Juniper "Mint Julep" It is an excellent ornamental plant that can decorate the design of any building, flower bed, garden, greenhouse. This evergreen shrub with fragrant needles, with proper care, is able to achieve considerable size and withstand the conditions of our climate.
Plant description
Juniper "Mint Julep" It is an evergreen shrub with a lush and fragrant crown, characterized by short stature. 
The branches are at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to ground level. The plant appeared as a result of the crossing of Chinese and Cossack species of juniper.
Did you know? In Russia, juniper was used to make dishes in which milk was not sour even in the heat.
Juniper "Mint Dzhulep" has a medium size, its wavy crown years to ten plant life can reach three-meter span, while it has a pleasant coniferous smell with notes of mint.
An attractive feature for those who want to grow such a plant on their household plots is its ability to endure even the most severe frosts and droughts.
In the United States of America, the juniper "Mint Julep" is considered an industrial plant, it is a real survivable urban dweller. 
The shrub feels good and looks great both alone and as part of entire ensembles: among stones, in heath gardens, on alpine hills, as decoration of rooftops.
You will be interested to read how to make an alpine hill with your own hands and what kind of flowers are suitable for it.
Planting and growing
Juniper "Mint Dzhulep" perfectly take root on the soil of almost any type, but he especially prefers drained land, where his crown is able to acquire the color of this emerald.
Before choosing a site for planting, one should not forget that this plant prefers to grow in open sunny areas. Shrub feels good with conifers and other species of this plant.
Competent planting of juniper "Mint Julep" consists of the following stages:
- Prepare a pit for planting several times wider than the root system of the shrub, while the depth may be small - about 60 centimeters.
- You need to prepare a drainage layer with a thickness of 5 to 10 centimeters, for which you can use bricks, pebbles, gravel.
- Next, place the nutrient layer of sand and sod land (1: 1) following the drainage. This ratio will help reduce the acidity of the soil. If the soil is too acidic, you must add calcareous materials to it.
It will be useful for you to learn how to independently determine the acidity of the soil at the site, as well as how to deoxidize the soil.
- When planting, the root collar of the shrub is located at the top of the recess for planting.
- Fill completely the roots of the plant with the remaining earthen mixture, compact it, pour it.
- To preserve moisture in the soil, it is recommended to mulch the upper layer of the earth with chips, pine bark, sawdust.
Important! In very acidic soil, growth and ornamental properties of the plant are impaired. Soil in such a state is determined by the presence of whitish inclusions.
The best time for landing is early spring. To avoid drying of the soil can be due to planting juniper in pritenennom place. If necessary, plant several plants at once, the frequency of plantings should be no more than two bushes per meter area.
Some time after planting, the soil should be loosened, at the end of the autumn period, the procedure is repeated so that in the winter time there is oxygen access to the roots.
Care
Juniper "Mint Julep" needs regular watering. Formed shrubs require copious amounts of moisture (ten to thirty liters at a time). It is better to conduct watering in the evening.
The crown of the bush must be properly and timely cut. Branches touched by rot, dry or with the wrong direction of growth should be cut off necessarily: the bush should not look neglected. 
You also need to take into account that for decorative purposes, juniper is not recommended to be cut at the very bottom of the bush.
Learn how to grow juniper at home, as well as what healing properties it has.
Juniper branches are particularly flexible, deformable, therefore, in order to shape the shrub, they can be pulled to the ground by attaching with a wire, or tied to a vertical support.
Young plants are recommended to cover (special materials for covering or dry leaves). Gradually, growing up, the bushes will lumber and will not be sensitive to frost.
It is also necessary to ensure that the branches are not damaged under heavy snow cover; for this purpose, before the arrival of winter, all the branches are usually tied together. After the end of winter, when the snow melts, the old mulch is removed to avoid putrefying processes in the root system.
