Conifers in landscape design: compositions, diagrams, photos, videos

Content

1 Features of coniferous plants in landscape design
2 Types of design of conifers in the country
3 Plants compatible with conifers
- 3.1 Compatibility of conifers with viburnum
4 How to make compositions from conifers
5 Tips for choosing conifers for landscaping
6 Schemes of conifers in landscape design
7 Conclusion

Every year more and more people begin to use coniferous trees in landscape design to decorate gardens and summer cottages. The craze for arranging lawns and lawns is influencing the popularization of landscape species and varieties of coniferous trees among plant growers.

The article presents the main rules for creating compositions of coniferous plants in landscape design, as well as photos and distinctive features of each conifer.

Features of coniferous plants in landscape design

The main advantage of garden compositions with conifers in design is considered to be the unique decorative properties of these plants: evergreen shrubs and trees look great both on their own and in combination with other ornamental crops.

In addition, plants have many beneficial properties:

actively absorb dust particles;
delay wind gusts;
soften the microclimate around the house and planting area;
stop the reproduction of viruses, bacteria and harmful insects;
absorb noise;
enrich the air with oxygen and phytoncides.

In city conditions, representatives of conifers will be good helpers in the fight against smog and exhaust gases.

The exquisite appearance, wide variety of shapes, colors and sizes of coniferous trees help create unique landscape compositions in both large and medium-sized areas. There are several options for placing coniferous plants in landscape design:

as hedges;
in the form of sculptural compositions;
along the paths;
in the central part of the site.

Types of design of conifers in the country

In the field of landscape design, there are a huge number of varieties and types of coniferous trees to decorate the territory. When drawing up a diagram of the future composition, it is very important to take into account the characteristics of each plant variety: adult size, needle color, crown shape, and growth rate.

Conifer hedge.

In addition to decorative properties, such a landscape composition in design has its own functionality: dense and thorny branches of the fence can protect the area from the gaze of surrounding people, as well as from uninvited guests. Conifers occupy a special place in the creation of a “living fence”: such an artificially created coniferous fence, which remains green throughout the year, perfectly combines in design with both a summer lawn and a white cover of snow in winter. The fence well complements the design of the site both around a small country house and around a huge mansion.

The use of pointed conifers (spruce, pine, fir) will significantly enhance the protective properties of landscape hedges, and will also ensure active ionization of the air due to the release of phytoncides into the environment.

Preparation of material for planting

The most popular option for landscape coniferous plants is propagation using cuttings. It is often carried out in greenhouse or greenhouse conditions.

Lignified cuttings must be planted in early spring, when the buds swell. To propagate juniper, thuja and spruce, green cuttings are used, the rooting of which occurs several times slower. Cuttings in greenhouses are carried out in autumn and winter, and the average rooting time for most conifers is 70 - 80 days.

Features of planting a coniferous fence in landscape design.

To plant a living fence in landscape design, take into account:

Correct selection of landing site. It is important to remember: among the coniferous tree species there are both light-loving and shade-tolerant representatives. However, gardeners recommend planting cuttings in lighted areas with easy access to shade. This plays an important role for young plants, whose needles tend to burn under the influence of active sun. In order for the tree needles to retain their bright color, from time to time they need to be shaded using protective screens.
For the southern regions, the most optimal period for planting is autumn, and for the northern regions - spring. Plants with a closed root system are allowed to be planted throughout the entire growing season.

Fertilizing hedges

Representatives of coniferous plants grow and develop well on non-saline soil.At the same time, each landscape conifer has its own preferences regarding the soil:

for pine trees, sandy soil is the best option;
for spruce – clayey;
for yew – leaves, rich in humus;
for thujas and junipers – slightly acidic.

Conifers respond positively to feeding with sawdust, wood chips, compost and mineral fertilizers (except manure!). From mid-March to August, it is necessary to introduce nitrogen phosphate (25 - 30 mg/m²) into the soil once every 2 - 3 weeks. If the landscape hedge has a thick layer of bark mulch, the dosage can be increased. Fertilizing in the form of tablets and special granules with a long-term effect should be applied once a year, in the spring. A special salt is also added to the soil, which can prevent discoloration of the needles.

At the end of summer, fertilizing of coniferous hedges should be stopped so that the plants can prepare for the winter period.

Watering a coniferous hedge

Coniferous hedges need to be watered throughout the growing season. However, in the autumn, watering should be kept to a minimum so as not to stimulate the active growth of shoots.

