What is the difference between juniper. Thuja and juniper planting and care in the open field. Cypress plants in your garden - thuja, juniper, juniper. PositiveProject - landscape design
The owners of garden plots treat their allotments not only as a means of obtaining food. For many, this is an opportunity to show their design skills by planting not only fruit, but also ornamental plants. Choosing to decorate a dacha among coniferous trees, sometimes people wonder what to prefer, and how thuja differs from juniper.
Thuja and juniper
Both conifers belong to the same family - Cypress, therefore they are very similar in appearance. It is this similarity that confuses inexperienced designers. But if you look closely at the needles, then in adult plants they may vary. In the juniper, the leaves remain needle-shaped, but in the thuja they change with age, turning into scaly.
According to the shape of the crown, it is also difficult at first glance to figure out where the junipers and thujas are - both members of the family can be cypress-shaped or spherical. Among these plants there are varieties: from indoor to park.
All Cypress are among the oldest representatives of the earth's flora. Shrubs and trees have a long lifespan, calculated in centuries. Therefore, beautiful plants are so often used in landscape design.
Thuja and juniper
Cypress trees are also valued for their healing aroma. Where these trees grow, the air is particularly clean. Conifers are valued for their useful composition, which is almost identical in junipers, arborvitae, cypresses.
Distinctive features
Despite the external similarity, there are differences between the representatives of conifers. Knowing the biological characteristics of plants, it is easier to navigate in the choice of a particular tree or bush.
thuja
The tree-like thuja grows quickly, sometimes reaching a height of 70 m with a girth of 6 m in diameter. But most often in garden plots you can find a pyramidal or sprawling shrub, up to 7 m high, with branches located in the same plane. This variety is called western thuja. It is cultivated in any conditions, but, despite frost resistance, does not take root in the Far North.
The trunk of the thuja is smooth, usually gray. By old age, the bark becomes longitudinally fibrous and peels off in narrow ribbons. Scaly small needles are tightly pressed to each other. On short branches, oblong (7-12 mm) cones are bent to the bottom. They usually contain 2 seeds.
Thuja blooms from April to May. Already from June to September, you can harvest fresh branches for medicinal purposes.
Each element of the plant contains useful components:
- in the needles - resins, essential oils with a pleasant smell and a yellow tint (thujone, cinene, cardiophyllene, pinin, etc.); tannins and flavonoids;
- in seeds - essential oils in high concentration;
- in wood - toxifollin, aromadendrin.
Preparations from thuja are used in homeopathy, oriental medicine. Domestic healers introduce it into recipes for the treatment of cystitis, prostate, rheumatism, urinary incontinence. Recommended thuja from worms, papillomas, warts. Coniferous-based products help dissolve scars and neoplasms. Infusions cleanse and whiten the skin, treat inflammation in the hair follicles.
Juniper
The first difference between thuja and juniper is that the latter is much shorter in stature. Trees on average reach 3 meters, although there are also individuals 5 times higher. There are also low-growing shrubs, almost creeping along the ground. It is by them that juniper can be distinguished - such individuals are not found in thuja.
Note! The plant has a strongly branched stem. The twigs are dotted with sharp, stiff, awl-shaped linear leaves, collected 3 pieces in each ring.
The flowers are dioecious, axillary and differ from each other:
- men's resemble earrings;
- female are spherical cones.
Juniper blossoms in May, and begins to bear fruit in October-November of the following year, giving a fleshy cone. It is small, with a bluish bloom, contains 3 seeds inside. Most varieties have edible fruits.
In the wild, juniper is found not only in pine forests, but also in mixed forests, along mountain slopes, dry hills, near rivers, and sometimes in moss swamps. Cultivated in Russia everywhere.
In decorative design, the plant has been used for a long time; juniper was used as a medicinal raw material by the ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks.
Juniper
The plant really has a very powerful composition:
- in fruits - up to 40% sugars, 10% resins, 2% essential oils; contains acids (formic, acetic, malic), vitamin C, camphor;
- needles are rich in ascorbic and rhodionic acids, which provide a powerful bactericidal effect.
This property is the main distinguishing feature essential oils of juniper, which cannot be compared with any other plant.
