Mint Julep is a dwarf evergreen plant with fragrant needles. This variety is a product of the crossing of two types of juniper - Cossack and Chinese. The decorative shrub Mint Julep is a great decoration for the greenhouse. The article is devoted to planting and care of the hybrid, as well as important nuances associated with cultivation.

Botanical Description

The Mint Julep variety has unique characteristics:

• spreading crown;
• soft needles of bright green color;
• maximum height - 2 m;
• diameter of an adult bush - up to 3.5 m;
• the mint smell of needles - hence the name;
• annual growth of 10-15 cm;
• the presence of cones with a bluish tint;
• preference for light;
• unpretentiousness to the soil and moisture;
• winter hardiness;
• resistance to dry gas pollution;
• breadth of application in landscaping design;
• long life expectancy - up to hundreds of years.

In Latin, juniper is called the word Juniperus. The variety was bred in the USA on the basis of Juniperus media - middle juniper, that is, Chinese (chinensis), now called the Pfitzer bush (Juniperus pfitzeriana).

Landing

Any loamy or sandy loamy soil is suitable for the Mint Julep variety; its main requirements are the presence of drainage and abundant sunlight. You can grow shrubs next to other junipers or other conifers.

Important! Despite the amazing and pleasant mint aroma, this variety is completely poisonous.

Seedling preparation

A seedling purchased in a store in a container should be carefully removed from it and spilled carefully. It is important to examine the plant for lesions, the condition of the root system. If a young shrub looks good, needles of its saturated color, then it should be properly rooted.

And the mixture that will be poured into the pit for planting, you can prepare yourself: take in equal parts sand, turf land and peat. Adding mineral fertilizer will be beneficial. Mixed soil is left in the pit until it settles.

Site selection and preparation

The optimal planting period is April. At this time, the soil is rich in trace elements and well moistened. The planting site should be open, because shading leads to poor growth and the gradual dying of shrubs.

In the recess should enter a nutrient mixture for conifers. Which one to choose for a particular site, you need to determine depending on the terrain soil. For example, acidified soil is known.

Important! Observe the required distance between several bushes of this variety of 2 m.

Landing process

Step-by-step instructions for planting Mint Julep:

1. Dig a hole about 60 cm deep. An important point is that the volume of the hole should be larger than an earthen coma on the roots.
2. Perform drainage creation. Its thickness is 10 cm. The optimal material is gravel.
3. Place the shrub so that the root neck remains at ground level. Fill with earth, spill with warm water.
4. Mulch the trunk circle.

Juniper Care

Caring for Mint Julep consists not only in watering and loosening, but also in sheltering for the winter until the branches become numb.

Video: How to properly care for juniper

Watering

This plant should be watered regularly and often, at least twice a week. It is also useful to irrigate needles. Sprinkling in the first week after planting helps a lot to take root in the seedling.

The best watering time is evening. It is carried out every week. It takes a lot of water - up to 30 liters. Moisturizing helps to prevent the juniper from sunburning and getting sunburn.

Top dressing

In April or May, the second year of plant nutrition is done. Use in spring:

• nitroammophosco in the calculation of 30–40 g per 1 m²;
• or complex fertilizers for coniferous shrubs.

In autumn, potassium-phosphorus mixtures are fed. They should be submitted in October. Adult plants can be fertilized only once every 3 years.

Loosening and mulching

Loosen the soil immediately when planting and in the continuation of the entire growth of the bush. This is important because the earth is thus enriched with oxygen, which is very popular with many conifers. It is also necessary to enrich the soil with air in the autumn season.

Mulch should be to maintain moisture. Both bark and harvested chips, wood chips are suitable. After wintering, the old mulch is removed.

Pruning

Pruning the crown top is the key to such a shrub formation that is ideal for him. The main haircut is to remove all damaged, weakened and dried shoots.

Before starting sap flow, it is recommended to cut the plant to maintain shape. In this case, you can not remove more than 1/3 of the length of the branches.

Important! After the spring haircut, the shrub should be treated with fungicide, in order to avoid diseases.

Transfer

The juniper hybrid transplant is extremely poor. It is important to choose a seedling in a good proven store or garden center in which conifers are in normal conditions.