You need to water the hedge regularly (1-2 times a week).

Cypress trees, thuja, yew and spruce need moist air, so during the hot summer period it is necessary to regularly spray the crown of the plants. This will help maintain an optimal moisture level and also remove all dust accumulated on the crown.

You should not irrigate the soil in hot weather, as this can lead to numerous burns, and also in the evening - due to an increased risk of fungal diseases in the landscape composition.

Pine and juniper easily tolerate periodic drying out of the soil, but drying out of the soil can threaten young conifers with death.

Hedge trimming

Landscape hedges should be trimmed in the spring (April and May) or autumn (September and October). Thuja, cypress and yew trees adapt best to pruning.

A special trim (every year 1/3 of the annual growth is cut off from the sides and top of the hedge) helps make the spruce hedge more voluminous, which significantly improves the appearance of this design. The formation of spruce hedges must be carried out on a regular basis, since cutting wood older than three years can have a bad effect on its condition.

For pine trees, it is necessary to shorten the upper shoots, which promotes the active growth of lateral branches. It should be carried out between May and June, after the appearance of young growth.

Important! It should be taken into account: dormant pine buds do not awaken on old branches, so the cut must be made “on the ring”.

When shaping, do not cut the ends of pine branches with scissors. When the needles on the young shoots begin to separate, you need to pinch them with your thumb and forefinger and unscrew them. After this, new buds begin to awaken, and the ends of the branches become thicker and more voluminous.

Other types of conifers can be plucked only in the spring, while junipers can be plucked throughout the year.

Conifer flower beds

In addition to its evergreen appearance throughout the year, coniferous club has many advantages for use in landscape design:

easy and simple care;
the ability to preserve coniferous plantations for many years;
perennial plants do not need annual renewal;
creating and maintaining such a flower bed requires much less expense;
Maintaining a flower bed in proper condition does not take much time.

Features of coniferous flower beds:

For a landscape coniferous flower bed, low-growing and compact plants are often used, and the basis for its creation is the play of contrasting colors and shapes.
The basis for decorating a coniferous flower bed is a lawn or alpine slides.
For additional decoration of flower beds, stones and bark are used;
The most popular club plants are conifers such as pine, spruce, fir and juniper.

Shrubs (rhododendrons, barberries, heather, boxwood) and perennial herbaceous plants (cereals, ferns) go well with coniferous plants in the design. To create the background of a landscape flower bed, ground cover plants are used: phlox, thyme, creeping tenacious or sedum.

For large spaces, a good idea would be a large flower bed (photo below), where conifers such as juniper, western thuja and mountain pine are planted along the fence.

Rockery made of conifers (briefly)

Rockery made from conifers is one of the varieties of flower beds in a stone environment, which perfectly complements the design of the landscape at the dacha. It can be created both on flat terrain and on a slope.

An ideal place for arranging a rock garden would be an illuminated space in the southwestern part. This landscape composition of conifers will perfectly complement the design along the house, near the pond or in the central part of the garden.

When designing garden rockeries, designers adhere to the following landscape principles:

In design, it is better not to allow strict symmetry and orderliness in the arrangement of elements.
You should choose natural shapes and smooth outlines.
Try to stick to a subtle color scheme.
It is correct to combine stones and conifers with each other.
Ensure that the visual integrity of the landscape composition is maintained both at close and far distances.

When creating a rockery design, it is customary to plant low-growing coniferous plants near large stones: Canadian spruce, thuja Smaragd, mountain pine, Cossack juniper or berry yew. The empty space between the stones needs to be filled with creeping conifers (horizontal or scaly juniper, microbiota, hemlock) and decorated with flowering plant species (greenweed, sedum, etc.).

Conifer border

Miniature varieties of conifers allow you to create another type of landscape composition for dacha design - a coniferous border along the path. To decorate it, creeping varieties of conifers are used, complementing the composition with stones, gravel and flowering plants.

Using low-growing coniferous shrubs and trees in the design of the territory, landscapers receive beautiful impenetrable fences that look like a monolithic wall.

Plants are arranged in a checkerboard pattern, planted in 2 - 3 rows. Planting a pine border can take a lot of time and effort, but the results are well worth the effort.

For landscape zoning of garden areas, medium-sized (1 - 2 m in height) varieties are often used so that they do not obscure the overall view. In addition, a coniferous border can serve as a good backdrop for planting bright flowering perennial plants: this design technique is used to design gardens in a landscape or modern style.

