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Creeping undersized shrubs fit well into the landscape of any terrain. Designers fell in love with juniper Repanda for unpretentiousness, winter hardiness, dense green shoots. This variety was obtained in the last century, but today it enjoys well-deserved popularity.
Description of juniper ordinary Repanda
This is a low-growing, creeping plant with a rounded crown. The Repanda juniper is compact in size: its height does not exceed 0,5 m, its crown diameter is 2,5 m. Its annual growth will be approximately 10 cm.
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, turning brown in autumn.
The shoots are long, dense, pawled, growing evenly in all directions. In August, the branches are covered with small cones (less than 10 cm in diameter). At maturity, they become dark blue with a gray waxy coating. At the stage of milk maturity, they are round, light green, covered with a smoky coating. The fruits of this culture are called cones, but they are more like berries. This description confirms the photo of juniper Repanda with cones.
Juniper Repanda in landscape design
This culture fits in well with Scandinavian design, deliberately rough and simple. Juniper goes well with moss, heather, lichen. Such a coniferous plant looks great near water bodies, artificial and natural, surrounded by stones and boulders, granite chips. This combination would be appropriate in a Japanese-style garden. Combine Repanda juniper, in this case, with bright heather flowers.
If the shrub serves as an English-style lawn decoration, it is planted surrounded by other conifers. You can shade its modest beauty with bright spireas. Undersized juniper is well planted in rockeries, on lawns. It can be used as a decorative ground cover. 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 culture can also be used as a potted plant. Roofs, balconies, and terraces are planted with juniper in a gassed city. Repanda will look good near the porch at the entrance to the house.
The following photo shows how, in landscape design, common Repanda juniper is used not only for landscaping plots, but also for framing stairs and paths. A low-growing shrub will help strengthen the soil structure, avoid soil shedding near the paths, and reduce the growth of ravines.
In the next photo, the common juniper juniperus communis Repanda is almost the only plant on the summer cottage. This makes the design of the yard concise, simple. This solution is suitable for the city and country house.
Planting and caring for common juniper Repanda
Preparation for planting this type of juniper does not differ from its other species. The main thing is to choose a strong, healthy seedling and root it in the soil in the chosen place.
Seedling and planting preparation
For planting, seedlings grown in nurseries are purchased. Their roots should be in special containers or wrapped in a burlap moistened with water.
Repanda shrub grows well in open, well-lit areas. A 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 take root well and quickly grow, the site is dug up, the earth is mixed with peat, sand, fertilizer for coniferous crops in equal parts.
Rules for planting 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 according to the size of the rhizome of the seedling.
- Pour a small layer of expanded clay at the bottom, it will act as a drainage.
- When planting several plants, for example, as a living border, 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 soil surface is covered with sawdust.
Watering and top dressing
Juniper Repanda is an unpretentious culture, it is fertilized once a year, in spring. For these purposes, you can use nitroammophoska – 1 g per 35 m2. Fertilizer is dug up with soil in the rhizome area, then watered abundantly. If the soil where the seedling has taken root is rather poor, fertilizer is applied once a month throughout the entire growing season. This rule applies only to young plants of the first year. For adult shrubs, one spring top dressing per year is enough.
After planting, seedlings are watered 1-2 times a week, an adult shrub needs 2 waterings per month. 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 need to take at least a bucket of water.
Mulching and loosening
Before each watering, it is necessary to remove the 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. Peat, wood chips, sawdust are suitable for this. The mulching layer will prevent weeds from sprouting and retain moisture near the juniper rhizome.
Trimming and shaping
This culture does not need forming pruning. Shoots and branches grow symmetrically, forming a rounded crown. If the shrub serves as a border, you can trim long branches that are out of order.
In autumn or early spring, it is necessary to carry out sanitary pruning of Repanda juniper. Remove dry, damaged, weak shoots. If necessary, shorten their length. Juniper should not be over-thinned.
Preparation 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 trunk circle with a thick layer of sawdust, at least 10 cm. In regions with cold, snowless winters, juniper is covered with a film or agrofiber. This rule applies especially to seedlings of the first year.
Reproduction
Juniper Repanda can be propagated by cuttings or layering, rarely by seeds. Cuttings are the most convenient way to get a young seedling. The survival rate of a seedling obtained from a cutting exceeds 80%. Good cuttings can be obtained in spring from young shoots.
Propagated by layering in early autumn. Choose strong, long shoots, attach them with brackets to the soil, water. The following year, in the spring, roots will appear at the junction of the branch and the soil. Young plants are carefully separated from the mother bush and transferred to a new place.
Diseases and pests of horizontal juniper Repanda
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 rot or fungus molds form in moist, warm environments. As a preventive measure, it is important to trim the bushes on time. This will ensure the flow of air and sunlight to the lower tiers of the crown, and will 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 bark becomes dry and brittle, faults appear. In advanced form, the disease will lead to the death of the plant.
As a prevention of this disease in spring and autumn, the plant is treated with Bordeaux liquid (1%).
If the juniper has become 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 1 days until all signs of the disease disappear. Faults on the bark must be disinfected. For these purposes, use a solution of copper sulfate (10%). After treatment, the damage is sealed with garden pitch.
Young plants, especially the first year, can be attacked by spider mites, aphids, 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, Repanda juniper should be treated several times with insecticides.
Conclusion
The Repanda juniper is a lush, evergreen plant that will fit in well with 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 crop.
Juniper Reviews Repanda
This unpretentious plant has become popular in many household plots. Reviews of the common juniper Repanda are almost always positive. Problems with its cultivation can only arise with improper care or an unsuccessfully chosen place for planting.