Additional Information. For example, a juniper forest covering an area of 1 hectare is able to improve the air of a metropolis in a day.
Healing smell is one of the factors stimulating planting given plant in your area. There is no such field of medicine in which the juniper berry would not give an effect. It is used fresh, dried, made medicinal tinctures, decoctions, syrups. A small bottle of essential oil can be bought at a pharmacy. IN Food Industry fruits are used as a spice in the production of vodkas and liqueurs.
Landing features
Cypress growing conditions almost do not differ from each other.
Regardless of the shape of the crown, the height of the thuja cypress juniper plant is planted taking into account the same requirements:
- seedlings are purchased exclusively with an earthen clod so that the roots do not dry out, otherwise the plant will disappear;
- before planting in a pit, an earthen lump must be watered;
- the landing pit is made larger in diameter and depth than the size of the coma - a man's palm should be placed between it and the earthen wall;
- when installing the plant in a recess, they try to keep the root neck at ground level;
- air gaps in the pit are covered with a special soil mixture (see table below).
Each plant will thrive if planted according to the requirements of the species.
Individual requirements Cypress
* When choosing a soil mixture for junipers, take into account varietal characteristics:
- Siberian prefers sandstones;
- Cossack - calcareous soils;
- virginian - clayey.
Note! Most junipers settle on soils in which coal is present. Therefore, it is recommended to add a few pieces of this breed to the bottom when planting.
Care
In the process of growing thuja and juniper, there is no particular difference. Both representatives of the Cypress need watering with a long absence of precipitation - at least 5 liters of water are needed for each plant.
Trees and shrubs are fed once a year, in spring. During loosening, complex fertilizer is applied to the soil. Regularly monitor that the surface layer of the earth is not covered with a hard crust. Weeding conifers need only the first 2-3 years after planting.
juniper care
As for pruning, only sanitary ones are required, which are carried out as needed in autumn or spring. There are no schemes for regulating fruiting even for junipers. The formation of the crown is carried out exclusively for decorative purposes.
Diseases and pests of conifers practically do not annoy. But Cypress themselves become a good defense for the plants adjacent to them.
What is better to plant on the site
Both members of the family fit perfectly into the landscape of any site. Therefore, the difference is small, what to choose if there are no special requirements. It is better to pay more attention to the selection of a place, given the size of an adult plant.
It is also worth knowing that thujas develop rapidly and live for about 100 years. Junipers, on the contrary, grow very slowly and are real centenarians - their average age is 500 years.
Possessing healing properties, both varieties will be appropriate in the garden. But juniper is more profitable in the sense that it is also a good fruit edible berries. But thuja seedlings are cheaper, and it is more profitable to buy them for hedges.
A few words about design
Having figured out how to properly plant thuja boxwood and juniper on the site, they solve the following question: for what purpose is this done. If the thuja is used as green spaces along the perimeter of the territory, then the juniper is planted either in small groups or singly. The flower arrangement of the alpine hill looks great, where the creeping juniper bush occupies a central place.
pharmaceutical camomile
About useful properties chamomile, or peeled chamomile(Chamomilla recutita), many know. In the wild, it is found only in abandoned fields, where it was specially grown. But everywhere grows a lot of twins - the so-called chamomile plants with baskets with white marginal flowers. This and canine chamomile (umbilical) (Anthemis cotula), And chamomile (chamomile) perforated or odorless three-ribbed(Matricaria perforat a), and well-known leucanthemum ordinary, or popovnik (Leucanthemum vulgare). They do not contain valuable biologically active compounds of bisabolol and chamazulene, which are contained in the essential oil of chamomile and have strong antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and chamazulene also have anti-allergic effects.
pictured chamomile pharmacy
In scientific medicine, only the use of chamomile. With external use of similar plants - for rinsing hair, washing - there will be no harm, but also the proper effect. But when ingesting the right therapeutic effect we will not just not get it - there may be side effects.
How to distinguish chamomile
They have larger solitary inflorescences, and the leaves are entire serrated rather than pinnately dissected into narrow linear lobes.
pictured nivyanik
Healing chamomile is more like dog chamomile (navel) and odorless tririberi.
They can be distinguished by two features:
- chamomile inflorescences have a strongly pronounced, very pleasant, slightly apple aroma. The rest of the "daisies" either do not smell, or smell unpleasantly, harshly.
