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Creeping low-growing shrubs fit well into the landscape of any area. Designers fell in love with Repanda juniper for its unpretentiousness, winter hardiness, and dense green shoots. This variety was obtained in the last century, but today it enjoys well-deserved popularity.
Description of common juniper Repand
This is a low-growing, ground-creeping plant with a rounded crown. The size of the Repanda juniper is compact: its height does not exceed 0.5 m, its crown diameter is 2.5 m. Its growth per year will be approximately 10 cm.
The needles in the form of short, velvety, soft, lush, pleasant to the touch needles densely cover the entire surface of the shoots. The color of the needles is dark green with a gray tint, becoming brown in the fall.
The shoots are long, thick, palmate, growing evenly in all directions. In August, the branches are covered with small cones (less than 10 cm in diameter). At maturity they become dark blue with a gray waxy coating.At the stage of milk maturity they are round, light green, covered with a smoky coating. The fruits of this crop are called cones, but they are more like berries. This description is confirmed by a photo of Repanda juniper with cones.
Juniper Repanda in landscape design
This culture fits well with Scandinavian design, which is deliberately rough and simple. Juniper goes well with moss, heather, and lichen. This coniferous plant looks great near reservoirs, artificial and natural, surrounded by stones and boulders, granite chips. This combination would be appropriate in a Japanese-style garden. Repanda juniper is combined, in this case, with bright heather flowers.
If a shrub serves as an English-style lawn design, it is planted surrounded by other conifers. You can highlight its modest beauty with bright spirea. Low-growing juniper is well planted in rockeries and on lawns. It can be used as a decorative ground cover material. Suitable for decorating the slopes of alpine slides. In the photo you can see how the common juniper Repanda looks great surrounded by boulders and deciduous shrubs.
The main advantage of such a composition is that it will look great at any time of the year.
This culture can also be used as a potted plant. In a polluted city, roofs, balconies, and terraces are planted with juniper. Repanda will look good near the porch at the entrance to the house.
The following photo shows how in landscape design the common juniper Repanda is used not only for landscaping areas, but also for framing stairs and paths. Low-growing shrubs will help strengthen the soil structure, avoid soil shedding near paths, and reduce the growth of ravines.
In the next photo, the common juniper juniperuscommunis Repanda is practically the only plant on the dacha site. This makes the yard design concise and simple. This solution is suitable for the city and country house.
Planting and caring for common juniper Repanda
Preparation for planting this type of juniper is no different from its other species. The main thing is to choose a strong, healthy seedling and root it into the soil in the chosen place.
Preparing seedlings and planting area
For planting, seedlings grown in nurseries are purchased. Their roots should be in special containers or wrapped in burlap moistened with water.
The Repanda shrub grows well in open, well-lit areas. A slight shading affects its decorative properties, worsening them. Any soil is suitable for planting: sandy, limestone, with some clay, but it must be well loosened and fertilized before planting. In order for the juniper to take root well and grow quickly, the area is dug up and the soil is mixed with peat, sand, and fertilizer for coniferous crops in equal parts.
Rules for planting common juniper Repanda
In order for the shrub to grow well, you should take into account some features when planting it. The grown plant has shoots at least 2 m long.This fact should be taken into account when planting several juniper bushes and leaving room for their growth.
Landing algorithm:
- Dig a planting hole according to the size of the seedling's rhizome.
- Pour a small layer of expanded clay onto the bottom; it will act as drainage.
- When planting several plants, for example as a living border, the distance between planting holes is made at least 2 m.
- The seedling is lowered into the planting hole in the center, the roots are straightened and covered with fluffy soil.
After planting, each Repanda plant is watered abundantly, and the moistened soil surface is covered with sawdust.
Watering and fertilizing
Repanda juniper is an unpretentious crop; it is fertilized once a year, in the spring. For these purposes, you can use nitroammophoska - 35 g per 1 m2. Fertilizer is dug into the soil in the area of the rhizome, then watered abundantly. If the soil where the seedling has taken root is quite poor, fertilizer is applied once a month throughout the entire growing season. This rule applies only to young plants of the first year. For mature shrubs, one spring feeding per year is enough.
After planting, the seedlings are watered 1-2 times a week; for an adult bush, 2 waterings per month are sufficient. In summer, when it’s hot, juniper can be sprayed early in the morning and late in the evening 2-3 times a week. To water one plant, you need to take at least a bucket of water.
Mulching and loosening
Before each watering, it is necessary to remove weeds under the shoots, then loosen the soil well. After watering, when the moisture is absorbed and goes into the ground, the tree trunk circle should be mulched. Peat, wood chips, and sawdust are suitable for this.The mulch layer will prevent weed germination and retain moisture at the juniper rhizome.
Trimming and shaping
This crop does not require formative pruning. Shoots and branches grow symmetrically, forming a rounded crown. If the bush serves as a border, you can trim long branches that are out of order.
In autumn or early spring, it is necessary to carry out sanitary pruning of Repanda juniper. Remove dry, damaged, weak shoots. If necessary, shorten their length. Juniper should not be thinned out too much.
Preparing for winter
In late autumn, the shoots of the Repanda bush should be tied with twine so that the snow does not damage them. It is also necessary to mulch the tree trunk circle with a thick layer of sawdust, at least 10 cm. In regions with cold, snowless winters, juniper is covered with film or agrofibre. This rule applies especially to first-year seedlings.
Reproduction
Repanda juniper can be propagated by cuttings or layering, rarely by seeds. Cuttings are the most convenient way to obtain a young seedling. The survival rate of seedlings obtained from cuttings exceeds 80%. Good cuttings can be obtained in the spring from young growth.
Propagated by layering in early autumn. Select strong, long shoots, attach them with brackets to the soil, and water them. Next year, in the spring, roots will appear at the junction of the branch and the soil. Young plants are carefully separated from the mother bush and transferred to a new location.
Diseases and pests of horizontal juniper Repand
If you avoid excessive waterlogging of the soil, weed the beds on time, and maintain distance when planting juniper, you can avoid many diseases. Gray rot or fungal mold forms in a damp, warm environment. As a preventative measure, it is important to prune bushes on time. This will ensure the flow of air and sunlight to the lower tiers of the crown and will prevent mold from multiplying.
A dangerous and common disease of juniper is rust. It appears as growths on the branches of a dirty orange color. In these places, the bark becomes dry and brittle, and cracks appear. If left untreated, the disease will lead to the death of the plant.
To prevent this disease, in spring and autumn the plant is treated with Bordeaux mixture (1%).
If the juniper is infected with rust, it is destroyed with a solution of arceride. It is prepared according to the instructions and the bush is treated once every 10 days until all signs of the disease disappear. Broken areas in the bark must be disinfected. For these purposes, use a solution of copper sulfate (1%). After treatment, the damage is sealed with garden varnish.
Young plants, especially the first year, can be attacked by spider mites, aphids, and scale insects. To prevent the appearance of pests, weeds should be carefully removed in spring and autumn and the soil should be dug up. At the first signs of the appearance of pest larvae, Repanda juniper should be treated with insecticides several times.
Conclusion
Repanda Juniper is a lush, evergreen plant that will fit well into a simple, classic Japanese or English design.This shrub does not require special care, and its greenery will be equally bright at all times of the year. With proper care, diseases and pests practically do not attack this crop.
Reviews about juniper Repanda
This unpretentious plant has become popular in many garden plots. Reviews about common juniper Repanda are almost always positive. Problems with its cultivation can only arise due to improper care or an unsuccessfully chosen place for planting.
