Junipers belong to the genus cypress and include more than 60 species. To date, a large number of hybrids (more than 150) have been bred. Due to the different form, undemanding to growing conditions and care, these plants
are widely used in the design of personal plots, in park management. There is a type of juniper, which, under favorable growing conditions, can have a height of 20 meters, and there are plants that are no more than 20 centimeters tall. The color of the needles can also be different - from green to gray and bluish-blue. There is a type of juniper (hybrid) that has a golden color, there is a plant with bluish needles, and there is a variegated color.
Junipers are unpretentious to soils and growing conditions, tolerate lack of moisture, harsh winters. Some are able to withstand smoke and gas conditions. Plants live 600 years or more. Among them there are long-livers. So, there is a type of juniper, whose age can be calculated in thousands of years (up to 3000!).
These plants are propagated by cuttings or rooting of shoots lying on the ground. Reproduction by seeds is possible, but it requires long-term painstaking care and special seed preparation.
The most common type of juniper is common. It is a small shrub resembling a cypress. Common juniper is the long-liver, whose age can be up to several thousand years. This plant loves pine and spruce forests, where it grows as an undergrowth. If you decide to plant an ordinary juniper in your area, caring for it will be quite simple. You just need to choose a well-lit place for it and plant it.
For this plant, the main thing is good lighting, it adapts perfectly to all other conditions. If the summer is very dry, water the plant 2-3 times per season (the norm is 20-30 liters for each adult plant). The only disadvantage of junipers is that they grow slowly. Therefore, they are cut very carefully and carefully - the flaws overgrow for a long time. The main work on the formation of the crown consists in cutting dry branches. Only young plants cover for the winter. Adults winter well on their own.
The appearance of juniper can be very different.
There are columnar (varieties "Spartan", "Olympic", "Stricta") and shaggy (irregular), sometimes you can find a goblet shape (variety "Blaav"), weeping (hybrid "Oblonga Pendula"), multi-stemmed (but these plants still stretch upwards). separate groupcreeping varieties appear. The Chinese juniper "Variegata" looks very decorative. It has the shape of a wide cone, and the color is generally unusual - whitish-cream stripes resembling strands go through bright greenery. Common juniper varieties "Suecika" and "Sentinel" looks like small pyramids up to one meter high.
In general, juniper species can be listed for a long time, and their brief description will take a couple of volumes, but what can be said for sure - they all look just wonderful, especially in the middle of winter, and they are not lost against the background of summer greenery either. And junipers have a delicate coniferous aroma, and their fruits are used in folk and traditional medicine.