- if you cut the inflorescence of the plant across into two parts, the chamomile has a hemispherical receptacle, and at the end of flowering it is conical, and on the cut you can see an empty cavity inside. In other species, the receptacle is more sloping and completed.
in the photo, the odorless tririb
Elecampane
Recommended in scientific medicine elecampane high(Inula helenium), popularly called "devyatisil", "divosil". Preparations based on it are a good expectorant for chronic and acute respiratory diseases, they also help with peptic ulcer in combination with other plants.
Amateur herbalists often confuse it with or beautiful (Telekia speciosa) - ornamental plant, in some places even becoming an annoying weed. These plants are similar in appearance. Both are tall - grow up to one and a half meters or more, with golden yellow flowers, collected on the tops of the stems in large basket inflorescences.
in the photo, elecampane is tall
Rhizomes and roots contain essential oil (up to 5.7%) and inulin (up to 44%), and many other valuable compounds. Biologically active substances - sesquiterpenoids, isolated from them, are used in scientific medicine for the healing of long-term non-scarring stomach and duodenal ulcers. The underground part of the telekia contains several times less essential oil, inulin and biologically active sesquiterpenoids.
How to distinguish real elecampane
Leaves at elecampane oblong-elliptical, with a narrowed base, turning into a petiole, densely pubescent below, velvety-gray-felt. And at telekia broadly ovate leaves with a heart-shaped base, light green below. The fruits of elecampane have a flying crest, twice their size, and the telekia have fruits without a hairy crest.
in the photo the telekie is beautiful
horsetail
Difficulties often arise with the collection horsetail (Equisetum arvense). This species has two types of shoots. Spring - spore-bearing, light brown, unbranched 7-25 cm high, withering after maturation of the spores. And summer - green, branched, 20-25 cm high, similar to a small Christmas tree. It is they who are approved for use in scientific medicine - as a diuretic, in the treatment of various internal bleeding, respiratory diseases, impaired metabolism and many other diseases.
pictured horsetail
There are similar species that are not allowed for use in medicine: horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum), meadow horsetail (Equisetum pretense), marsh horsetail (Equisetum palustre). They differ both externally and in the content of biologically active substances and places of growth.
pictured horsetail meadow
How to distinguish real horsetail
In twin species, spore-bearing stems do not die after maturation of spores, green twigs appear on them. However, you also need to know diagnostic signs. If the plants lack the upper spore-bearing part of the stem, they can be distinguished by comparing the stems, side branches and teeth of the stem sheath.
pictured marsh horsetail
Junipers
Junipers ordinary (Juniperus communis) And juniper Cossack (Juniperus sabina) vary greatly, but are often mistaken for the same plant.
Common juniper- an evergreen coniferous shrub or a small tree up to 6 m high (less often and higher), with a cone-shaped crown. Prickly needles 1-1.5 cm long, needle-shaped, subulate, collected in whorls of three needles and rejected from the branches.
The fruit is a fleshy bluish-black cone-berry with a waxy coating, with a pleasant aroma and a sweet-spicy taste, ripening in the second year after pollination. Since the fruits are formed from three fruiting scales, they have a three-beam groove and 3 (rarely 1-2) seeds at the top. Thanks to the essential oil and its constituent terpineol, they are recommended as a diuretic for edema associated with kidney failure and circulatory disorders.
pictured common juniper
As a disinfectant, they are used for chronic pyelitis and cystitis, urolithiasis. Shared with others herbal remedies are used in chronic diseases of the respiratory tract (tracheitis, laryngitis, bronchitis) to thin sputum and facilitate its expectoration.
Juniper Cossack- squat evergreen conifer creeping shrub, up to 1.5 m high. It is found in nature to the south of the previous one, but is more often used in urban landscaping and is sold in garden centers as it is more resistant to urban pollution and easier to grow. Therefore, most people experience it more often.
pictured juniper Cossack
The fruits and needles of the Cossack juniper are toxic and contain many poisonous compounds: sabinene, sabinyl acetate, sabinol. Even small doses of fruits or infusion of needles can cause severe poisoning, resulting in damage to the kidneys and central nervous system. The victims begin bloody diarrhea, and in women, in addition, severe uterine bleeding, convulsions. In severe cases, paralysis and then death are possible.