Plants compatible with conifers

Conifers tend to acidify the soil, which can significantly complicate the development of garden crops growing in it.

The following plants feel best near coniferous plants: hydrangea, calla lilies, fern, daylily, miscanthus, lilac, forsythia, anafalis. Among large trees, oak and birch coexist most comfortably next to pine.

Heathers and Ericas also go well with them: both types of plants prefer soil of the same composition and acidity level. Of the shrubs, gooseberries get along best with conifers. 7

Compatibility of conifers with viburnum

Designers actively use viburnum bushes in landscape compositions. The bright branched bushes of the plant perfectly complement the design of the garden area in winter, and are also not picky about the planting site (viburnum grows well both in the light and in a shaded space). However, proximity to some conifers has a bad effect on the development of the plant. Viburnum feels especially uncomfortable next to a spruce: due to such proximity, the bush can get sick and soon die. Of all the conifers, the thuja occidentalis is best combined with viburnum: the tree does not create obstacles to the development of the root system of the shrub.

Landscape designers often combine roses with vertical conifers (smaragd, brabant and spherical thuja). It is only important to prevent the thuja from growing wider, because then the ephedra covers the rose bushes. Roses also work well in designs with junipers such as Blue Arrow, Moonglow and SkyRocket.

How to make compositions from conifers

Thanks to their unique decorative properties, conifers can perfectly complement the landscape design of both a huge garden space and a small plot.

However, in order to correctly plan such a landscape composition on the territory, it is important to consider several nuances: its location in the design, appearance, shape and all its constituent elements. After this, you need to select the appropriate plants, taking into account the characteristics of the selected composition.

The design of the front garden and the facade of the house is always the first thing that catches your eye: that is why landscape designers recommend decorating these areas somewhat solemnly and elegantly. For such cases, the design can use landscaping with elements of a regular style, which includes a symmetrical arrangement of all constituent elements or repetition of rhythm. This type of decoration involves the use of a rich plant assortment.

The main role in such a composition is taken by a pyramidal or standard coniferous tree, reaching a height of 2.5 - 3 m in maturity. Landscape conifers of the second order (subaccents) with sizes up to 1.5 m are planted symmetrically on both sides of it. When there is empty space left, dwarf and prostrate types of conifers, compact deciduous shrubs or ground cover plant varieties can be placed between them.

If an informal planting style is used to create a landscape composition in the design, experts advise placing elements on the lawn in the form of a flowerbed-island. From them you can form mixborders (complex designer landscape compositions of flowers and shrubs) along the contour of the site, and, combining them with decorative deciduous varieties, create zoning of the garden space. In this case, it is best to select plants according to the “irregular scalene triangle” pattern.The remainder of the site is usually filled with additional elements, as their level of significance for the appearance of the landscape composition decreases.

Low-growing species should be planted in the foreground, and taller and more voluminous ones should be planted closer to the center. In order for a landscape flower bed to look bright and rich, it is necessary to choose plants with different colored needles.

If the needles of the central plant are silver in color, a contrasting shade should be placed nearby. It is also worth remembering about lighting and adding seasonal vegetation to the flowerbed design: bright colors against the background of green conifers will make the appearance of the composition unforgettable.

For landscape decoration of alpine hills or flower beds with annual and ground cover representatives, it is best to use miniature species of conifers with spherical and cushion-shaped growth forms. Groundcover varieties that are laid out on the ground in the form of a carpet or hang down from retaining walls can fit well into such a landscape design.

To create a beautiful, harmonious landscape composition with conifers, you need to remember the following important points:

Geometry of shapes. The basis of professional landscape composition is the principle of contrast of color and shape. By combining contrasting colors and shapes, you can achieve different visual effects that will greatly enhance the appearance of your design. Plants in the form of a pyramid go well with spherical conifers, and tall species harmoniously complement short ones; large trees will be more noticeable against the background of miniature elements, and transitions between the sizes and outlines of the crown will help smooth out the lines of the exterior.
Principles of symmetry and asymmetry in design. Decorating a space with conifers involves combining incompatible things. To decorate the site, you can use both symmetrical compositions and absolutely asymmetrical elements: they will also look harmonious and add greater uniqueness to the overall picture.
Color combinations. There are a huge number of species and varieties of conifers, differing in color. However, it is worth remembering: too rich a range of colors can “break” the landscape composition. Designers recommend using no more than two shades in a group of three conifers and no more than three colors in a group of five or more plants. In large coniferous groups (more than 30 seedlings), it is allowed to use plants with a rich range of colors, combining them into small subgroups: three elements of the same color.
Crown height and shape. When creating a composition, it is important to pay attention not only to the color of the seedling, but also to the size of the tree in adulthood. To understand how the finished landscape composition will look in design, you need to familiarize yourself with all the main features of the selected varieties of conifers.