Adult plants

It is difficult for an adult juniper to survive a transplant. It is better to initially decide where to plant a young bush. But if the need arose, you should carefully dig Mint Julep so that you can extract the roots with a clod of earth, the bigger it is, the better. For stimulation, Kornevin is used.

Juniper

The plant in the container has a closed root system. It’s easier for him to adapt to the new environment. For a transplant from a pot, a permanent place is chosen and planted in a pit, which is prepared in advance - for two weeks.

Winter preparations

For the winter period, juniper needs to be covered. To do this, the branches are tied and encircled with spruce branches. You can also use dry fall foliage. Such preparation for winter is required for the young Mint Julep, but an adult plant is enough to tie up (pull off the shoots with a rope). So the branches will be protected from damage by heavy snow cover.

Young plant protection

Disease prevention is especially important for young varieties. They equally need:

• shelter for the winter;
• tying in the support in the direction you choose or a shaping haircut;
• sanitary spring pruning;
• moisture retention in the soil (mulching) and air (loosening).

The first two years of young seedlings are still fragile, so they require frequent examinations and careful care. Then the plant begins to grow more abundantly, the shoots begin to grow numb. Watering is extremely important at first. Then its frequency can be reduced, but mulched. With all these subtleties, the shrub is very resistant to heat, drought and frost up to –40 ° С. But such features are already possessed by an adult representative of the variety.

Possible diseases and pests

It is necessary to conduct monthly inspections of shrubs of this variety.

Among the pests that infect Mint Julep are:

• aphid;
• caterpillars
• ticks and sawflies;
• the mole.

Plant diseases:

• fungal (including shute);
• rust.

Juniper can become infected with diseases from neighboring fruit trees. If you notice that the shrub dries up, and its needles change color, it means that it is affected by pests.

Did you know? The name of the variety comes from the name Mint Julep cocktail based on bourbon and mint leaves.

Means and methods of struggle:

• against moths: spraying with 0.2% Karbofos solution and collecting insect nests;
• with ticks: irrigation of 0.2% emulsion "Rotor";
• against aphids: use 2 g of "Rotor" per 1 liter of water for spraying;
• if the plant is damaged by a sawfly: a 0.2% solution of Chlorofos is used as irrigation.

For diseases should:

• to use fungicides for prophylaxis from fusarium infection, water the soil with Alirin-B, spray the crown with Fundazol;
• when rust, a solution of "Arceride" is used at intervals of 10 days, the affected areas are disinfected with copper sulfate;
• if the plant is ill with shute, you need to spray it with Bordeaux liquid (1%).

But the fact is that the optimal method of combating diseases, especially rust, is the destruction of a damaged plant. If you hope for a successful struggle, then carefully read the instructions of the funds you purchased.

Important! With a lack of a nutrient layer of the soil, the plant will also change the shade of coniferous cover.

Breeding methods

The vegetative method is the only correct and yielding results. Reproduction using seeds is extremely difficult.

Consider the method of spreading juniper Mint Julep by cuttings:

1. In early spring secateurs cut the shoot about 10 cm.
2. Prepare a pot to be covered to create a greenhouse effect.
3. Put the stalk there so that it is freely under the film.
4. Warm the pot overnight.

Use in landscape design

In landscaping, the variety is famous for the density of needles and is very popular. You can decorate undersized juniper gardens and parks, but also architectural structures. Due to the stability of the crown to urban air conditions, Mint Julep is used in the design of park rockeries, decorates rocky gardens and buildings, such horizontal surfaces as roofs of houses.

Did you know? Juniper of the described variety is very malleable: if you tie it to a vertical support, it will stretch up, if you fix the shoots to the ground, it will grow wide.

The combination with flowering plants and other conifers is an excellent option for the use of varieties in landscape design. The unpretentiousness of the bush makes it widely used in landscaping very different areas, both in cities and in private areas. It is noteworthy that the described juniper is great for creating nivaki - a type of bonsai in the open ground.

Easy to grow and beautiful, Mint Julep is the perfect small hybrid. You can plant it in the country or use it when creating park compositions. The bush prefers open areas to the sun, responds well to pruning, with modest care grows well and delights with a unique aroma. A cocktail of smells of needles and mint is an amazing feature of the plant.