Content
Coniferous crops have unique decorative features. This is a win-win option for decorating the site. Juniper Golden Carpet is one of the varieties of creeping horizontal juniper. The crop has its own planting characteristics, requirements for care and pest control.
Description of juniper Golden Carpet
The description of the horizontal juniper Golden Carpet states that it is a creeping variety 10–15 cm high and up to one and a half meters in diameter. The shoots are long, elastic, strong, and have the ability to take root. Translated from English, the name of the variety sounds like “golden clover”.
This variety grows slowly at 10 cm per year. It has small scaly needles of golden color. The color of the needles is golden-yellow on top and yellow-green below.
This plant occasionally bears fruits - small, whitish-blue cones.
Juniper Golden Carpet is a frost-resistant plant, but loves sunny places for planting.
This variety is found in the wild throughout the Northern Hemisphere, as well as in mountainous areas.
Juniper horizontal Golden Carpet in design
Thanks to its pleasant appearance and ease of maintenance, Golden Carpet is used in design everywhere. It can be seen near schools, hospitals, not to mention decorating private areas.
Juniper Golden Carpet is used as a ground cover plant. A regular guest of the lower tier of rock gardens, flower beds, and rockeries. Design experts use creeping juniper to decorate rocky gardens and juniper lawns. Another plus for juniper in design is its unusual color, which practically does not change throughout the year.
Planting and caring for horizontal juniper Golden Carpet
To maintain the appearance of horizontal juniper, you should take care of the plant from the moment of planting. The Golden Carpet variety is not considered capricious, but there are still some nuances in care. They must be taken into account so that the creeping juniper becomes a real decoration of the site. A feature of the Golden Carpet juniper is its unpretentiousness to the soil. It can be planted in almost any area, so the plant is used to decorate rocky gardens.
Preparing seedlings and planting area
Once a sunny place has been chosen, you can begin to prepare the soil and recess for planting the juniper. Optimal soils, despite their unpretentiousness, will still be loams with a neutral acidity level.
The depth of the hole should be 70 cm, the diameter should be 2-3 times larger than the root system of the seedling along with the earthen ball. Recipe for the optimal substrate: mix two parts peat, part river sand and part turf soil well.
Drainage should be placed at the bottom of the hole. Broken brick, gravel and crushed stone are used for this. It is better to make the drainage layer 20 cm. If groundwater does not lie close, then the drainage layer can be made smaller.
If you plan to plant several juniper seedlings, then you need to make a distance of 1–2 meters between them, taking into account the size of the future decoration.
Landing rules
When planting, you should take into account that Golden Carpet juniper has a very fragile root system. Therefore, it is recommended to plant it in a lump of old soil so as not to damage the roots.
When planting, you need to carefully straighten the existing roots, place them in a hole and sprinkle them with substrate. It is important that the root collar is not buried. The soil around the seedling must be compacted and watered.
After planting, the shrub should be moistened abundantly during the first week.
Watering and fertilizing
Juniper Golden Carpet does not like moisture at the roots, but it also does not tolerate dry air. Therefore, the optimal watering regime for this shrub is rain. Especially on dry, hot days. At the same time, be sure to ensure that the root system is not subject to waterlogging.
In normal summers with sufficient rainfall, mature plants may not need to be watered frequently. 2-3 waterings per season are enough. Up to three buckets of water are poured under each bush.
Juniper does not need frequent feeding. Young seedlings are fertilized in April-May.To feed, you should take 40 grams of nitroammophoska or any complex mineral fertilizer and apply it to the tree trunk. Then be sure to water the bush.
Mulching and loosening
The root system of the shrub is delicate. Loosening is necessary to create air access to the roots, but this should be done carefully and shallowly. Care must be taken when loosening young plants.
Seedlings must be mulched immediately after planting. Mulch will help retain moisture and nutrients. Proper insulation of the root system will allow you to easily survive the frost. Peat, sawdust, and spruce branches are used as mulch.
Mulch can also perform other functions:
- Protects roots from overheating during particularly dry periods.
- Maintains acidity level.
- Prevents weathering and leaching of useful substances.
- Suppresses growth weed.
Mulching with peat is considered the most effective.
Trimming and shaping
The most important thing in landscape design is to form the juniper correctly. The Golden Carpet variety tolerates pruning well, both sanitary and formative. Sanitary pruning affects health, and formative pruning gives the necessary shape according to the designer’s ideas.
Sanitary pruning is carried out in the spring, before sap flow begins. At this time, dry, rotten shoots are removed. All shoots damaged by disease and cold are also cut off.
Formative pruning does not have to be done annually, since Golden Carpet grows slowly. The formation of the bush is carried out in July. You should choose sharp tools and wear gloves to avoid getting essential oils on your skin.
Preparing for winter
Despite the fact that Golden Carpet juniper is frost-resistant, minimal preparation for winter is still necessary. First of all, you should cover the root area with spruce branches. Can be replaced with a layer of peat. In any case, mulching will not hurt. Excess shoots, broken and weakened branches must be pruned.
Reproduction of juniper horizontal Golden Carpet
Horizontal juniper (juniperus horizontalis golden carpet) can reproduce in different ways. Each gardener chooses the most suitable method:
- Seeds. This is the most economical option, but at the same time the most labor-intensive. To do this, dark blue berry cones are collected in the fall, from which the seeds are pulled out. Seeds should be planted in a box with soil. The seed sowing depth is 2 cm. The box with soil is taken out into the yard until spring. Seeds are planted in the garden in the spring. It is necessary to protect seeds from frost by mulching. This procedure will protect the seeds from weeds. The crop can be planted in a permanent place after 3 years.
- Cuttings. The most universal method for propagating Golden Carpet juniper. Planting material is harvested in cloudy weather. Cuttings should be cut in August, when they have already become lignified. These should be the tops of the shoots. After cutting, they are freed from needles and branches. Juniper shoots are pre-soaked (for an hour) in water, then immediately planted in the substrate. This should be done at an angle of 30 °C. Don't forget about drainage. Before planting in a permanent place, boxes with cuttings should be placed in a greenhouse with a temperature of 16–19 °C. After the buds open, the temperature should be 26 °C.
- By layering. Refers to popular propagation methods for creeping juniper varieties.The action algorithm is simple:
- loosen the soil around the bush;
- add peat and water;
- clean the branches that are intended for rooting;
- retreat from the root about 20 cm;
- bury the shoot into the ground and dig it in;
- water and hill up.
Within a year, the cuttings will take root. They need to be separated and replanted.
Diseases and pests
Juniper Golden Carpet on a trunk is considered resistant to disease, but there are some diseases that are worth paying attention to:
- Fusarium. A fungal disease that causes root rot. Dried plants with roots are destroyed.
- Rust.
- Drying of branches.
- Nectriosis of branch bark.
There are also pests from which garden plants should be regularly treated:
- juniper aphid;
- mealybug;
- juniper moth;
- common gall midge.
For prevention, it is better to use proven insecticides, presented in a wide range: Confidor, Aktara, Mospilan, Enzhio, Calypso, Aktelik.
Conclusion
Juniper Golden Carpet is a creeping variety. It is successfully used in a variety of types of landscape design. The culture is distinguished by its pleasant appearance, as well as resistance to frost and drought. It is not picky about the choice of soil and does not require constant feeding. Juniper Golden Carpet (shown in the photo) is used as a decoration not only for garden plots, but also for gardens, parks, and urban areas. The plant is long-lived and can survive up to a thousand years.
