Let's get acquainted with the beautiful varieties of Chinese juniper. Cossack juniper: varieties, propagation and pruning Juniperus sabina variegata description

Crown diameter of an adult plant: 1.5 m

Adult plant height: 1m

Form: Low shrub with a spreading crown. The shoots are prostrate, the tips of the shoots are curved.
Needles/Foliage: Variegated – green with creamy white spots.
Requirements: Prefers sunny places. The requirements for soil and moisture are low. Resistant to urban conditions. Frost-resistant.

Description

A bright colorful accent for your garden. A low shrub with a dense spreading crown. The originality of this variety is given by the bluish-green needles with creamy white splashes. Such a spectacular and bright shrub will look great both when planted alone and in contrast with green, yellow or crimson plants.

Variegated and bright evergreen shrub, juniper Cossack Variegata, has a small stature. Normally reaches 0.5 - 0.6 meters. The diameter of its crown reaches 1 meter. The annual growth is 8 cm. It is actively used in landscape design. It is used for single and group plantings, in decorating rock gardens and rocky gardens. Colorful and original, it attracts the eye. The green crown with creamy tan marks makes juniper stand out from other plants. Company specialists Super Gardens provide a large assortment of trees, shrubs, and flowers. We develop landscape design based on customer preferences. We set reasonable prices and a flexible system of discounts, and conduct seasonal promotions.


The plant prefers sunny areas. In a shady area it will not die, but the crown will not have its characteristic roundness and splendor. The unusual color is also lost. is settling in well. It tolerates frost well. During the winter cold it does not require special treatment; it is not covered. It should be remembered that in the first year of life of a young bush it still needs to be protected. Therefore, it would be better to protect it from severe frosts during the first winter. Subsequently, the plant will thank you for your care with a beautiful, variegated and bright crown, which, like a small sun, attracts the eye in the spring thawed patches. Cossack juniper Variegata is resistant to summer drought, but requires infrequent watering during a particularly dry season.

Cossack juniper seeds ripen only after a year. When sowing them, seedlings can only be expected after 2-3 years. In spring, juniper needs the introduction of nitroammophoska 30-40 g. per m2. It is necessary to carry out peat mulching with sawdust or wood chips with a layer thickness of 5-8 cm. Company employees Super Gardens will help you choose a variety of plants that will feel good in your garden. We will quickly and carefully deliver and help you plant and care for your garden. We can offer it at a reasonable price buy Cossack juniper Variegata. The manager will answer all questions and help you quickly place your order.

The beauty of the bush and the unusual color of its crown completely pays off price for Cossack juniper Variegata. It doesn't need pruning. But if you still decide to give its branches the necessary direction of growth and shape, then you need to protect yourself from juniper poison. For this purpose, as a rule, protective gloves are worn. The proximity of a pear tree is dangerous for the bush. It may be susceptible to a dangerous fungus - pear rust. The smell of its resin protects juniper from pests. But even rare attacks by scale insects, spider mites, and sawflies can be prevented using standard means. Company specialists Super Gardens warn against planting Cossack Variegat juniper near the house where children grow up. Its poison is dangerous and is used in the pharmaceutical industry. For the home, it is better to buy non-fertile males.

Cossack juniper has more than 20 varieties, differing in the shape and color of the needles. Some of them, barely rising, spread along the ground, others form lush thickets taller than human height. The following cultivars are most valued by gardeners and landscape designers.

Cossack juniper "Blue Danub"

Cossack juniper variety "Rockery Jam"

Cossack juniper “Rockery Gem” (Juniperus Sabina Rockery Gem) is a dwarf, creeping form with a dense, dense, widely spread crown of an asymmetrical shape. The height of shrubs of this variety reaches 50 cm, while the crown diameter varies from 2.5 to 3.5 m. It grows slowly, the growth does not exceed 8-10 cm per year. The skeletal branches are powerful, thick, strongly branched at the ends, and grow unevenly. In young trees, the branches extend from the center of the bush at an acute angle upward, and with age they lie horizontally.

The needles of plants of the Rockery Jam variety are thick, prickly, and rich, blue-green in color. In the center of the crown the needles are needle-shaped, on the periphery they are scale-like. The shade of young growth differs little from the needles on last year's branches.

The Rockery Jam cultivar is undemanding when it comes to soils and grows well in both nutritious garden soils and depleted soils. Pruning is only required if horizontal growth needs to be stopped.

