Content
Creeping low-growing shrubs fit well into the landscape of any terrain. The designers fell in love with the Repanda juniper for its unpretentiousness, winter hardiness, dense greenery of the shoots. This variety was obtained in the last century, but today it enjoys well-deserved popularity.
Description of common juniper Repanda
It is a low-growing, ground-creeping plant with a rounded crown. The size of the Repanda juniper is compact: its height does not exceed 0.5 m, the crown diameter is 2.5 m.In a year, its growth will be about 10 cm.
The needles in the form of short, velvety, soft, lush, pleasant to the touch needles densely cover the entire surface of the shoots. The color of the needles is dark green with a gray tint; in autumn it becomes brown.
Shoots are long, dense, clawed, evenly growing in all directions. In August, the branches are covered with small cones (less than 10 cm in diameter). At maturity, they turn dark blue with a gray waxy coating. At the stage of milky maturity, they are round, light green, covered with a smoky bloom. The fruits of this culture are called cones, but they look more like berries. This description confirms the photo of the Repand juniper with cones.
Juniper Repanda in landscape design
This culture fits well with Scandinavian design, deliberately crude and simple. Juniper goes well with moss, heather, lichen. Such a coniferous plant looks great near reservoirs, artificial and natural, surrounded by stones and boulders, granite chips. This combination will be appropriate in a Japanese-style garden. Combine the Repanda juniper, in this case, with bright heather flowers.
If the shrub serves as an English-style lawn, it is planted with other conifers. You can shade its modest beauty with bright spireas. Low-growing juniper is well planted in rockeries, on lawns. It can be used as a decorative ground cover material. Suitable for decorating the slopes of alpine slides. In the photo you can see how the common juniper Repanda looks great surrounded by boulders and deciduous shrubs.
The main advantage of such a composition is that it will look great at any time of the year.
This crop can also be used as a pot plant. In the gassy city, roofs, balconies and terraces are greened with juniper. Repanda will look good near the porch when entering the house.
The next photo shows how, in landscape design, the common juniper Repanda is used not only for landscaping areas, but also for framing stairs and paths. A low-growing shrub will help strengthen the structure of the soil, avoid shedding the soil near the paths, and reduce the growth of ravines.
In the next photo, the common juniper juniperuscommunis Repanda is practically the only plant on the summer cottage. This makes the yard design laconic and simple. This solution is suitable for a city and a country house.
Planting and caring for common juniper Repanda
Preparation for planting this type of juniper does not differ from its other types. The main thing is to choose a strong, healthy seedling and root it in the soil in the chosen place.
Seedling and planting plot preparation
For planting, seedlings grown in nurseries are purchased. Their roots should be in special containers or wrapped in burlap soaked in water.
Shrub Repanda grows well in open, well-lit areas. Slight shading affects its decorative properties, worsening them. Any soil is suitable for planting: sandy, limestone, with an admixture of clay, but it must be well loosened and fertilized before planting. In order for the juniper to root well and grow quickly, the site is dug up, the earth is mixed with peat, sand, fertilizer for conifers in equal parts.
Planting rules for common juniper Repanda
In order for the shrub to grow well, some features should be taken into account when planting it. The grown plant has shoots at least 2 m long. This fact should be taken into account in the process of planting several juniper bushes and leave room for their growth.
Landing Algorithm:
- Dig a planting hole in accordance with the size of the seedling rhizome.
- Pour a small layer of expanded clay at the bottom, it will act as drainage.
- When planting several plants, for example, as a living curb, the distance between the planting pits is made at least 2 m.
- The seedling is lowered into the planting hole in the center, the roots are straightened and covered with fluffy soil.
After planting, each Repanda plant is watered abundantly, the moistened surface of the soil is covered with sawdust.
Watering and feeding
Juniper Repanda is an unpretentious culture, it is fertilized once a year, in spring. For these purposes, you can use nitroammophoska - 35 g per 1 m2... The fertilizer is dug up with the soil in the area of the rhizome, after which it is watered abundantly. If the soil where the seedling has taken root is poor enough, fertilizer is applied once a month throughout the growing season. This rule applies only to young plants of the first year. One spring feeding a year is enough for adult shrubs.
After planting, the seedlings are watered 1-2 times a week, 2 waterings per month are enough for an adult shrub. In summer, in the heat, juniper can be sprayed in the early morning and late evening 2-3 times a week. To water one plant, you must take at least a bucket of water.
Mulching and loosening
Before each watering, it is necessary to remove weeds under the shoots, then loosen the soil well. After watering, when the moisture is absorbed and goes into the ground, the trunk circle should be mulched. For this, peat, wood chips, sawdust are suitable. The mulch layer will prevent weeds from germinating and retain moisture in the juniper rhizome.
Trimming and shaping
This crop does not need shaping pruning. Shoots and branches grow symmetrically, forming a rounded crown. If the shrub serves as a curb, you can trim long branches that are knocked out of the general order.
In the fall or early spring, it is necessary to carry out sanitary pruning of the Repanda juniper. Remove dry, damaged, weak shoots. If necessary, shorten their length. You should not thin out the juniper too much.
Preparing for winter
In late autumn, the shoots of the Repanda shrub should be tied with twine so that the snow does not damage them. It is also necessary to mulch the near-trunk circle with a thick layer of sawdust, at least 10 cm. In regions with cold, snowless winters, the juniper is covered with film or agrofibre. This rule applies especially to seedlings of the first year.
Reproduction
Juniper Repanda can be propagated by cuttings or layering, rarely by seeds.Cutting is the most convenient way to get a young seedling. The survival rate of a seedling obtained from a cuttings exceeds 80%. Good cuttings can be obtained from young growth in spring.
Propagated by layering in early autumn. Choose strong, long shoots, attach them with brackets to the soil, water. The next year, in the spring, roots will appear at the junction of the branch and the ground. Young plants are carefully separated from the mother bush and transferred to a new place.
Diseases and pests of horizontal repand juniper
If you avoid excessive waterlogging of the soil, weed the beds in time, keep a distance when planting juniper, you can avoid many diseases. Gray mold or mildew mold forms in a humid, warm environment. As a preventive measure, it is important to prune the bushes on time. This will ensure the flow of air and sunlight to the lower tiers of the crown, and prevent mold from multiplying.
A dangerous and frequent disease of juniper is rust. It manifests itself as growths on the branches of a dirty orange color. In these places, the crust becomes dry and brittle, and fractures appear. When neglected, the disease will lead to the death of the plant.
As a prophylaxis of this disease in spring and autumn, the plant is treated with Bordeaux liquid (1%).
If the juniper becomes infected with rust, it is destroyed with a solution of arceride. It is prepared according to the instructions and the shrub is treated once every 10 days until all signs of the disease disappear. Fracture points on the bark must be disinfected. For these purposes, a solution of copper sulfate (1%) is used. After processing, the damage is closed up with garden pitch.
Young plants, especially of the first year, can attack spider mites, aphids, and scale insects. To prevent the appearance of pests, weeds should be carefully removed in spring and autumn, and the soil should be dug up. At the first signs of the appearance of pest larvae, the Repanda juniper should be treated with insecticides several times.
Conclusion
The Repanda Juniper is a lush, evergreen plant that fits well into a simple, classic Japanese or English style design. Such a shrub does not require special care, and its greenery will be equally bright in all seasons. With proper care, diseases and pests practically do not attack this culture.
Reviews of the juniper Repanda
This unpretentious plant has become popular in many home gardens. Reviews of common juniper Repanda are almost always positive. Problems with its cultivation can arise only with improper care or an unsuccessfully chosen place for planting.
