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Juniper Green Carpet is a coniferous shrub whose name literally translates as "green carpet". The plant fully justifies this name, creating a dense lawn of shoots no higher than 20 cm. The flat shape of the crown and the smoky, light green color of the soft needles make the Green Carpet a very attractive element for decorating gardens, lawns, and alpine hills.
Description of Green Carpet Juniper
The plant's official botanical name is Juniperuscommunis Green Carpet. The word "communis" in the name of the Green Carpet juniper translates as "ordinary", although it is difficult to call an ordinary shrub. In the structure of the cushion-shaped crown of the plant, there is no central stem. The branches grow horizontally, creating a fluffy weave almost parallel to the ground.
Green Carpet belongs to the dwarf varieties of junipers, which are characterized by a height of 0.1 to 0.2 m and an annual growth in the range of 8-15 cm.The bush reaches its maximum growth and diameter of about 1.5 m only by 10 years, but is able to grow, remaining decorative for many decades. According to some reports, the lifespan of junipers exceeds 200 years.
Green Carpet needles are soft, scaly, collected in rosettes. Young shoots are covered with reddish bark, which turns brown with age. Fruits are small, blue-colored cones covered with a bluish bloom. The first ovaries are formed already in the year of planting and do not crumble from the branches after ripening.
Juniper Green Carpet in landscape design
Unpretentious care, decorativeness all year round, a small annual increase ensure the dwarf juniper popularity among private gardeners and in the design of parks, squares, public flower beds.
Designers particularly value the Green Carpet for its ability to create long-lasting, vibrant lawns that don't need to be mowed or weeded. The dense plexus of branches makes the germination of weeds impossible.
The height of the Green Carpet Juniper can be modeled. Slightly taller bushes are formed from a low-growing creeping plant with the help of special pruning. In this case, the young growth rises above the last year's, and the bush takes on the appearance of undulating clumps. The needles of different years differ in color, so each "wave" is different from the previous one, which creates an amazing "layered" effect.
The root system of the juniper is shallow, grows strongly to the sides and is able to hold the layers of soil together. This property is used in landscape design to strengthen slopes, ravine edges. Green Carpet, planted on an alpine slide, perfectly holds the entire structure together, keeping artificial mounds from erosion.
The dwarf juniper is most useful for decorating rocky slopes and hills, heather meadows. In flower beds, in rock gardens, Green Carpet favorably sets off low flowering plants with small, bright buds. A good combination would be planting against a background of juniper phlox, herbaceous carnations, barberries.
Plants with different shades of needles are often planted side by side, getting original color transitions or highlighting crops in contrast. You can create an original Green Carpet Juniper cover environment for stem crops.A good combination will be not only vertically developing conifers, but also deciduous or flowering bushes.
Planting and caring for Green Carpet juniper
Junipers are unpretentious to growing conditions, but their decorative effect and growth rate strongly depend on the choice of location, proper planting, and further care.
Basic requirements when choosing a site for the Green Carpet:
- Sandy, sandy, calcareous soils are considered the best for juniper.
- The acidity of the soil on the site should be between neutral and slightly acidic.
- The Green Carpet tolerates partial shade, but thrives in full light throughout the day.
- Neighborhood with tall plants is acceptable if the shade covers the juniper for no more than 2 hours, preferably at noon.
Juniper does not like stagnant moisture and cold drafts. Green Carpet is a viable species. A bush grown under inappropriate conditions rarely dies, but the harmonious development of a bush can not be expected.
Seedling and planting plot preparation
A little pre-planting preparation is required for the success of growing a Green Carpet. Since high-quality varietal material can be purchased only in the nursery, the root system of the seedling is usually placed in a container and does not threaten it drying out.
The selected area is dug up, eliminating weeds, check the acidity of the soil and, if necessary, lime or acidify the soil. Before planting, you should also stock up on mulching material.
Landing rules
If a juniper seedling has an open root system, then it is planted immediately after purchase, most often in the spring. The best time to work is from mid-April to the first week of May. Later, an unadapted bush runs the risk of burning the needles under the scorching sun.
Planting material purchased in containers can be planted in the spring or towards the end of the growing season, in October. Late work can provoke the freezing of young junipers in winter.
Planting horizontal juniper Green Carpet step by step:
- Places for holes during mass planting are marked in advance. The distance between the bushes to obtain a continuous lawn is maintained about 1 m.To form separate spreading bushes - at least 2 m.