How to distinguish a real juniper
In the Cossack juniper, the needles are scaly, arranged in pairs crosswise, pressed against the shoot. They are much shorter (3-8 mm) than those of common juniper and have a pungent smell. The fruits are rounded, 6-8 mm long and 5-6 mm wide, brown-black with two (rarely 1-4) seeds.
What happens if you mistakenly accept a double?
If by mistake instead of the right medicinal plant use its non-poisonous counterpart, then in most cases you will not feel much harm or benefit. What to do if poisoning occurs? It is necessary to immediately call a doctor or take the patient to a medical institution. If there is no medical worker nearby and the emergency happened far from populated areas, the victim needs first aid: induce vomiting if he is not unconscious; then wash the stomach (give a weak pink solution of potassium permanganate to drink) and then induce vomiting again. Do this procedure several times. Give activated charcoal and a saline laxative to more quickly remove the poison from the intestines.
Photo to the material: Shutterstock / TASS, Andrey Tsitsilin, drawings: Natalia Shevyreva.
Today, you no longer need to bother for a long time over what to plant in the garden. Shops are full of all sorts of flowers and shrubs, the types and varieties of which allow you to completely recreate an imaginary picture. And more and more often in this picture there are evergreens. Many people want to see an elegant, tall tree with small blue-gray needles to plant a hedge or a low-growing shrub with small branches as accents in flower arrangements. And it is worth coming to the store, as juniper and thuja immediately claim the role of such a plant. In appearance, they are very similar, but each has its own characteristics.
The similarity of thuja and juniper
And they belong to the same cypress family, so they don’t have any special external differences. These plants have the same scaly needles. Although in some cases it is already possible to distinguish them by this factor. In young shrubs of thuja and juniper, the needles are in the form of needles. But the thuja needles always become scaly over the years, and in some species of juniper it remains needle-shaped. Both of these plants can please with an unimaginable number of varieties of various shapes and shades.
Differences of thuja and juniper in cones and sizes
Thuja and juniper can be completely indoor plants and can grow up to several meters in height. Tree-like thuja reaches up to 70 meters in height with a trunk diameter of 6 meters. Juniper grows a maximum of 15 meters. True, such instances are extremely rare. History speaks of the different ages of such plants. Thuja can please with its appearance up to 100 years, while juniper - hundreds. But if it concerns only their decorative properties, these facts do not play a role. The difference between thuja and juniper can be found in the form of cones: in juniper they are spherical, while in thuja they are oval.
What is the difference between thuja and juniper in shape
Modern breeding technologies have made it possible to bring to the market a mass of plants of similar forms. Both thuja and juniper simply amaze with the choice of varieties. But, nevertheless, they cannot be called completely identical. Some types of thuja can acquire an ideal spherical shape, which cannot be said about juniper. But if you need a creeping plant, then the latter is what you need. Why they land also plays a big role. Many are looking for juniper, but in fact it is not as good for this as thuja. It is usually planted either as a single specimen or in small groups. In addition, a juniper hedge will be more expensive than a thuja, as more plants will be needed. And the juniper grows longer.
Conditions for the growth of thuja and juniper
Thuja and juniper are unpretentious plants, although even this has differences. Thuja can grow luxuriantly in a smoky, gassed environment, while juniper will not please in such conditions with good development. That is why in big cities thuja is more common, and on summer cottages- juniper. But thuja is demanding on the soil. It is best planted in rich, moist soil in an open area. sun rays place. Juniper is resistant to drought, frost and can grow in poor soils.
Juniper or thuja - which is better?
Few plants have such beneficial properties as thuja and juniper. Differences in such plantations can be supplemented by another criterion - the amount of phytoncides. These elements kill bacteria in the air and give that bewitching coniferous aroma that is characteristic of these plants. There are more of them in juniper, so the smell will be brighter. But to say unequivocally that better thuja or juniper impossible. They are beautiful in their own way and are great for any garden. So, if you need to make a choice, you need to proceed from where, how and why such a plant will be planted.
