Juniper middle varieties of Gold Star are often used in landscaping to decorate areas near houses and park areas. Description of the plant, the rules of its cultivation, as well as about the possibilities of its application in the decoration of territories - further in the article.
Botanical Description
The described plant belongs to the genus of evergreen conifers of the Cypress family. Juniper medium (second name - juniper Pfitzeriana) Gold Star is presented in the form of undersized shrubs with a growth rate of 5 cm per year. At the age of ten, its height reaches 50 cm, more mature bushes grow to a maximum of 1 m.
The crown of the bush is spreading, if you look closely, you can clearly see how it spreads out in the form of a star. Its diameter is capable of reaching 2.5 m. It is for its unusual shape that the variety was called "Gold Star", which means "Golden Star" in English.The shoots of the plant form several horizontal tiers of yellow-green hue. The needles are soft to the touch and have no tapering at the end. Its color is golden, with a green tint.
Did you know? In a dish made from juniper bark, milk never sours, even in hot weather.
Landing
Juniper seedlings are planted in the spring. It can be carried out in mid-April, when the air temperature warms up to + 15 ° C. During the landing, you must monitor the weather conditions. It is better not to plant the plant on rainy days and avoid return frosts.
Video: Planting and caring for juniper
Seedling preparation
Seedlings need to be purchased in nurseries or specialty stores. Their age should be 3 years. When choosing a plant, you need to pay attention to its appearance. It is unacceptable to acquire shrubs with dry branches, the presence of rotten branches or needles.
Before planting, the plant can be poured with a solution of the drug “Kornevin”, which will strengthen the rhizome and will contribute to better rooting after placing it in open ground.
Site selection and preparation
Juniper Gold Star is undemanding to the composition of the soil. Therefore, it can be planted on any type of soil. Landing is carried out in sunny places, protected from strong winds. This arrangement will protect the plant from the invasion of insects and fungal spores.
In order for the juniper to take root well and grow healthy, it is important to properly prepare the soil in advance - in the fall. The site is cleaned of plant debris and the soil is dug 40 cm in depth, introducing 5 kg of humus per square meter of soil. Two weeks before planting, the soil is again loosened to a depth of 20 cm.Important! When choosing a landing site, you should avoid areas that are often flooded during rain and snowmelt, because flooding can lead to rotting of the basal neck and death of the plant.
Landing process
With strict adherence to the algorithm for placing the plant in open ground, juniper will quickly take root. Planting is carried out together with an earthen lump, which is located in a pot. Therefore, the pit is prepared 8 cm deeper and 4 cm wider than the similar parameters of the pot in which the bush was contained.
Step-by-step instruction:
- For planting, a substrate is prepared from mixed in equal amounts of peat, earth and sand.
- This mixture is poured into the bottom of the hole, filling the volume by a third.
- Next, the plant is removed from the pot, and together with a lump of earth, they are introduced into the hole. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the root neck is 5-7 cm higher than the ground level.
- Then, the soil substrate is poured to the top and a little tamped.
- Water the plant with 5 l of water and mulch the soil with peat (layer - 8 cm).
Juniper Care
It’s easy to take care of the juniper bush. It is resistant to droughts and is able to withstand a decrease in air temperature to -25 ° C and below. Gold Star variety is characterized by good immunity to many diseases and pests. Therefore, subject to the rules of care, the plant will grow and develop perfectly.
Did you know? In one day, 1 hectare of juniper plantings is able to evaporate up to 30 kg of phytoncides, which will clear the bacteria from the air of the whole metropolis.
Watering
Water the plant once a month. Under each bush make from 10 to 15 liters of water. Preliminarily, the liquid is settled for two days. If the summer is rainy, then the plant can not be watered.
Top dressing
Juniper is undemanding to top dressing. It grows well on all types of soil, even on infertile ones. If the gardener considers it necessary, he can use nitroammophoska as fertilizer, but not more than once a month. This top dressing is made under digging of 40 g for every 1 m² of area.
