Many owners of private houses plant coniferous plants in their gardens. One of them is a horizontal juniper called Andorra Compact. It is a dwarfish form of an evergreen shrub with dense branches. It looks very nice both in the mixborders, and as an independent plant. Let's find out how to take care of this interesting plant.
Juniper "Andorra compact" - planting and care
Plant the bush on a sunny or slightly shady place. In order for the crown of the plant to be dense and beautiful, it is necessary to take care of its root system: to provide it with nutrient soil. It is best to use a nutritious mixture, mixing in equal proportions peat, turf and sand. You can also buy in the store soil mixture for conifers and mix it with ordinary soil. Do not forget about drainage, especially if the soil is heavy. Planting should be done in pits that exceed the size of the root system of the bush by 2 times. Make sure that the root neck of the juniper "Andorra" is located at ground level.
Watering is very important for the plant in the first months after planting. Water the juniper at least twice a week, until it is well rooted and can not consume all the necessary nutrients from the soil. In the future, watering is mandatory only in drought. And in order that the moisture does not so quickly evaporate from the upper layers of the soil, mulch, covering the soil around the bush with pine chips or bark layer of about 5 cm.
The horizontal juniper "Andorra" responds well to fertilizing. In the spring, complex mineral fertilizers for coniferous plants or nitroammophoska are used. In autumn, they make fertilizing with potash phosphorus fertilizers, so that throughout the whole winter the shrub would delight you with its beautiful evergreen needles.
Juniper is susceptible to diseases caused by fungi and invasions of pests (scutes, moths, etc.). In the first case, the effective remedies for the diseases will be the Bordeaux mixture or the "Ordan" preparation, and from the insects the insecticides will be rescued, with which the plant is treated twice with an interval of 10 days.