Juniper plant in the photo
Ornamental species of junipers, both in household plots and in Russian gardens, are still relatively rare. And not because they are not worthy of due attention. On the contrary, judging by the description of juniper species, these trees are perhaps the most beautiful among conifers. They are distinguished by their diverse shape, graceful needles and decorative fruits.
In addition, there is hardly another natural air ozonizer that cleans it from harmful organisms V short term and within a large radius. No wonder there is an aura of benevolence and peace among junipers. By right, this plant is medicinal.
The homeland of the juniper is the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, less often the mountains of the tropical part of Central America, the West Indies and East Africa. Juniper thickets live in the undergrowth of light-coniferous or light-leaved forests on sandy and even stony mountain soils.
In Europe and Asia, more than 20 species of juniper tree are known, in Russia no more than five or six are common. They are very different as appearance and biological requirements.
Juniper is an evergreen coniferous plant belonging to the Cypress family. These can be trees from 12 to 30 m high. There are also ornamental juniper shrubs - creeping (up to 40 cm in height) and erect (up to 1-3 m). The leaves (needles) of this plant are needle-shaped or scaly.
Look at the photo what juniper looks like different types:
Juniper 
Juniper
The plant is monoecious or dioecious, depending on the species, age and environmental conditions. Male spikelets are yellowish with scaly stamens, female - cones - berry-like, with a bluish bloom, bearing 1-10 seeds. Flowering - in April-May. Cones usually ripen in the second year after flowering.
What do the roots of a juniper plant look like? The root system of these trees and shrubs is pivotal, with developed lateral branching. Powerful roots are sometimes located in the upper soil horizon.
When describing the juniper tree, it is especially worth noting the strong coniferous smell emitted by these plants and due to the content of essential oils in the needles. Volatile substances have a pronounced volatile effect. The coniferous smell kills microorganisms and repels insects, in particular mosquitoes.
The smell of juniper can improve the well-being of those suffering from angina pectoris, relieve insomnia. The beneficial role of sleeping pads with dry juniper bark and steam, bath brooms, relieving joint and neurological pains, is well known.
Twigs of all types of coniferous trees, juniper with live needles, are popularly used by the people to fumigate an infected room or simply to freshen the air.
The berries of this plant are an excellent raw material for the confectionery, alcoholic beverage industry and perfumery.
Common juniper in the photo
Common juniper- a plant in the form of a shrub or tree (up to 12 m in height) with a cone-shaped crown.
Young shoots of this species are green at first, then reddish, glabrous, round. The bark of branches and trunks is grayish-brown, dark, scaly-scaly. Needles in whorls of three, shiny, lanceolate-linear, 1-1.5 cm long, dark green or bluish-green with a hard, prickly top.
The plant is dioecious. Male flowers are yellow spikelets, consisting of thyroid scales with 4-6 anthers. Female - resemble green buds of three scales and three ovules. Blooms in May - June. Fruiting begins at 5-10 years of age. Cone berries are single or in several pieces, spherical, up to 10 mm in diameter.
As you can see in the photo of juniper, the fruits of the tree in the mature state are dark blue with a bluish wax coating:
Common juniper 
Common juniper
The berries have a resinous smell and a sweetish-pleasant taste. Contains up to 40% sugar. A bountiful harvest is repeated in 3-4 years. The cones are collected, shaking them on a film or cloth spread under the plants, and dried under a canopy.
This juniper is undemanding to soils, cold-resistant, does not tolerate drought well. When transplanted without a clod of earth, it takes root with difficulty. Propagated by seeds that ripen within 2-3 years and have an oblong shape and brown-brown color.
Known decorative forms of ordinary juniper:
Juniper "Pyramidal" in the photo
"Pyramidal" with a columnar crown,
"Squeezed"- undersized shrub with dense dark green needles,
"Horizontal"- low creeping shrub, densely covered with blue-green needles, sharp and prickly.
Look at the photo of the varieties of this type of juniper:
Juniper 
Juniper
These plants are propagated by cuttings and grafting. Common juniper and its decorative forms grow very slowly. They do not tolerate excess salt in the soil and often die during transplantation, which must be taken into account when growing them.
The medicinal properties of common juniper were known and used in Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and Rus'. It is a good urine and choleretic, expectorant and antimicrobial agent. A North American Indians, for example, patients with tuberculosis were kept in juniper thickets, not allowed to leave until they were fully recovered.
