Content
Juniper Green Carpet is a coniferous shrub, the name of which literally translates as “green carpet”. The plant fully lives up to its name, creating a thick lawn of shoots no higher than 20 cm. The flat shape of the crown and the smoky, light green color of the soft needles make Green Carpet a very attractive element for decorating gardens, lawns, and alpine slides.
Description of juniper Green Carpet
The official botanical name of the plant is Juniperus communis Green Carpet. The word “communis” in the name of the Green Carpet juniper is translated as “ordinary”, although it is difficult to call the shrub an ordinary one. The structure of the cushion-shaped crown of the plant lacks a central stem. The branches grow horizontally, creating a fluffy weave almost parallel to the ground.
Green Carpet belongs to the dwarf varieties of junipers, which are characterized by a height of 0.1 to 0.2 m and an annual growth of 8-15 cm.The bush reaches its maximum height and diameter of about 1.5 m only at the age of 10, but is capable of growing, remaining decorative for many decades. According to some reports, the lifespan of junipers exceeds 200 years.
Green Carpet's needles are soft, scaly, and collected in rosettes. Young shoots are covered with reddish bark, which turns brown with age. The fruits are small, blue cones covered with a bluish coating. The first ovaries are formed already in the year of planting and do not fall off the branches after ripening.
Juniper Green Carpet in landscape design
Ease of care, decorativeness all year round, and small annual growth make dwarf juniper popular with private gardeners and when decorating parks, squares, and public flower beds.
Designers especially value Green Carpet for its ability to create long-lasting, vibrant lawns that do not need to be mowed or weeded. The dense tangle of branches makes the germination of weeds impossible.
The height of the Green Carpet juniper can be modeled. Slightly taller bushes are formed from low-growing creeping plants using special pruning. In this case, the new growth rises above last year’s, and the bush takes on the appearance of wavy clumps. The needles of different years differ in color, so each “wave” is different from the previous one, which creates an amazing “layered” effect.
The root system of juniper lies shallow, grows strongly to the sides and is capable of holding together layers of soil. This property is used in landscape design to strengthen slopes and edges of ravines. Green Carpet, planted on an alpine hill, perfectly holds the entire structure together, keeping the artificial mounds from being washed away.
Dwarf juniper is most suitable for decorating rocky slopes and hills, and heather meadows. In flower beds and rock gardens, Green Carpet favorably sets off low flowering plants with small, bright buds. A good combination would be to plant phloxes, herbaceous cloves, and barberries against a background of juniper.
Often, plants with different shades of needles are planted side by side, creating original color transitions or highlighting crops in contrast. You can create an original cover environment from Green Carpet juniper for crops on a trunk. A good combination would be not only vertically developing conifers, but also deciduous or flowering bushes.
Planting and caring for Green Carpet juniper
Junipers are unpretentious to growing conditions, but their decorativeness and growth rate greatly depend on the choice of location, proper planting, and further care.
Basic requirements when choosing a site for Green Carpet:
- Sandy loam, sandy, and calcareous soils are considered the best for juniper.
- The acidity of the soil in the area should be between neutral and slightly acidic.
- Green Carpet tolerates partial shade, but develops better in full light throughout the day.
- Neighborhood with tall plants is acceptable if the shadow covers the juniper for no more than 2 hours, preferably at noon.
Juniper does not like stagnant moisture and cold drafts. Green Carpet is a resilient species. A bush grown in unsuitable conditions rarely dies, but the harmonious development of the bush cannot be expected.
Preparing seedlings and planting area
To successfully grow Green Carpet, you will need a little pre-planting preparation.Since high-quality varietal material can only be purchased at a nursery, the root system of the seedling is usually placed in a container and is not in danger of drying out.
The selected area is dug up, eliminating weeds, check the acidity of the soil and, if necessary, lime or acidify the soil. Before planting, you should also stock up on mulching material.
Landing rules
If a juniper seedling has an open root system, then it is planted immediately after purchase, most often in the spring. The best time for work is from mid-April to the first week of May. Later, an unadapted bush risks burning its needles under the scorching sun.
Planting material purchased in containers can be planted in the spring or towards the end of the growing season, in October. Late work can cause young juniper to freeze in winter.
Planting horizontal juniper Green Carpet step by step:
- Places for pits during mass planting are marked in advance. The distance between the bushes to obtain a continuous lawn is maintained at about 1 m. To form individual sloping bushes - at least 2 m.
