Juniper is an extremely beautiful and quite ancient plant. On our planet, it appeared 50 million years ago. The range of juniper covers the subtropical, temperate and even subpolar regions of the Earth. It grows both on the plains and on the peaks of low mountains and ranges.
Today, botanists have about 70 species and varieties of this plant. We will stop our attention only on one of them - this is Cossack juniper. Description, list of varieties, as well as tips on planting and care of him, you will find in this article.
Meet the juniper!
Juniper is an ancient coniferous plant from the cypress family that originated on our planet about 50 million years ago. There are a huge number of its types and forms. Some of them reach a height of 20-30 meters. Others creep along the earth, rising above its surface by only a couple of tens of centimeters.
Today, in artificial gardening, Cossack juniper is most often used. Planting of this plant is carried out in parks and gardens, in private and public areas. With its help, lawns, rocky slopes and "Vietnamese slides" are successfully decorated. Due to the rooting of individual branches, the juniper grows very quickly in width, forming dense and beautiful thickets. In cultural gardening, the species has been known since the end of the 16th century.
Juniper Cossack: general description of the plant
The Latin name of the species is Juníperus sabína. This dioecious creeping plant is up to one and a half meters in height. Most often - in the form of a bush, although there are small trees (3-4 meters high) with curved thin trunks. The bark is brown or red, with obvious signs of exfoliation.
Juniper Cossack is mentioned in the works of the ancient Greek scientist Dioscorides. There is also a legend about a certain harlot Sabin (hence the name of the plant), which used the sabinol poison found in juniper berries as a means of getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Later, other women also resorted to this method. By the way, juniper is one of the most poisonous plants in the world. Poisoning it with berries can lead to severe convulsions, paralysis and even death. Not only berries are poisonous, but also shoots of this plant.
The needles of mature juniper are scaly, in structure it resembles shingles. When rubbing, it emits a powerful and rather pungent odor. The fruits of the plant are juicy cone-berries of an oval shape, black in color and with a bluish bloom.
Species distribution and habitat
As a rule, in nature, Cossack juniper grows at absolute heights from 1000 to 3000 meters. The species is widespread in Southern and Central Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, Siberia, the Caucasus, Primorye and Crimea. The natural landscapes of its habitat are limestone slopes, bare mountain slopes and sand dunes.
The plant is photophilous, frost-resistant and not particularly demanding on soils. It tolerates long dry periods. Juniper survives even at very low temperatures (up to –40 degrees Celsius). It is resistant to excessive air pollution, so it is often used in landscaping industrial sites and dusty city streets.
Useful properties of juniper
Like many other conifers, juniper has useful (healing, including) properties. First of all, it enriches the air with oxygen and volatile. Thanks to this, the space around the bushes becomes clean from harmful bacteria. This property, by the way, was noticed by our old ancestors. However, they interpreted it in their own way, using juniper as a weapon against evil spirits.
North American Indians treated wounds and skin ailments with twigs of this plant. Ukrainian Cossacks with the help of juniper needles got rid of a hangover. To do this, they simply laid the young man who abused alcohol in the juniper thickets. But in Ancient Russia, they noticed that this plant protects humans from snakes.
Cossack juniper shoots contain essential oil, which helps protect wool from moths. In addition, it is also used as an effective remedy for warts. A juniper ointment treats purulent ulcers on the body, it is also rubbed into the scalp during alopecia.
Juníperus sabína and its varieties
The species of Cossack juniper has more than two dozen varieties. All of them differ from each other only in the shape of the bush and the shade of needles. The most popular varieties of juniper Cossack in modern landscape design:
- Tamariscipolia.
- Variegata.
- Erect.
- Mass
- Blue Danub.
- Glauka.
Juniper Cossack Variegata is a stunted, creeping form that rarely exceeds 0.5 meters in height. The crown is very dense and is adjacent to the ground. The needles have an excellent disinfecting effect - there are practically no insects near the plant. Variegata variety needs plenty of sunshine. It looks perfect in various container compositions, and is also used in the formation of rockeries and rock gardens.
Juniper Cossack Glauka is a sprawling and rather large bush, often reaching a height of one and a half meters. It grows very quickly, has spiny green needles. In general, this variety is unpretentious and resistant to various pollutants, which, however, loves sunny places.
Juniper Cossack Tamarystsifolia (or just Tamaris) - a low shrub, not exceeding a height of one meter. The crown resembles a dome and reaches 1.5-2 meters in diameter. Needles are predominantly bluish or pale green in color. This variety is ideal for landscaping ravines and loose rocky slopes. It is highly resistant to gas pollution, and therefore often lands along busy roads.
Juniper propagation methods
The most common in landscaping juniper Cossack Tamariscipholia propagates in three ways (as, incidentally, all other types and varieties of this plant):
- Cuttings.
- Layering.
- The seeds.
Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Reproduction of Cossack juniper by cuttings is the most effective way. And spring (April-May) is the optimal period for this event. Cuttings from perennial bushes, as a rule, take root much faster (up to 40 days). The ideal temperature for rooting is + 16 … 20 degrees. Subsequently, rooted juniper cuttings are planted in separate pots for growing. Not earlier than two years later they can be planted in open ground.
Perhaps the easiest way to multiply juniper is to use layering. How does this happen? A branch of the bush is bent, a small incision is made and sprinkled with earth. Then this place is slightly watered with water. This procedure is usually done in the spring, and in the fall, the mother branch is cut off, and the young bush is transplanted to a new place.
The seed method of reproduction is the most troublesome and long. In the fall, seeds are placed in small boxes of soil. For the winter, these boxes are carried outside and stored in the snow until spring. In April, the juniper seeds that wintered in this way are sown already in the prepared beds.
An important point! The optimum acidity of the soil for the planting of juniper is 4.5-7 pH.
Juniper Cossack: plant care
As already mentioned above, juniper is an unpretentious plant. Here are the basic rules for caring for this bush:
- In periods of prolonged heat and drought, the juniper should be watered particularly intensively.
- It is important to feed young bushes with fertilizers for coniferous plant species.
- When planting juniper in open ground, it is recommended to liming the soil.
- The soil around the bushes must be periodically loosened and mulched (peat or wood sawdust).
- During heavy snowfalls, it is recommended to shake off the branches of juniper from snow in order to avoid damage to plants.
Juniper bushes pruning
In general, Cossack juniper practically does not need pruning. The only thing to do is cut dry as well as damaged branches.
As a rule, pruning of juniper is carried out in cases where the bushes need to be given a certain shape. Perform this procedure no earlier than in the second or third year of the plant's life, in April or September. Work best with gloves to avoid contact with juniper venom. You can create bonsai-style bushes by coordinating the growth of branches in one direction or another.
