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You can enjoy the coniferous smell that the arborvitae cypress exudes and admire the bluish reflection of the crown not only in the park, on your personal plot, but also at home. This coniferous tree is a little more capricious than other cypress trees. But there are no difficulties in creating conditions for successful growth not only in nature, but also at home. You just need to know about its requirements.
Description of Thuja cypress
Thuja cypress (Chamaecyparis Thyoides) belongs to the Cypress family. It is similar in appearance to cypress, but has short and flat branches. The Thuja cypress resembles it with its conical shape. This evergreen coniferous tree, native to North America, reaches 20-25 m in its natural environment. In Europe, its dwarf species are more often grown.
The description of Thuja cypress can almost entirely be attributed to any cypress tree, but it has its own characteristics:
- the crown is dense and lush with needle-like leaves on young branches and scaly leaves on old ones;
- needles change color depending on the season and age;
- the bark is thick, reddish-brown, with scaly stripes in an adult tree;
- numerous small cones from 4 to 9 mm in diameter, sometimes irregular in shape, bluish-blue in color, when ripe they become red-brown, ripen by autumn and produce from 5 to 15 small seeds;
- the flowers are small, the female flowers are green and grow on short branches, the male flowers - on the tips of the shoots, have a red or yellowish color, bloom in April-March;
- the roots have a branched system with many small hairs and are horizontal in the ground;
- The bush grows from 1 to 8 cm per year.
Thuja cypress is considered more winter-hardy than cypress, but less drought-resistant. Therefore, in hot weather, it needs to be watered abundantly, and a place for planting should be chosen in partial shade. In warm climates, this crop is grown in open ground, in the Northern regions - as an indoor crop.
Acidic or neutral soil with sufficient moisture content is best suited for Thuja cypress. It grows well in peaty or sandy soils, but does not do well in loamy and clayey soils.
Plant varieties
Thuja cypress has been known as a crop for about 300 years and is widely used for landscaping on the American continent. Only a few of its garden forms are known in Europe and Russia.
Thuja cypress Top Point
Top Point cypress is a dwarf form of Dutch white cedar. Reaches a height of 1.5 m and a width of 0.5 m. The crown is cone-shaped with soft bluish-green needles. Grows well in sunny areas and tolerates urban pollution. Thuja cypress Top Point needs annual feeding and sanitary pruning.Grows well in containers, can be used for decorative plantings as a background, to create bonsai.
Red Star cypress
Another name for this species is Rubicon. Dwarf form, but can reach 2.5 m in height with a crown width of 0.7-0.8 m. The trunk is straight and even, the stems grow upward along the trunk and are highly branched. The needles have a dark green color with a bluish tint, which turns into purple-violet in the fall. The winter hardiness of Red Star cypress allows it to be grown in regions with severe frosts. The tree lives up to 300 years. Grown to create hedges and design park paths.
Thuja cypress Erikoides
The dwarf form Erikoides, 1.5 m high and with a wide crown 2.0-2.5 m in diameter, was bred in France about 150 years ago. Grows very slowly up to 1.2 cm per year. The stems are few-branched, dense, growing to the sides. It has a regular oval or spherical shape. Changes the color of the needles:
- young ones are blue-green with an ashen glow;
- adults – with a purple-brownish tint.
Thuja cypress Erikoides, as seen in the photo, has a decorative appearance and looks appropriate on walking park alleys, an alpine hill, a Japanese garden, or on the shore of a reservoir.
Planting and care
Planting Thuja cypress in open ground is carried out in the spring in April, when the ground has warmed up well. The landing process has the following algorithm:
- It is advisable to prepare the planting site in the fall. To do this, you need to dig a hole, put about 20 cm thick drainage on the bottom and fill it halfway with a fertile mixture of humus, peat, sand and earth.
- Before planting the seedling, you need to water the soil in the prepared hole.Place it in the center of the hole and cover it with earth, compact it a little and water it again.
- In a few days, the ground around the arborvitae cypress will settle. Therefore, you need to add enough of it to level it with the rest of the surface.
- Mulch the tree trunk circle and tie the trunk to a support.
To prevent the nematode from destroying the roots, when planting, the roots should be treated with Vidat-L solution.
Thuja cypress is a winter-hardy plant, but in severe frosts it requires shelter, especially young bushes in the first 3-4 years. In room conditions, the optimal temperature for it is +180From to +230C. Care must be taken that he is exposed to sunlight for several hours a day.
Thuja cypress, like other plants, requires timely watering, fertilizing, loosening and mulching. In the spring, you need to carry out sanitary pruning, removing yellowed leaves and dry branches.
Reproduction
For garden propagation of Thuja cypress, you can use 1 of 3 methods:
- Seeds. In autumn, sow seeds in a box filled with light soil. Place the box in the garden and bury it in the snow. In the spring, bring it into a warm room. Seedlings need to be watered regularly and when it gets warm, they should be placed in direct sunlight for several hours.
- Cuttings. In the spring you need to make cuttings from the young side stems of the cypress arborvitae. Clear the lower part of the needles and plant in a container with soil mixture. Cover with plastic and keep warm. In a month or a month and a half, the cuttings will produce roots.If the cuttings strengthen slowly, then they need to be kept at home during the winter.
- By layering. Propagated by species of cypress arborvitae with low and creeping stems. Choose the lowest stem. They make a cut on it and fix it in the ground with the cut down, sprinkle with soil. After the cuttings have taken root in the soil, they are cut off from the mother bush.
Diseases and pests
Thuja cypress, like all conifers, is vulnerable to fungal diseases. It requires periodic preventive treatment with fungicides based on copper oxychloride.
The bush is susceptible to attack by pests such as scale insects, spruce aphids, and spider mites. Scale insects suck out the sap of the plant, which is why the arborvitae cypress dries out completely. It is necessary to destroy insects in a timely manner using appropriate insecticides.
It is necessary to ensure that the soil is not dry and at the same time not to allow waterlogging in order to avoid root rot.
Conclusion
Thuja cypress presents gardeners with only minor requirements for its care. He needs to choose the right site, taking into account the composition of the soil and lighting, water it on time, prune it and carry out preventative measures against pests. In return, the bush will decorate the place where it was planted for many years.