Due to its frost resistance and shade tolerance, the creeping form of the Rockery Jam juniper is widely used in landscape design as a ground cover plant for the design of alpine slides, retaining walls, rocky slopes, heather and Japanese gardens, and walking paths.

Juniper Cossack "Tamariscifolia" or "Tamaris"

Cossack juniper "Tamariscifolia" (Juniperus Sabina Tamariscifolia), sometimes called Cossack juniper "Tamaris", is a low, evergreen shrub, reaching 1 m in height with a crown diameter of up to 2 m. Short shoots are overlapping and grow vertically upward, with age the form is prostrate the crown becomes dome-shaped.

The needles are predominantly needle-shaped, slightly curved, pale green or bluish-green, with a white stripe running along the upper plane. One whorl contains three needles. The “Tamariscifolia” form is drought- and frost-resistant, tolerates the climate of central and northern Russia well, is resistant to smoke and air pollution, and is not demanding on soils: it grows well in both acidic and alkaline areas.

The only disadvantage of the Tamaris variety is its high susceptibility to fungal diseases, especially during periods of prolonged rains. This cultivar can be planted in rock gardens, rockeries or as a single plant on the lawn. Tamariscifolia is widely used for landscaping ravines and as a container crop. It grows well on loose sandy and rocky slopes and wide curbs along roads.

Remember that the needles and fruits of the Tamariscifolia form are poisonous, so it is not recommended to plant plants of this variety near children's playgrounds.

Creeping Cossack juniper "Variegata"

Cossack juniper “Variegata” (Juniperus Sabina Variegata) is a creeping form, reaching a height of no more than 50 cm. The dense, semi-spreading crown lies low to the ground and extends to 1.5 m. The “Variegata” variety, a photo of which you can see in the photo gallery below on this page, sometimes called "variegated juniper" due to its frequent flecks of creamy color.

Description

Chinese juniper Variegata (Juniperus chinensis Variegata). The crown is irregularly shaped, conical, dense. A slow growing form, at the age of 10 years it reaches 2 m in height. The shoots are tough and short. The needles are prickly, blue-green; a characteristic feature is twigs with a white-variegated color. The requirements for soil and moisture are low. Recommended for home gardens and heather gardens. The variety is quite unpretentious and frost-resistant. Prefers sunny places; in the shade the needles may lose the richness of their color. Undemanding to soil and moisture, frost-resistant. An excellent choice for rocky gardens, rock gardens, heather landscapes and compositions in containers, coniferous and mixed groups.

Crown shape: Crown of irregular shape, conical, dense
Growth pattern: Height 2-3 m, crown diameter 1.2-1.6 m in late age.
Needles: Bluish-green with creamy inclusions
Fruit: Spherical, purple-brown buds
Relation to light: Sun, partial shade
Relation to soil: Chinese juniper Stricta Variegata tolerates dry, calcareous and sandy soils, well-drained equally well.
Peculiarities: Frost-resistant, grows slowly, annual growth is 10-15 cm in height, 5 cm in width
Application: For home gardens and heather gardens

Planting and caring for Chinese juniper Variegata

It is better to plant juniper in sunny places, slight shading is allowed. The distance between planted plants is from 0.5 to 2 m, depending on the size. The planting hole should be 2-3 times larger than the earthen ball and up to 70 cm deep for adult plants. At the bottom of the hole, make a drainage layer of sand or broken brick about 20 cm thick. When planting, it is important that the root collar is not buried.

Junipers prefer soil with a slightly acidic to neutral reaction (see). The soil mixture is made in a 2:1:1 ratio from peat, sand and turf soil, respectively. After planting, the plant needs to be watered abundantly for a week.

In dry summers it needs to be watered. Junipers do not tolerate dry air well, so it is advisable to sprinkle regularly. Fertilizers are applied once a year in the spring at the end of April or in May (nitroammofoska, Kemira-universal, etc.). Young plants need shallow loosening.

For the winter, the plants are sprinkled with peat with a layer thickness of 10 cm, and the young plants are covered with spruce branches. Columnar varieties may suffer from heavy snowfalls, so in the fall the branches are pressed to the trunk with tape or rope (see,).

Cossack juniper is an unpretentious and attractive-looking plant, which, due to its appearance, can become a good decoration for any summer cottage. With the help of evergreen needles, landscape designers create their unusual projects, creating a cozy atmosphere and unique beauty on the site.