In the 17th century in Russia, oil and alcohol were made from juniper fruits. The latter was used to make special vodka, which was considered a reliable remedy for almost all diseases. The oil was used as an effective antiseptic in the treatment of wounds, burns, and frostbite.
The fruits of this juniper are used as a seasoning. They give a special forest flavor to poultry and game dishes. The fruits are also used as a substitute for coffee. They still make jelly, marmalade, syrup, which is added to kissels, confectionery and bakery products.
Common juniper cones contain essential oils and 20-25% glucose; they are not inferior to grapes in terms of sugar content. They are used in medicine as a diuretic, in the alcoholic beverage industry for the production of gin, in the confectionery industry for the production of syrups. This type of juniper is widely used in homeopathy, as well as in Tibetan medicine.
Pay attention to the photo - this type of juniper in summer cottages and household plots is used in single and group plantings, as well as for hedges:
Juniper in cottages and household plots
The name of this type of juniper is more often heard than others, since it is the most studied and used as a medicinal plant.
Juniper fruits are harvested in autumn. They are fragrant, black-brown in color and have a sweet-spicy taste. Infusions and decoctions are prepared from them (1 tablespoon of crushed fruits per glass of water), which are prescribed as a diuretic and disinfectant with kidney disease, Bladder, kidney and liver stones. Decoctions are also used for gout, rheumatism, arthritis, helping to remove mineral salts from the body.
For external use, both berries and needles are used - for skin diseases, gout, arthritis.
You can also be treated with fresh fruits, taking them only after consulting your doctor first, on an empty stomach, first 2-4, then increasing by 1 berry daily, up to 13-15, after which the dose is also gradually reduced to 5 pcs. Fruits are contraindicated in acute inflammatory processes in the kidneys.
Juniper Cossack in the photo
Juniper Cossack- low creeping shrub with recumbent or ascending branches, covered with dense needles with a silvery tint.
Unlike the common juniper, the Cossack cones are poisonous. They are small, spherical, brown-black in color with a bluish bloom and a very unpleasant odor.
Touching the ground, the branches of the plant can take root. Growing, the juniper forms large curtains up to 3-4 m in diameter. This species is very drought-resistant, photophilous and winter-hardy, loves calcareous soil, but grows on all types of soil. Due to its unusual appearance, this juniper is indispensable in landscaping, when strengthening rocky slopes, in decorative groups on lawns.
When propagating this type of juniper with green cuttings, the standard planting material it will turn out 2-3 years earlier than from seeds, and the signs of the mother plant will be completely preserved. Reproduction by layering is the fastest and easy way vegetative reproduction of the Cossack juniper, but very unproductive.
Such garden varieties of this type of juniper are known as
Juniper "columnar" 
Juniper "upright",
"columnar", "upright",
Juniper form "cypress-leaved" 
Juniper form "variegated"
"cypress-leaved", "variegated"
Juniper form "tamariksolistnaya"
And "tamarix-leaved".
The most interesting is the "white-bordered" with almost white needles at the ends of the branches. Each is decorative in its own way and differs in shade and shape of needles.
Juniper Cossack comb-leaved- dioecious, low, almost creeping shrub with smooth, reddish-gray bark. Cones up to 7 mm in diameter, brown-black, with a bluish coating, contain 2-6 pcs. seeds. Frost-resistant, drought-resistant.
Juniper Chinese in the photo
juniper chinensis- trees or shrubs with a columnar or pyramidal crown. Young shoots are grayish or yellowish green, rounded, later brownish. The bark of the trunks is brownish-gray. The needles are predominantly opposite or, in young specimens, partially whorled (cross-opposite and needle-shaped in whorls of three), on the shoots - scaly, rhombic, blunt, tightly pressed to the shoot up to 1.5 mm in length. Propagated by seeds and cuttings.
Cone berries solitary or in groups, spherical or ovoid, 6-10 mm in size, mature - blue-black.
This type of juniper prefers fertile, well-moistened soils. Does not tolerate drought well. Without visible damage, it tolerates a drop in temperature to -30 °.
