Junipers are unpretentious evergreens. Their bizarre forms are actively used in landscape design. Variety Arnold is known for its vitality, unpretentious in care, adapts to different environmental conditions. It is often used to decorate the landscape of the territory. About it in detail later in the article.

Botanical Description

The most common type of common juniper (Latin name Juníperus commúnis) is Arnold. He is a vivid representative of the cypress family. Vertically growing plant. The branches of the tree create a crown, rather not wide. Its shape resembles a column or a pyramid. The branches grow tightly pressed against one another, as if extended upward. Adult plants reach a five-meter height, the diameter reaches 50 centimeters. A ten-year-old tree grows up to two meters in height, the diameter of the crown is 40 cm.

Did you know? Some junipers grow up to 600 years.

The variety description includes the following characteristics:

1. Barbed Crown. She is short. Its color is blue-green with a silver tint.
2. The variety is characterized by slow growth. On average, it grows by 10 centimeters per year.
3. It grows well in sunny places, nevertheless grows well in partial shade. It reacts poorly to the first rays of the sun.
4. A reddish shade of bark that turns brown and peels off from time to time.
5. Frost-resistant look.
6. It grows well in urban environments.
7. Does not die from drought.
8. The soil characteristics are not demanding. But loamy and sandy loamy soils are better suited for its development.
9. Propagated by seeds or cuttings. Cones with three seeds appear on it, which ripen for about 2 years, usually in the autumn.

A variety of colors of needles and a unique aroma, unpretentiousness to care are the main advantages of this culture. Arnold variety is often used on the territory of medical institutions, because it moisturizes and purifies the air.

Landing

The wild seedlings of the Arnold variety take root very poorly. In order to take root in a tree, it is better to use seedlings of a cultivated species. There are quite a lot of them.

Important! You can’t eat juniper berries, they are extremely poisonous. Poisoning can cause damage to the nervous system, kidneys, and in some cases death.

Planting a seedling is subject to the following conditions:

1. Choose a sunny place. In shaded places, it grows for a very long time, does not differ in a magnificent and beautiful form, and may lose some of its qualities.
2. The pit needs to be prepared in advance (14 days before the landing), one that is 2 or 3 times larger than the size of the landing coma. Large bushes need a depth of about 70 centimeters. Particular attention should be paid to the root system. With strong, not dry roots, the plant will take root faster.
3. The bottom of the pit is covered with a drainage layer, which is made of sand with broken brick. Its thickness should be at least 15 cm. The roots are covered with an earthen mixture of turf, sand and peat in this ratio 1: 1: 2. If the plant is large, then the root neck should protrude at least 5 centimeters above the edge of the landing pit. In young plants, this condition is not observed (planted in a level with the ground).
4. Maintain the distance between plants. For large plants - at least 1.5 meters, for small - at least half a meter. It is obligatory to impregnate container plants with water before direct planting. For this, an earthen lump is immersed in a container of water for approximately 2 hours.
5. Fertilize the soil before planting only if it is heavy. To do this, use lime or dolomite flour. After planting, the juniper is fertilized once a year. This is done in May or April by the introduction of double superphosphate or Kemira Universal.
6. Watering the crop is necessary only in the dry summer. Frequency of watering per season - 2 or 3 times. On one tree spend from 10 to 30 liters of water. In the evening, you need to spray the plant, because it does not tolerate dry air.

Subject to all requirements and proper planting, the juniper will be accepted and will delight the eye with its bizarre crown.

Juniper Care

Although the juniper is not whimsical, you still need to take care of it. This is especially true for newly planted plants. With proper care, the plant looks great, does not get sick and does not turn yellow.

Care for the bush includes the following steps:

• organization of moderate watering;
• systematic soil top dressing;
• loosening;
• preparing the plant for the winter period, sheltering and tying bushes;
• sanitary pruning;
• timely protection from pests or treatment when the plant becomes sick;
• organization of propagation of juniper.

Video: planting and caring for juniper

Watering

Juniper Arnold is quite drought tolerant. He does not need special watering. The only condition under which he needs high-quality and systematic watering is his landing. Then during the week you need daily watering so that the plant is well rooted and accepted.

Important! When processing Juniper Arnold, it is very important to disinfect the trimmed tool and keep infected branches away from the trimmed bush.

In another case, the bush needs watering, with dry summers, but even then the number of waterings should not exceed 4 per season. Consumes one tree on average more than 10 liters of water. Irrigation is mandatory - spraying the crown of the tree, this is due to the fact that the plant does not tolerate dry air.

Loosening and mulching

After planting, seedlings require additional air access to the roots. This is provided by shallow loosening. Spend it after watering and the destruction of weeds.

Another procedure that young plants need is mulching. To do this, mulch the soil after planting with wood chips, pine bark, cedar shells or peat. The optimum thickness of such a layer is from 5 to 8 cm. Some heat-loving crops are mulched for the winter, but early in the spring they mulch the mulch to prevent decay of the root neck.

Top dressing

Juniper does not tolerate overfeeding. At the same time, active dropping of plant needles begins. It is necessary to feed the plant no more than once a year - in the spring in April or May. Nitroammofosku make at the rate of 30-40 g per square meter, and "Kemiru-universal" - 20 g per 10 l bucket of water.

The soil acidity, which is optimal for the growth of juniper bushes, is 4.5–7 pH. For some heavy soils, liming is carried out before planting.

Pruning

Juniper pruning must be approached carefully. Arnold is a slow-growing variety, so pruning involves only cutting dry or damaged branches. It is also carried out in order to give a special form to the plant. Bushes are pruned at any time of the year, but sanitary pruning is carried out in the spring.