- Planting holes for the Green Carpet, regardless of the size of the roots of the seedlings, are dug about 70 cm in depth.
- Drainage material (crushed stone, broken brick, expanded clay) should occupy at least 10 cm at the bottom.
- Up to half the wells are filled with a prepared substrate of coarse sand, peat and soil from a coniferous forest (or simple garden soil).
- It is best to prepare your seats in advance. In 2 weeks, the soil will settle down enough and the risk of root injury will be minimal.
- When planting, the seedling is placed in the center of the hole, sprinkle the roots with the prepared substrate, so that the root collar is flush with the ground.
After planting, the juniper is watered abundantly, and the soil around is covered with a layer of mulch. In the process of rooting, the seedling does not give green growth. The fact that the bush has taken root is judged by the preservation of the plant's typical color.
Watering and feeding
The rooted Green Carpet bush does not require much maintenance. The mode of moistening and fertilizing is quite free.
Juniper care rules:
- the first month in a new place, the seedling is not moistened and fed;
- with the first watering, 40 g of nitroammofoska are applied under each bush;
- further moistening is carried out only with prolonged drought;
- to preserve the beauty of the needles, spraying from a spray bottle every 7-10 days is useful;
One feeding per season is enough for a shrub using special formulations for conifers.Fertilizers are applied in the spring to stimulate active growth.
Mulching and loosening
Juniper horizontal Green Carpet is a cover crop and in adulthood does not require loosening of the soil or protection with a mulch layer. The woven carpet of branches independently protects the soil from drying out and crusting.
Young Green Carpet plants require little maintenance before they form a dense crown. Juniper is best suited for covering the soil with pine sawdust, coniferous bark or peat. The protective layer with this method should not exceed 5 cm.
Trimming and shaping
Like any shrub, juniper will need sanitary pruning. All dry, damaged branches or shoots with traces of diseases are subject to removal. It is unacceptable to leave the cut material on the site: it is taken out of the garden and destroyed.
To ensure the growth of the Green Carpet in height and the formation of clumps, it is enough to trim the growing juniper along the edges, limiting the growth around the circumference. So the bush will become thicker and can reach a height of about 30 cm.
Preparing for winter
The variety is characterized by increased resistance to frost: the description of the variety calls the maximum temperature - 40 ° C. The ordinary juniper Green Carpet, according to gardeners, easily tolerates the winters of the central zone.
Shelter is required only for juniper bushes of the first growing season. The soil around the plants is mulched with a layer of 10 cm. The plantings are covered with lutrasil or special breathing agrofibre, pressing along the edge of the bushes to the soil.
Reproduction
The classic way to get new Green Carpet bushes is cuttings. When pruning, healthy shoots are selected, not shorter than 10 cm, cut off with a sharp, sterile instrument and sent for rooting. Germination can be done at home (in pots) or immediately placed on open beds.
Gardeners say that the easiest way to get juniper seedlings by layering. Pressing the creeping lash to the ground with a special bracket or stone, after a year, you can separate the rooted stem from the mother bush. Such seedlings are the most tenacious, easily adaptable when transplanting.
Diseases and Pests of Juniper Green Carpet
Juniper Green Carpet, according to the description of the variety, resists garden diseases well. Viral and bacterial lesions usually bypass the coniferous culture. Fungal diseases can appear from over-watering, lack of light, or poor ventilation of the bushes. The affected parts of the plant are cut out and destroyed, and the bushes are sprayed with fungicidal preparations.
In the spring, to prevent fungal infections, the bushes can be treated with Bordeaux mixture along with other garden plants or use store-bought fungicides.
Excess light before the start of the growing season can cause trouble for a young juniper. At the end of February, the sun's rays can burn and discolor the needles. On especially sunny days of late winter - early spring, plants are shaded with non-woven garden material. At the same time, it is useful to carry out the first watering of the juniper.
Pests are also reluctant to visit coniferous plantations. But during the period of weakening of plants from heat or heavy rains, from neighbors in the garden, a spider mite, scale insect, or aphids may appear on the juniper. To rid the Green Carpet of infection, the bushes are sprayed with complex insecticides.
Conclusion
Juniper Green Carpet is very decorative and very unpretentious. The unusual shape of the bush and beautiful fluffy needles impress with single and group plantings. Plants hardly get sick, do not require frequent watering and special care. The slow growth of the Green Carpet maintains a thoughtful landscape design for decades, and will require only a small annual shaping in return.