As you can see in the photo, this decorative juniper is used for single, group and alley plantings:
Juniper on the plot 
Juniper on the plot
Of the numerous decorative forms in summer cottages, they grow the “variegata” form - with whitish tips of the shoots, “fitzeriana” - with sprawling, upward-pointing branches and drooping branches. The variegated undersized form is interesting - with arched branches and drooping greenish and golden shoots.
This type of juniper can be grown as a bonsai.
Here you can find photos, names and descriptions of other varieties of juniper suitable for growing in the garden.
Juniper Siberian in the photo
Siberian juniper- undersized (up to 1 m) creeping shrub with short sharp dark green prickly needles. Differs in winter hardiness and unpretentiousness to growing conditions.
Juniper virginian in the photo
Red cedar- monoecious evergreen tree. This juniper looks like a real giant - its height reaches up to 20 m. Its homeland is North America. The crown is narrow-ovate, the needles are long (up to 13 mm) and prickly. Cones ripen in autumn, already in the first year. They are dark blue, with a wax coating, up to 5 mm in diameter, sweet in taste, contain 1-2 seeds. Grows quickly, especially with sufficient moisture. Less hardy than Siberian and ordinary. Easily propagated by seeds when sown in autumn or stratified - in spring. It tolerates pruning well, but transplanting is bad.
Among the common garden forms of virginian juniper there are plants with columnar and pyramidal crowns; with drooping and spreading branches with gray needles, with a rounded spherical crown and bright green needles.
Juniper longiferous- tree or shrub. Young shoots are greenish, later - brown, round, glabrous. The bark is scaly-scaly, dark gray in color. The needles are pointed, three in whorls, 15-20 mm long, dark green or bluish, hard, prickly, shiny.
In this species of juniper plant, cone berries are single and in groups, spherical or oval 5-10 mm in diameter, mature ones are black, with a slight bluish bloom. Triangular seeds.
This type of juniper is suitable for group and single plantings, for decorative design slopes and rocky places, because it is not picky about soils and moisture. Propagated by seeds.
Forms with a spherical crown and a compact pyramidal bush are known.
Juniper undersized- It is mainly a shrub up to 1 m tall. Stems recumbent, rooting. Young shoots are green, bare. The bark of branches and trunks is brown, on old ones it is scaly-scaly. This species of juniper has needles in whorls of three, prickly, hard, up to 1 cm long, bluish-green.
Cone berries solitary or in groups, almost spherical, 5-10 mm in diameter, mature - black with a bluish bloom, seeds 2-3 in number, wrinkled, tetrahedral.
In the design of the garden, it is suitable for single plantings on lawns, discounts, rocky hills, for landscaping slopes. Undemanding to soils.
Among the natural forms of the undersized species, the most popular are "Glauka" with lying branches and bluish-gray needles, as well as the "Rent" form with obliquely upward directed arcuate branches with weakly gray needles. Propagated by seeds, cuttings and layering.
Juniper reddish- tree or shrub. Young shoots and needles are green, and later acquire a yellowish color. The bark is brown-gray, flaky. On top of the needles are two original white stripes. The shape of the needles is grooved, prickly and shiny.
Cone berries are spherical, 10 mm in diameter, mature - reddish-brown, shiny, without a bluish bloom.
The species is decorative with yellow needles and reddish cones. It differs from other species by insufficient cold resistance. Propagated by seeds, which are 2-3 pieces in a cone-berry. They are brown and slightly trihedral.
Juniper high- a tree up to 15 m high. Young shoots are bluish-dark green, compressed tetrahedral, glabrous. The bark of branches and trunks is brownish-red, exfoliating with age. The needles are crosswise opposite, 2-5 mm long, pointed, ovate-lanceolate in shape, rarely needle-shaped, bluish-green.
Cone berries are solitary, spherical, 10-12 mm in diameter, mature - black with a bluish bloom, brown seeds.
Pay attention to the photo of this variety of juniper - it is very decorative, has a beautiful, dense, wide-pyramidal or ovoid crown. Suitable for single and group plantings, grows well on dry rocky slopes.
Like most other types of juniper, it is winter-hardy, drought-resistant, undemanding to the soil, tolerates pruning well, so it can be used in borders. Propagated by seeds.
juniper scaly- slow growing shrub with an oval crown. IN young age- the crown is rounded, the branches are raised, bluish-green. The needles are needle-shaped, prickly, gray-gray, short, dense, collected in whorls. Fruits - red-brown cones; when ripe in the second year, they become almost black.