- Planting holes for Green Carpet, regardless of the size of the roots of the seedlings, are dug about 70 cm deep.
- At least 10 cm at the bottom should be occupied by drainage material (crushed stone, broken brick, expanded clay).
- Up to half of the hole is filled with a prepared substrate of coarse sand, peat and soil from a coniferous forest (or simple garden soil).
- It is best to prepare your seats in advance.In 2 weeks the soil will have settled sufficiently and the risk of injury to the roots will be minimal.
- When planting, the seedling is placed in the center of the hole, the roots are sprinkled with the prepared substrate, so that the root collar is flush with the ground.
After planting, the juniper is watered abundantly, and the soil around is covered with a layer of mulch. During the rooting process, the seedling does not produce green growth. The fact that the bush has taken root is judged by the plant maintaining its typical color.
Watering and fertilizing
A rooted Green Carpet bush does not require special care. The mode of moistening and fertilizing is quite free.
Rules for caring for juniper:
- the first month in a new place the seedling is not moistened or fed;
- with the first watering, apply 40 g of nitroammophoska under each bush;
- in the future, moistening is carried out only during prolonged drought;
- to preserve the beauty of the needles, spraying from a spray bottle every 7-10 days is useful;
The shrub only needs one feeding per season using special compounds for coniferous plants. Fertilizers are applied in the spring to stimulate active growth.
Mulching and loosening
Horizontal juniper Green Carpet is a cover crop and in adulthood will not require loosening the soil or protection with a mulch layer. The interwoven carpet of branches independently protects the soil from drying out and forming a crust.
Young Green Carpet plants require little care before forming a dense crown. Juniper best tolerates soil cover with pine sawdust, conifer bark or peat. The protective layer with this method should not exceed 5 cm.
Trimming and shaping
Like any shrub, juniper will require sanitary pruning. All dry, damaged branches or shoots with traces of disease must be removed. It is unacceptable to leave the cut material on the site: it is taken outside the garden and destroyed.
To ensure the growth of Green Carpet in height and the formation of clumps, it is enough to trim the growing juniper around the edges, limiting the growth around the circumference. This way the bush will become thicker and can reach a height of about 30 cm.
Preparing for winter
The variety is characterized by increased resistance to frost: the description of the variety names the maximum temperature as 40 °C. The common juniper Green Carpet, according to gardeners, easily tolerates the winters of the central zone.
Shelter is required only for juniper bushes of the first year of growing season. The soil around the plants is mulched with a layer of 10 cm. The plantings are covered with lutrasil or special breathable agrofibre, pressing the edges of the bushes to the soil.
Reproduction
The classic way to obtain new Green Carpet bushes is cuttings. When pruning, healthy shoots, no shorter than 10 cm, are selected, cut with a sharp, sterile instrument and sent for rooting. Germination can be done at home (in pots) or immediately place the cuttings in open beds.
Gardeners say that the easiest way to obtain juniper seedlings is by layering. By pressing the creeping vine to the ground with a special bracket or stone, after a year you can separate the rooted stem from the mother bush. Such seedlings are the most tenacious and easily adaptable when transplanted.
Diseases and pests of Green Carpet juniper
According to the description of the variety, Green Carpet juniper resists garden diseases well.Viral and bacterial infections usually bypass conifers. Fungal diseases can appear from excessive watering, lack of light or poor ventilation of the bushes. The affected parts of the plant are cut out and destroyed, and the bushes are sprayed with fungicidal preparations.
In the spring, to prevent fungal infections, the bushes can be treated with Bordeaux mixture along with other garden plants or use store-bought fungicides.
Excessive illumination before the start of the growing season can cause trouble for young junipers. At the end of February, the sun's rays can burn and discolor the needles. On especially sunny days at the end of winter - beginning of spring, the plants are shaded with non-woven garden material. At the same time, it is useful to carry out the first watering of the juniper.
Pests are also reluctant to visit coniferous plantations. But during the period when plants are weakened by heat or heavy rains, spider mites, scale insects, or aphids may appear on the juniper from neighbors in the garden. To rid Green Carpet of infection, the bushes are sprayed with complex insecticides.
Conclusion
Juniper Green Carpet is very decorative and completely unpretentious. The unusual shape of the bush and beautiful fluffy needles make an impression when planted individually or in group plantings. Plants hardly get sick and do not require frequent watering or special care. The slow growth of Green Carpet retains a thoughtful landscape design for decades, and will require only a small annual shaping in return.