Winter preparations

Although Juniper Arnold is a plant that is not afraid of frost, seedlings that have not yet matured need to be carefully prepared for the onset of winter. They can die under the influence of cold weather. The same applies to seedlings brought from warmer countries so that they acclimatize.

Did you know? Juniper fruits are similar to berries, but in fact they are bumps.

They recommend covering the plants for the first 2 years after planting. This will protect not only from the frost, but also from the bright sun, which can cause burns of needles. The bright sun is especially dangerous in severe frosts. The root system of the plant is in a state of hibernation, and a process of photosynthesis takes place in the needles, which leads to the active expenditure of moisture. At the same time, the needles become brown and overdried.Be sure to tie up the bags and sprinkle spruce branches, this will protect the bushes from the gusts of strong winds.

Plants growing in containers can be transferred to the premises from the street, if this is not possible, they are covered directly with a container. As a shelter fit:

• lapnik, which completely cover the plants;
• bags of straw, sawdust, leaves.

Plants growing on open ground need:

1. Strengthen the trunk circle. This is done using a thick layer of spruce branches, sawdust, etc.
2. Tie the branches, pressing them to the trunk. This will protect them from breaking off after snowfall.
3. The bush must be covered with improvised "breathing" material. Film is not an option.
4. Strengthen the shelter so that it is not blown away by the wind, leaving a small hole so that the plant breathes, preferably on the shaded side.
5. You can make a film screen around the plant.
6. Long-growing cultures shade with a fine mesh.

They recommend shaking off snow from the bushes. Do not rush with the cleaning of protective structures. You need to clean them in cloudy weather. With proper preparation, no winter is scary to plants.

Possible diseases and pests

Juniper Arnold - rarely exposed to diseases and pests. However, they exist.

Did you know? Juniper needles have the best bactericidal properties.

Diseases that these plants suffer from:

1. Defeat the plant with shute. On last year’s needles in the summer, black round fruit bodies appear on the surface of the needles 1.5 mm in size. They store spores of the fungus, which can lead to the death of the plant. To combat it, fungicidal spraying, removal of diseased needles, pruning of branches is used.
2. Rust - a fungus that manifests itself in the form of orange growths about 0.5 cm in size, increasing after rain up to 1.5 cm in length. This parasite needs two hosts. First, it grows on deciduous trees, and spores fall on the juniper. To prevent the occurrence, do not plant juniper near deciduous trees, which may be the first host of rust, remove damaged shoots, and use immunostimulants and fertilizers.
3. Fungal disease alternariosis. The needles turn brown, a black coating appears.
4. The drying of branches and bark is provoked by various mushrooms. The infection remains in the affected bark of the branches or plant debris. The absence of pruning and poor planting material contribute to the appearance of the fungus.
5. Biorell cancer, caused by a special fungus, forms longitudinal ulcers on the wood. The reason is mechanical damage to the branches.
6. Excessive concentration of salts in the soil can lead to shoots with red needlesthat dry in the future. These are symptoms of needles necrotization, it can also be associated with excessive watering, waterlogging, lack of moisture, etc.
7. Nectar cancer is caused by fungi.while red cushions appear up to 2 mm in diameter. Basically, this leads to the complete death of the plant. For all fungal diseases, prevention is spring and autumn spraying with copper-based preparations.

Juniper has two types of pests: sucking juices and gnawing needles. The first include:

• juniper aphids that suck juice from a plant. Means of struggle - washing needles with soapy water, fighting ants;
• juniper scale insects, the larvae of which stick to the needles, causing the death or drying of the plant. Methods of control - apply caterpillar glue rings in spring, in severe cases - spraying with insecticidal preparations;
• gall midges are small mosquitoes whose larvae live on a plant, creating gall colonies. They struggle with them by spraying, removing and burning infected branches;
• spruce spider mite and its larvae harm young plants. Methods of control - preventive spraying with water and, when it appears, with colloidal sulfur.

The pests that gnaw at the needles are the caterpillars of the shoot moth, the caterpillar of the juniper sawfly, the caterpillar of the moth. All of them damage the needles of plants, eat away internal tissues. Methods of control - spraying with insecticidal drugs. A routine inspection is simply necessary in order not to miss the infection with diseases or pests, so regular inspection of plants is mandatory.

Breeding methods

Juniper Arnold breeds in three ways:

• by seeds;
• cuttings;
• layering.

In the last way, the juniper is practically not bred, because the shape of the crown is violated with it.

Did you know? Juniper bark in Ancient Russia was used for making dishes. The milk in it did not sour even at high temperature.

Seeds

When propagated by seeds, they are first dried and subjected to stratification for several months. Then planted in the ground for germination. This method is considered the most time-consuming. Seeds must be freshly picked. To facilitate the process of germination, seeds are scarified. It is a violation of the outer layer of seeds under the influence of cold for 150 days. After which they land in the ground. Watered when the earthenware dries.

Cuttings

Reproduction of juniper by cuttings is the most used method. It consists in cutting young shoots of a plant with a maternal fragment (“heel”) in spring. Then they are placed in a special substance, where it takes root. Strictly observe the temperature regime. At first it should not exceed + 18 ° C, with a further increase to + 23 ° C.

Use in landscape design

The use of conifers in landscape design has recently gained popularity. Juniper Arnold was no exception. It is actively used to decorate rocky slopes, with its help create a heather garden. In combination with other shrubs, it gives a certain flavor. Suitable for terraces and rockeries. Composes unsurpassed compositions with perennial herbs.

Juniper with its unpretentious beauty will ennoble any suburban area. It is used both in single execution and in various combinations. Ease of care, evergreen beauty, sophistication and grandeur make him a favorite among coniferous cultures.