You can find out more information about the features of using conifers in landscape design and creating compositions from them in the video:

Tips for choosing conifers for landscaping

There are a huge number of species and varieties of conifers, some of which are best suited for use in landscape design of large and small gardens.

Juniper. This type of conifer will be a good option for decorating a garden area with an average altitude level.The most common varieties of juniper in Russia are Cossack, horizontal and ordinary. Cossack juniper reaches up to 1 m in height when mature and grows quickly over the entire surface. The horizontal variety has similar characteristics, the difference being the elongated branches with bluish-gray needles, which acquire a brown tint in winter. Common juniper is an evergreen shrub, reaching up to three meters in height, which is often cultivated by gardeners as a tree.
Spruce. Landscape designers use it as one of the most traditional plants for decorating an area. Spruce has many varieties, each of which has its own unique color: from silver-mint to rich emerald green, with a purple or lilac tint. Most often, ephedra is used for planting along the perimeter of the territory in large areas.
Thuja. Thuja is a short tree, reaching 1.5 to 2.5 m in height at maturity. This type of conifer is most often used by landscape designers to create hedges, and a little less often - in landscape compositions. The decorative features of thuja in garden design lie in its soft, bright green leaves and quick adaptation to pruning and shaping. The most popular varieties are emerald Smaragd, compact light green Western Danica and light green Brabant.
Yew. This type of conifer is considered a little picky: the plant grows and develops best on black soil in the absence of wind. Despite this, yew has a great advantage: the shrub feels great even in shaded areas, which allows it to be grown in the northern parts of the site.
Larch. It is a pine tree that reaches more than 50 m in height at maturity, which is why it is practically not used for planting in small areas. In the Russian climate, the most grown varieties of larch are European (a green plant with a bluish bloom on the needles) and Japanese (with a wide pyramidal crown).
Fir. One of the most original representatives of conifers. It is believed that the pine aroma of the tree has a beneficial effect on the respiratory and nervous systems of the body. It has a voluminous dense crown and rich green needles. For normal growth and development, fir needs space, which is why it is better to plant the plant in large areas.
Dwarf conifers. These include low-growing pine, spruce, fir, thuja, as well as certain subgroups of special representatives. The group of miniature conifers also includes Canadian hemlock Jeddeloh, medium juniper, eastern and Serbian spruce, mountain pine and Menzies pseudo-hemlock, Korean fir and dwarf cedar. All of the above crops are actively grown in Russia. The height of these plants, depending on the formation, does not exceed 1.5 m.

Schemes of conifers in landscape design

After choosing a place to plant conifers, it is necessary to determine the landscape composition scheme. It is recommended to draw the design diagram of the future composition on a sheet of paper, taking into account the following nuances:

It is necessary to take into account the size of the constituent elements: stones and plants.
Choose the right color palette of stones: designers advise choosing yellow, brown and beige shades.
It is very important to recreate a natural imitation of the natural arrangement of rocky ledges on the soil surface. In design, conifers often also act as an accenting background for a composition of other plant species.

When creating a design for a landscape composition, it is also important to pay attention to the distance from the place from which it is best viewed: it should be more than two times the height of the entire composition.

Landscape designers consider grassy lawns and lawns to be the best background option for conifers. The most optimal location for coniferous compositions is considered to be the eastern or western parts of the site.

Much also depends on the compatibility of the selected elements with each other. The best visual effect is achieved by combining conifers with roses. It is important to remember that coniferous plants acidify the soil, which can affect the development of rose bushes. Because of this, such a design of a landscape composition may require large financial costs to maintain the soil in optimal condition.

Conclusion

Every day more and more people use conifers when creating landscape design. Conifers are highly valued for their decorative qualities, they lend themselves well to pruning and shaping, they are famous for their unpretentiousness to the soil, ease of care and maintain a green appearance throughout the year. When creating the design of landscape compositions with the participation of conifers, it is important to remember the main nuances of design: the compatibility of plants with each other, the contrast of shape and color, as well as the peculiarities of growing each of the component species.