By planting them next to each other, you can create a good grove of junipers, making them the center of attention of people around you, and the aroma emanating from this plant is not only capable of qualitatively purifying the surrounding air, but also eliminating various infections and diseases.

General characteristics of Cossack juniper

Cossack juniper should be classified as a member of the Cypress family. This is a low-growing plant of a creeping coniferous nature, with branches that can reach 1.5–2 meters in height. The plant is covered with unusual scale-like needles, in some cases with special needle-shaped leaves.

Cossack-type juniper includes about 70 varieties that grow freely in the northern hemisphere of the country. The plant is quite light-loving, unpretentious to the soil mixture, drought-resistant, winter-hardy, able to quickly grow to its optimal size, and can also grow in a permanent place for about 30 years.

Cossack juniper, which looks so effective in any garden plot, can be perfectly combined with other plants or with the same plant varieties.

How is the plant planted?

  1. In spring time It is best to start planting the plant in open ground. The main rule in the planting process is that the place where the plant will be planted must be completely dry and illuminated by the sun. In shaded areas, the plant quickly begins to lose its decorative effect and change appearance.
  2. Should be planted several varieties of juniper at once, which will be different in their color and structure. But you should definitely take into account that the distance between neighboring plants should be at least 0.5 meters.
  3. Before the landing process itself It is worth preparing a high-quality earthen mixture in advance. Dig a hole two or three times the size of the roots themselves. A layer of drainage (small pebbles, old crushed brick) should be placed at the very bottom of the hole. If the soil is too acidic, then as a supplement it is worth placing lime or dolomite flour in the hole. Next, the ground should be loosened, the roots of the plant, after being placed in a dug hole, should be straightened in a horizontal position, covered with a large amount of soil, while leaving a small depression so that water does not begin to flow out during watering.

At the same time, the root collar should remain completely open. After this, the hole left should be completely filled with tree bark or individual sawdust. They will be able to effectively protect the plant from excess weeds, as well as retain moisture.

Common Cossack juniper is unpretentious to the soil mixture and can grow well even in rocky soil. Juniper is also able to grow in oily and acidic soil.

The process of transplanting Cossack juniper

  1. Perennial It can take root in rare cases and most often adapts for a long time. But at the same time, if you follow all the rules and conditions, this will be quite possible. Before transplanting an adult crop, you need to examine it as carefully as possible and check it for the presence of various diseases and damage. If they are present in a new place of growth, the shrub may simply not survive and die.
  2. Should be done in advance six months before transplanting, dig up the juniper, thereby facilitating the cutting of its rhizomes. It is worth digging up a plant according to the diameter of its crown, and it is even better to choose a larger diameter. The area where the juniper is to be transplanted should be prepared in advance. The soil should be loosened. It is better to transplant the plant into acidic, fertile soil.

An adult shrub should be dug up and immediately moved to a cart or bag. The root system, together with the soil, is watered with a special solution, which will promote the formation and development of new roots at the planting site.

When transplanting juniper, you should take into account the direction of the world in which it previously grew. After landing it should be carefully processed various types of fertilizers for the best survival and rooting in one place. When watering a plant, excess water should not fall on the trunk area or crown, as this can develop various diseases and difficulties in the process of growing the plant.

Juniper Cossack propagation process

At the moment, there are several ways to reproduce simple Cossack juniper. This is propagation by cuttings, layering or seeds.

The process of reproduction of Cossack juniper.

Before you start propagating this plant by seeds, you need to be well prepared for this process. To do this, it is worth preparing boxes for stratification in advance. Stratification is the process of keeping seeds for a long time under certain conditions for their rapid germination. Berry cones develop on the female branches, which ripen throughout August and until October. Ripe chico berries begin to acquire a purple-black color, and then are completely covered with a coating of wax.

Each such cone contains a pair of seeds. In order to speed up the process of plant germination, you should remove the seeds from each cone, place them in an acid solution for half an hour, and then rinse them under running water. With the appearance of the first snow outside, the seeds can be transplanted into pre-prepared boxes and then buried. They should be stored in this state throughout the winter. In early spring, stratified seeds should be planted in open soil.

Those Cossack juniper seeds that have not gone through the stratification process will begin to actively germinate only after one year. Most often, this is how junipers reproduce in the wild.

Plant propagation by cuttings

Cossack juniper should be propagated using cuttings only in April or August to avoid injury. In April, the plant is completely at rest, since at this time it is still no movement of juice occurs, and in August the growth begins to become lignified. Transplant the cuttings to an open area in cloudy weather. So, the scorching sun can have a bad effect on the cutting itself and on the plant from which they were obtained.

