Junipers are a lovely green bush that gives rise to a thick and lush dark green foliage. It has more than just one species, and is known to have grown in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It has also been growing in numerous countries around the globe, among which are the countries of Japan, Canada, and even the United States.
They usually grow to around thirty fee high, and have shapes that can be characterized as columnar. Its leaves are also shaped like needles, and they are a great addition as a decorative plant in any home.
In order to plant your own juniper plant, you would need to be equipped with certain skills and knowledge regarding how to take care of the juniper plant and how to let it grow properly. Among some of the things you might need to learn is how to prune junipers. The juniper plant needs care and maintenance in order to grow, and pruning is just one of them.
1. Shearing Junipers
Some plant care techniques may seem counterintuitive but are actually beneficial to the plant. These techniques include cutting and pruning them. Before learning how to prune juniper plants, we need to learn the basics.
Shearing junipers is part of the process of pruning or getting rid of unwanted portions, but in order to reach that stage, you must first learn how to grow and take care of a juniper plant. Learning these things will help you create a garden that is lush with growing and healthy plants, and one that houses junipers that you may wish to grow in the long run.
Junipers are evergreen plants that are used in a lot of landscape and decorative activities. As such, learning how to grow these huge variety of bushes can be beneficial for those who want invest in a garden that is thick with dark colored green evergreen bushes like the juniper plant.
Since these plants do not grow so tall or as long as other plants, they make for good additions that are easy to take care of. They also have a hardy and tough touch to them, which means that they can last longer even in seasons that are considered to be dangerous and detrimental to other, weaker plants.
2. Will Juniper Grow Back
After cutting a fair bit of your juniper plant, the question of will juniper grow back comes to mind. That depends on the life span of the plant, and how well you can maintain it.
Sometimes, when you need to maintain the size and aesthetic of the plant, it can be necessary to get into the habit of cutting back some of its parts, or pruning the leaves and unwanted portions of the plant in order to provide it with more breathing room, and to provide better nourishment to the healthier parts of the plant.
The season in which you prune the plant can also affect its ability to grow back, since certain seasons leave the plant more vulnerable as compared to when pruning is done in other seasons.
To cut back on the juniper in order to allow it to grow back, it is important to know which season is best for the juniper plant in particular. Cutting it during the wrong season can lead it to be exposed to certain pests and other unwanted elements, and makes it vulnerable to other effects of the cold weather conditions or harsh climates that might affect the way the plant grows.
In order to allow the juniper to grow back, you have to make sure that you prune the juniper during in spring after a spurt of new growth. By doing this, you will allow the juniper to grow back at a healthy pace, and allow new parts of the plant to have a better chances of growing and developing.
3. Pruning Overgrown Juniper Trees
Overgrown trees can definitely be a problem for a lot of people especially those that have to maintain a certain distance between plants because of limited space, or aesthetic preferences, or simply because they do not like the sight of overgrown plants. For the juniper, the pruning should take place during the spring, and removal of dead, dying and diseased branches is a must.
These parts of the juniper plant should be removed in order to avoid the diseased parts of the plant spreading across the whole plant, and eventually leading to its death. It can also help to pick junipers that are a bit resistant to pests and other insects that can cause diseases in other plants, so that pruning can be done less often as compared to other juniper types that are more susceptible to attacks such as these.
Water Needs
The amount of water a plant needs is important when you start out with either a seed or a full grown plant already. The juniper is also no exception, since it requires watering regularly throughout the duration of its plant life.
Water is a necessary element that it needs in order to survive, especially since plants use this as a means to create the food within their system, which allows them to grow into full-sized plants. When they have grown, this also allows them to maintain their health, and provide all the parts of the plant with the necessary nourishment it needs in order to survive and do well in any habitat.
Juniper Uses
Aside from its aesthetic value, the juniper plant has more to offer. Since it is a member of the cypress plant family, you can expect some varieties of the tree to be timber-y. Some types of juniper are given the common name “cedar” because of their timber. Although not a true cedar, its quality is fairly comparable to cedar.
Because of the quality of the wood, juniper is traditionally used for weaving in Northern Europe, like in Norway. The plant gives tough yet versatile timber. It is highly useful for different purposes.
The female junipers’ berries are a form of spice used all over the world for culinary purposes. In fact, it is the primary flavoring tool for gin (the word gin is a actually a Dutch word shortening the name juniper, called jenever in Dutch).
The berries are also used to make sauces in Europe. The flavor of the juniper berries are good with quail, venison and other game dishes.
Did you know that Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky are centers for creating essential oil from juniper plants? Yes, the plant can produce oils that are either colorless or yellow or pale green. The oils can be extracted from the berries, twigs or leaves.
For aesthetic uses, the juniper plant has a lot to offer. There are aroubd 60 varieties of the plant. And they have varying heights. They range from low shrubs to 40 meter tall trees. However, for home gardens, the juniper plant is the best option.
Conclusion
The juniper plant is a versatile plant that can be added to any garden or home, or any place that needs an evergreen plant for beautiful landscaping. With small to medium-sized choices to choose from, they can definitely fit in the confines of any home, or any large garden to add to the mass of already growing plants and herbs that might be present.
In any case, learning the basics and what a juniper needs in order to grow will always be the first step to any beautiful landscape, thus, it is important to learn and teach yourself how to prune junipers.
Since junipers can tend to overgrow, it is important to be able to know when and how to remove the parts that tend to overgrow, in order to properly shape the plant and create an aesthetic that fits your needs. Trying out different styles can also work to your advantage.
Want more plant care tips? Aside from pruning tips, we also teach how to grow and how to harvest your favorite plants.