Loosening and mulching
Loosen the soil after watering and rains. The procedure is carried out in order to avoid the formation of a crust on the soil surface, which prevents the penetration of oxygen to the rhizome.
Important! Replace the mulch layer in the near-stem zone once a month. The material used is sawdust, peat or straw.
This procedure preserves the necessary moisture for the plant and prevents the growth of weed grass, which can attract pests.
Pruning
Juniperus × media Gold Star does not need trimming. The removal of branches is carried out only with the aim of thinning the crown. Every year it is recommended to carry out sanitary pruning, eliminating damaged, dry branches with signs of illness.
Important! Slices after removing branches need to be covered with garden varieties, which will prevent infection of the plant with a fungal or bacterial infection.
Shoots are removed in dry, calm weather. For this procedure, use scissors or secateurs. All instruments should be sharp - this minimizes the likelihood of rupture of the cortex.
Winter preparations
In order for the plant to tolerate the winter period well, the site should be prepared. To do this, remove all plant debris on the ground. The soil near the trunk is mulched with peat. This process will save moisture and heat at the roots in the cold period.
The adult shrub is resistant to frost. Therefore, it does not require shelter for the winter period. But in the first 2-3 years after planting, it is better to cover the plant with cardboard or burlap.
Possible diseases and pests
Juniperus × pfitzeriana Gold Star may be affected by aphids and scale insects. Aphid quickly settles on the branches and feeds on the sap of the plant, which leads to wilting and slowing down the growth of shrubs.
To eliminate the insect, use the drug "Actara" (4 g per 10 liters of water). Also used is a folk remedy made from 200 g of soap and 10 l of warm water.Larvae of the scutellum are attached to the shoots and drink juice from them, which leads to shedding of needles. To destroy the insect, use "Aktara" in the same concentration as in the case of aphids.
A dangerous disease that juniper can undergo is rust. Fungal infection affects the shoots and trunk of a shrub. Orange growths appear on the surface, which increase after rain and spread throughout the shrub.
The needles infected with rust become brown and crumble. To combat rust, it is necessary to prune damaged branches and irrigate the plant with copper sulfate solution (100 g per 10 l of water).
Breeding methods
Juniper Gold Star looks very impressive on the site, but for many gardeners it can be expensive to purchase a large number of plant copies. However, you can get good seedlings by propagation by cuttings and layering, which is obtained from growing on the site of an adult plant.
To get planting material from cuttings, it is necessary in the spring, before the formation of buds on the bush, to produce material. To do this, cut young shoots 10-15 cm long and place them in special conditions.
Rules for planting and caring for cuttings:
- In the tank, fill the substrate from sand, soil and peat mixed in an equal amount.
- In each prepared pot, place one stalk, deepening it by 2 cm.
- The container must be placed in a warm room where the air temperature is constant - + 22 ° C.
- Once a week, the soil must be moistened, and plant pots with plantings in a well-lit place.
- After 2-3 years, the cuttings will form a strong root system and will be ready for planting in open ground.
Propagation by layering is an easier way than grafting. For him, it will be necessary in early spring on an old bush to choose the longest young shoot, which is bent to the ground with a staple and dug in at the bend. Throughout the season, cuttings are spudded, watered and loosened soil near it.
Important! The following year, the deepened branch forms a healthy root system and the shoot can easily be separated from the mother plant by replanting to a new location.
Use in landscape design
The decorative variety of the undersized shrub Gold Star looks great in compositions with other plants. It is planted in the center of a flower bed, and it will also be in harmony next to fir or thuja. Juniper is planted for landscaping a stone garden.
It looks great against a background of granite, and also emphasizes the beauty of the fountain in the park. The plant can be planted in the form of hedges, which will perform an aesthetic function and strengthen the soil when planting on a slope.
Gold Star Juniper is excellent for decorating personal plots and park areas. The shrub attracts gardeners with resistance to drought and frost, which greatly simplifies the care of it.