Various forms of this juniper are grown, among which there are plants with a spherical, vase-shaped, flattened crown.
In our gardens this species juniper is most often found in the form:
"Blue Star" is a shrub 40-45 cm high and a crown diameter of 50 cm with silver-blue and very prickly needles. It looks good on alpine slides, as well as in containers.
It is quite frost-resistant, but often suffers from the spring sun.
Juniper propagation methods and growing conditions (with photo)
The method of propagation of juniper is chosen depending on the species - by seeds, green cuttings, layering.
Seeds ripen in cones a year or two after flowering. The cones are left hanging on the tree until planting. Sowing is best done in autumn (November) in the sowing furrows, into which it is necessary to introduce soil from under an adult juniper plant, meaning the introduction of mycorrhiza into the new soil. If sowing is done in the spring, then preliminary stratification of seeds in wet sand is necessary, in the first month at a temperature of +20 ... + 30 °, and then 4 months - at + 14 ... + 15 °. The substrate for sowing is 1 part of sifted sod land and 1 part of coniferous sawdust.
As shown in the photo, when propagating juniper, good results are obtained by planting green cuttings in greenhouses, and in summer - in greenhouses:
Juniper propagation 
Juniper propagation
Green cuttings are indispensable for the propagation of garden forms. Cuttings are taken with a “heel” only from young plants.
The substrate - 1 part peat, 1 part juniper needle - is placed on a layer of compost covered with a layer of soddy soil taken from under a juniper plant. Cuttings are sprayed 4-5 times a day. The most suitable time for cutting cuttings is April. For better rooting, cuttings should be treated with a growth stimulator, immersing them for 24 hours in a solution of Epin, Zircon, Rooting, Kornevin, Kornerost or another drug.
One of the main conditions for growing junipers is compliance with temperature regime. Optimum temperature air during cuttings should be + 23 ... + 24 ° at a relative humidity of 80-83%.
After 1-1.5 months, a thickening appears on the juniper cuttings - callus. Immediately after that, they are transferred to the ridges, where they winter.
The care and cultivation of junipers is not difficult, since all types of these plants are unpretentious, developing well on a wide variety of soils, up to sands and wetlands, but preference is given to light nutrient substrates.
Most species are photophilous, resistant to drought, sharp temperature fluctuations and damage by diseases and pests.
Given the peculiarities of growing junipers, it is impossible to dig the soil under these plants in autumn in order to avoid damage to the roots. The trunk circle should be covered with a layer of fallen needles.
When growing juniper in the garden, all types of these plants are unpretentious, that is, they are able to endure frost and drought, practically do not require fertilizers and pruning. However, there are certainly secrets of agricultural technology for growing junipers in culture, as evidenced by their frequent loss of decorativeness, and sometimes sudden death.
Planting a seedling permanent place is fraught with difficulties, since juniper does not like transplants. A tree for transplantation is dug in a circle and, together with a clod of earth, is transferred to a new place. At the same time, the goal is to minimally injure the root system.
For successful juniper care, planting dates are determined by root growth. Juniper has two growth periods: early spring(March) and mid-summer (June-July). However, according to weather conditions, the second, summer period is not suitable due to drought. At the same time, planting in the fall can be considered appropriate. During the winter, the plant is dormant, and with the onset of spring, it begins to actively take root.
These photos show the planting and care of juniper on personal plot:
Juniper in the garden
Junipers are worthy of wide application in the design of summer cottages. Their decorative forms are especially picturesque. They are not only beautiful, but, releasing phytoncides, like all conifers, they heal our environment.
Each of the most common types of junipers has its own specifics and value.
Low-growing forms of junipers are successfully used as ground cover.
Juniper like a silver blue carpet
Forms such as "Glauka", "Blue Star" And "Old Gold", are able to create a beautiful silver-blue carpet under the trees and tall shrubs.
Pyramidal species of juniper are usually planted as single plants or in small groups near various architectural structures, as well as on lawns and alpine slides. They are good in a quiet corner formed by trees, herbs and perennials.