The cuttings should be cut with a piece of old bark 10–15 centimeters long and immediately placed in clean water so as not to cause them to dry out. Before the planting process, the cuttings should be treated with a certain solution, namely indolylbutyric acid, which will help the stems quickly root. Cuttings should be placed in the ground to a depth of 5–7 centimeters. The time for their complete rooting can take up to three months. During this entire time, they should be watered regularly and sprayed well. If the sun's rays fall on them, then flower growers create additional shadow for the cuttings.

Propagation of juniper using layering

Creeping juniper species reproduce during the growing season using layering. To do this you need to take a young twig, which is located near the ground, a small incision is made on it, which for better rooting should be sprinkled with a special powder to increase root formation. Next, such a branch should be tilted towards the ground, strengthened, and then sprinkled with a layer of soil.

On layering, roots develop within six months. After their development, the cuttings are cut with pruning shears and planted in a pre-created hole. This method of propagating Cossack juniper is considered the simplest and is most often used by inexperienced gardeners.

Cossack juniper how to care?

And although the Cossack juniper is a rather unpretentious plant, it requires the most careful care, which is quite simple and uncomplicated. On dry days, the plant needs to be well watered. To give the plant more decorative you need to spray the crop over the entire surface of the crown, and during hot summer days, remove it from incoming sunlight. Young shoots are not able to withstand harsh winters, so they should be carefully covered in the fall. Dry branches should be removed with pruning shears as they develop.

Cossack juniper grows best in acidic soil between 4 and 7 pH. The soil under the plant itself and next to it should be regularly loosened and all weeds removed from it after each heavy watering.

Varieties of Cossack juniper

Cossack juniper is considered the most popular and favorite plant among flower growers, as well as among landscape designers. Breeders were able to develop about 20 different varieties. Landscape designers very often use it to create flower arrangements. To do this, they use the following varieties of juniper:

Common diseases of Cossack juniper

The most common disease in Cossack juniper is rust. The causative agent of this dangerous disease considered to be the fungus Gymnosporangium. This fungus is common on two plants at once, juniper and pear; it is for this reason that juniper bushes should be planted as far as possible from the pear crop.

Finding rust on a plant is very easy. It looks like small reddish tinder fungi, which reach a length of up to 0.5 centimeters. They are distributed everywhere: on needles, cones and on the branches themselves. Having seen them, you need get rid of it immediately from such shoots, otherwise, with the onset of spring, these spores will be able to germinate and be carried by the wind over a long distance and infect other plants.

Coniferous plant species occupy a special place in the landscape design of any garden. Their bright greenery refreshes the area in winter, and their beneficial properties are used by pharmacists and cosmetologists. One of the popular and unpretentious genera of conifers is juniper.

Juniper plants are grown in various climatic conditions. For central Russia, where winter frosts reach -35 degrees, only a few varieties are suitable. These include Cossack juniper.

Botanical features

Cossack juniper (Juniperus sabina) belongs to the Cypress family. It is an evergreen spreading shrub from 0.3 m to 3 m tall.

It develops at a moderate speed: during the first few seasons, the annual growth is 10-15 cm, subsequently - about 40-50 cm, depending on the variety and growing conditions. These plants live up to 300 years.

The needles give off a peculiar smell, which intensifies when you touch it and during humid weather. Juniper plants are dioecious. Berries are formed on female specimens.

Popular varieties

Several varieties of Cossack juniper are used in European gardening. They differ from each other:

  • growth rate;
  • bush width;
  • shade of pine needles.

Mas (Mas). The name means "more" in Portuguese. This fully corresponds to the dimensions of the variety: its height reaches 1.5-2 meters, and the diameter of the crown of an adult plant is 3-5 m. The needles are green, with a slight bluish tinge. The branches are located at an angle to the soil horizon. Young growths are brighter, directed horizontally or slightly hanging down.

Young juniper plant Mas

Rockery Gem. Rockery Jam - translated as "precious stone". A variety with needles of an attractive bluish-green color. It grows horizontally, at maturity its maximum height is 50 cm.

Tamariscifolia. The name "Tamariscifolia" - tamariscoleaf - comes from the name of the plant genus Tamarisk - a shrub with small scale-like leaf blades. This juniper is unpretentious and tolerates partial shade. The shade of the pine needles is gray-green, they are laid tightly, creating a continuous carpet. Variety parameters: height - 0.3 m, in old specimens - up to 1 m, width - 2-3 m.