Diseases and pests
At least once a week, it is recommended to inspect the juniper in order to detect the disease or pest attack in time. Often diseases are the result of illiterate choice of a place to plant a plant. 
For example, juniper, planted next to the rose plants, may be at risk of rust. If this happens, you need to cut off the diseased branches, process the sections with a solution of copper sulfate (1%) and close the garden pitch.
Did you know? Juniper exists on planet Earth for more than fifty million years, and under favorable conditions, the bush can celebrate its six hundredth "birthday."
If drying and browning of juniper is noticed, then this indicates the presence of insects or fungi, most often, Schutte. The needles, attacked by snow shutte, become dirty gray. If she was struck by the usual Shute, the color becomes red-brown, black lines appear across and spores.
Such manifestations are dangerous because of the possibility of infection of neighboring bushes identified disease-causing spores. For treatment, the damaged branches should be trimmed, and the shrub itself should be sprayed with HOM (40 grams per 10 liters of water). 
When alternariosis on the branches and needles appears black bloom, the development of the disease will lead to shrinkage and dropping of the needles.
Read more about how to deal with juniper pests and diseases.
To fight the disease should be, as with rust.
Common pests: scutes, aphids, spider mites, mining moths:
- in case of tle, treatment with FitoVerm (2 grams per liter of water) with an interval of two weeks (2 sprays) will help;
- the mole is afraid of "Decis" (2.5 grams per 10 liters of water), which is also sprayed at intervals of 10-14 days;
- tick scared drug "Karate" (50 grams per 10 liters);
- Karbofos works well against shchitovki (70 grams are dissolved in 10 liters of water).
Important! Juniper "Mint Julep" is also able to turn yellow, to acquire a non-characteristic color, which indicates a lack of or excess of moisture, over-wetting of the root system, lack of nutrition and drainage layer.
Breeding methods
Reproduction "Mint Dzhulep" occurs exclusively by the method of vegetation using layering or cuttings. The female representative of the plant produces seeds, but they are not able to give a full-fledged shrub.
When grafting, you only need to cut a small branch about 10 centimeters in size from a young juniper using shears or scissors. Peeling bark on the cutting intended for breeding must be removed. 
The best time for grafting is spring, but this process can also be carried out at any other time. The rooting process is best done in specially designed containers with a greenhouse (film).
The film should be placed in the container in such a way as to avoid touching the handle. At night, the future shrubs need to cover warmer (with a blanket or other insulation). The soil near the cutting should be compacted and watered.
In the summer, the process of rooting the cutting is easier: it can be planted immediately in open ground, preferably also under a film cover. The optimal time for rooting the cutting is the period from the end of June to the beginning of July.
To accelerate the growth of cuttings, you can use the stimulator "Kornevin", processing which helps to improve and enhance the flow of nutrients.
Check out other types of juniper, such as: Chinese, Blue Herrow, Blue Star, Blue Carpet, Andorra Compact, columnar, horizontal, Virginian and Skyrocket.
Before planting the stalk, you need to put it in the stimulator solution, deepening by a third, and leave it there for several hours (from eight hours to days). After the procedure, the juniper can be planted.
Juniper, characterized by the presence of creeping forms, can be propagated by layering during the growing season. Branches need to pile and pin, while they take root, continuing to remain part of the parent plant, which makes this method safer, because the layering die much less often than cuttings.
When rooting occurs, the cuttings are disconnected from the parent plant mechanically and continue to grow on their own.
Reproduction by layering is the oldest method of propagation of plants, which allows you to save the characteristics of the variety transmitted from the mother plant, without changes, and get the most homogeneous offspring. 
If there is a need to transplant juniper "Mint Julep", then it is better to produce it together with the earthy clod, in which the bush grows.
Juniper "Mint Dzhulep" - a great element of landscaping and design decoration of the infield. In the care of this shrub is quite unpretentious, and if everything is done correctly, then the plant will surely delight with its green crown, attractive appearance and unusual smell.
