Juniper trees belong to the genus cypress and include more than 60 species. To date, a large number of hybrids have been identified (more than 150). Due to their different shape, undemanding to the conditions of growing and care, these plants Widely used in the design of household plots, in the park economy. There is a kind of juniper which, under favorable growing conditions, can have a height of 20 meters, and there are plants that grow no more than 20 centimeters. The color of the needles can also be different - from green to blue and bluish-blue. There is a kind of juniper (hybrid), which has a golden color, there is a plant with bluish needles, and there is - with a motley color.
Juniper is unpretentious to the soil and conditions of growth, well tolerate a lack of moisture, severe winters. Some are able to withstand the conditions of smoke and gas contamination. Plants live 600 years or more. Among them there are long-livers. So, there is a kind of juniper, whose age can be estimated in thousands of years (up to 3000!). These plants reproduce by propagation or rooting of shoots lying on the ground. Seed propagation is possible, but it requires prolonged painstaking care and special seed preparation.
The most common type of juniper is common. It is a small shrub that resembles cypress. Juniper is ordinary and is the long-liver, whose age can be up to several thousand years. This plant likes pine and spruce forests, where it grows like an undergrowth. If you decide to plant an ordinary juniper on your site, caring for it will be quite simple. You just need to choose for him a well-lit place and plant. For this plant the main thing is good lighting, to all other conditions it adapts perfectly. If the summer is very dry - 2-3 times a season pour the plant (the norm - 20-30 liters for each adult plant). The only disadvantage of junipers is that they grow slowly. Therefore, cut them very carefully and carefully - the blemishes long overgrown. The main work on the formation of the crown is to cut dry branches. Only young plants cover the winter. Adults perfectly winter themselves.
The appearance of juniper can be very different. There are columnar ones (varieties Spartan, Olimpica, Stricta) and shaggy (irregular), sometimes one can find a goblet shape (Blaav variety), a weeping one (a hybrid of Oblong Pendula), multi-barreled (but these plants do not care Stretch upwards). A separate group are creeping varieties. Chinese juniper "Variegata" looks very decorative. It has the shape of a wide cone, and the color in general is unusual - along the bright green go white-cream strips resembling strands. The common shrimp of the "Suezik" and "Sentinel" varieties has the appearance of small pyramids up to one meter in height.
In general, the species of juniper 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 fine, especially in the winter, and against the backdrop of summer greenery, too, are not lost. And junipers have a thin coniferous aroma, and their fruits are used in folk and traditional medicine.