Juniper Tamariscifolia

There's no Blight. The literal translation is “no rust.” The fungal disease of the same name is the scourge of Cossack junipers. The variety "Tam no Blythe" has beautiful needles of a rich green tone with a slight touch of blue. Low (up to 60 cm), slow-growing cultivar. Over the course of a year, it adds 3-5 cm in height and 10-20 cm in width. In the first years, the branches lie almost entirely on the ground, then they rise in dense tiers in the form of a sandwich. The diameter of an adult bush is up to 2 m.

Young juniper plants Tam no Blight

Variegata (Variegata - “variegated”). It is distinguished by chaotically located cream strokes on the green background of some branches. More compact compared to other varieties: after 10 years of cultivation it reaches a diameter of 1 m and a height of 40 cm.

The Chinese juniper variety Expansa Variegata is similar in description to the Cossack variegated variety. It is distinguished by its more compact growth (30 cm) and spiky needles of a bluish tint. Less winter-hardy - can withstand temperatures down to -23...-25 degrees.

Expansa Variegata

Other types of cold-resistant junipers

Horizontal juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) resembles the Cossack variety in the type of needles. It is distinguished by its prostrate habit: its shoots lie on the ground. An example is the popular Andorra variety, which has a cushion-shaped crown.

Juniper bush horizontal Andorra Compacta

Varieties of common juniper (Juniperus communis) have a horizontal and vertical shape. They have spiny needles, which often turn purple or brown in winter.

Common juniper

Usage

Cossack juniper plants have decorative and medicinal properties. They find application in several industries:

  1. 1. In landscape design. Due to their resistance to heat and cold, as well as drought and air pollution, the bushes are planted in clumps and massifs, in rockeries and rock gardens, in compositions with roses, deciduous and flowering plants. The ability of the plant to quickly take root and cover the surface of the soil makes it possible to plant it on slopes in order to strengthen the soil.
  2. 2. In folk medicine. Plants are rich in biologically active substances that have antiseptic properties. Volatile phytoncides can destroy up to 30% of pathogenic bacteria in the air. Dried pine needle powder, juice, bark and berries are used to treat skin and joint diseases - rheumatism, gout, lichen, warts, external ulcers, scabies and others.
  3. 3. In cosmetology- used for oily skin as a product with a cleansing and rejuvenating effect. Specially prepared masks are rubbed into the scalp to treat hair loss. In aromatherapy and during massage procedures, juniper oil is used, which has a calming and relaxing effect.
  4. 4. In homeopathy. As a main or additional component of some products, juniper extract is present in microdoses.

All parts of the Cossack juniper, including blue cones, contain poisonous essential oil - sabinol. Plant-based products are used only for external procedures or in very small quantities strictly under the supervision of a doctor.

Growing rules

Cossack juniper does not require careful care, but does not tolerate a number of unfavorable factors. These include:

  • complete shading, leading to elongation;
  • close occurrence of groundwater (50 cm and above), which provokes root rot;
  • urine of dogs and cats, causing burns.

Bushes are transplanted in early spring or autumn. The soil must be breathable for rapid development of the root system.

Garden centers and stores sell seedlings with a closed root system (in pots), which actively take root without damaging the roots. When planting, just fill the container with water, carefully remove it and lower the plant into the prepared hole, slightly straightening the lower roots. After the bush is planted, it is watered abundantly and the moisture content of the substrate is monitored for a month.

Cossack juniper is propagated by cuttings and layering. The second method is quite simple: varieties of this crop easily take on new roots by touching the surface of the earth. To speed up the rooting process, the lower branches are dug in (hilled up with a 3-5 cm layer of soil). When the roots reach a length of 8-10 cm (usually this takes about 3-4 months), the branch is carefully separated from the mother plant with pruners and planted in the desired location.

Rooted cuttings

Young bushes are protected from animals. The feces of cats and dogs harm the needles: they turn black and the plant dies. Colonies of spider mites, which suck the juice from young needles, can also be a problem. Over time, it acquires a dull shade, and the bush is covered with a thin, dense cobweb. Acaricides will help get rid of pests.

Spider mite on a plant

To combat rust, which also causes damage to neighboring crops, fungicides are used - drugs against fungal diseases. The disease is identified by the red spore pads and partial drying of the plant branches.

Rust on Cossack juniper

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