulching and loosening
The root system of the shrub is delicate. Loosening is necessary to create air access to the roots, but this should be done carefully and shallowly. Care must be taken when loosening young plants.
It is necessary to mulch seedlings immediately after planting. Mulch will help retain moisture and nutrients. Proper insulation of the root system will make it easy to survive the frost. Peat, sawdust, and spruce branches are used as mulch.
Mulch can perform other functions as well:
- Protects roots from overheating during particularly dry periods.
- Maintains acidity levels.
- Prevents weathering and leaching of nutrients.
- Suppresses growth weeds.
Peat mulching is considered the most effective.
Trimming and shaping
The most important thing in landscaping is to shape the juniper correctly. The Golden Carpet variety perfectly tolerates pruning, both sanitary and formative. Sanitary pruning affects health, and shaping gives the necessary shape according to the ideas of the designer.
Sanitary pruning is carried out in the spring, before the start of sap flow. At this time, dry, rotten shoots are removed. Also, all shoots damaged by diseases and cold are cut off.
Formative pruning does not need to be done annually as the Golden Carpet grows slowly. Shrub formation is carried out in July. Sharp instruments should be selected and gloves should be worn to avoid getting essential oils on the skin of the hands.
Preparing for winter
Despite the fact that the Golden Carpet juniper is frost-resistant, minimal preparation for winter is still necessary. First of all, you should cover the root area with spruce branches. Can be replaced with a layer of peat. In any case, mulching will not hurt. Excess shoots, broken and weakened branches must be cut off.
Horizontal Golden Carpet Juniper Reproduction
The horizontal juniper (juniperus horizontalis golden carpet) can reproduce in different ways. Each gardener chooses the most suitable method:
- Seeds. This is the most economical option, but at the same time the most time consuming. To do this, in the fall, dark blue cones of berries are collected, from which the seeds are pulled. The seeds should be planted in a box of soil. The depth of sowing seeds is 2 cm. The box with earth is taken out into the yard until spring. Seeds are planted in the garden in spring. It is necessary to protect the seeds from frost by mulching. This procedure will keep the seeds from weeds. The culture can be planted in a permanent place after 3 years.
- Cuttings. The most versatile breeding method for Golden Carpet juniper. Harvesting of planting material is carried out in cloudy weather. Cuttings should be cut in August, when they are already lignified. These should be the tops of the shoots. After cutting, they are freed from needles and branches. Juniper shoots are pre-soaked (for an hour) in water, then immediately planted in the substrate. This should be done at an angle of 30 ° C. Don't forget about drainage. The boxes of cuttings should be placed in a greenhouse at a temperature of 16–19 ° C before permanent planting. After the buds have bloomed, the temperature should be 26 ° C.
- Layers. It is a popular breeding method for creeping juniper varieties. The algorithm of action is simple:
- loosen the ground around the bush;
- add peat and water;
- clean the branches that are provided for rooting;
- retreat from the root about 20 cm;
- bury the shoot in the ground and dig in;
- water and spud.
Within a year, the cuttings will take root. They need to be separated and transplanted.
Diseases and pests
Juniper Golden Carpet on a trunk is considered resistant to disease, but there are some diseases that are worth looking out for:
- Fusarium. A fungal disease that causes root decay. Dried plants with roots are destroyed.
- Rust.
- Drying of branches.
- Branch bark nectriosis.
There are also pests from which garden plants should be regularly treated:
- juniper aphid;
- mealybug;
- juniper moth;
- gall midge.
For prevention, it is better to use proven insecticides, presented in a wide range: Confidor, Aktara, Mospilan, Engio, Calypso, Aktelik.
Conclusion
Juniper Golden Carpet belongs to the creeping varieties. It is successfully used in various types of landscape design. The culture is distinguished by its pleasant appearance, as well as resistance to frost and drought. Not capricious in the choice of soil, does not require constant feeding. Juniper Golden Carpet (shown in the photo) is used as a decoration not only for garden plots, but also for gardens, parks, urban areas. The plant is long-lived and can survive for up to a thousand years.
