Thuja columnar western - description of varieties

Thuja columnar western - a wonderful solution for landscaping the garden throughout the year. With its help, hedges, compositions with other shrubs and evergreen flowering bushes are created. She looks great in single compositions, surrounded by flowers and succulents. Columnar thujas are combined in compositions with thujas of the same type of crown, but in contrasting colors or with low thujas of another type of crown - Wagner's ovoid thuja or spherical Danica.

Species and varieties: description

The plant got its name "Thuja" because of its pleasant smell. From the Latin language, the name means "donation", since the fragrance accompanied such rituals.

Columnar varieties are perfect for the climate of the Moscow region, Vologda, Arkhangelsk and all the way to Siberia. They are frost-resistant and easy to care for, but have different characteristics.

Composition of thuja of different types

• Brabant (Thuja Occidentalis Brabant) is a fast growing species. The annual growth of the tree is up to 35 cm. Ten-year-old thuja has parameters of 3.5 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter. Unpretentious in care, frost-resistant. The needles are painted in a rich green color, in winter the color of the needles acquires a brown tint;
• Yellow Ribbon (Thuja Occidentalis Yellow Ribbon) is used for contrasting plantings, since the color of its needles is bright yellow at the tips. It grows up to 3 m in length by 10 years. It has an unusual crown shape - a narrow loose cone. In leaving, thuja yellow columnar is demanding on the composition of the soil;
• Columna (Thuja Occidentalis Columna) is a great solution for hedges. With the change of seasons, the dark color of the needles does not change. Perfectly tolerates haircuts on its short branches. Annual growth up to 20 cm. Frost-resistant species, unpretentious in care;
• Smaragd (Thuja Occidentalis Smaragd) is not a frequent visitor to garden plots. The crown is very dense and narrow, the annual growth is small. The tree is very demanding on the composition of the soil and watering. The decorativeness of this variety is not inferior to its brothers: the narrow dense crown of bright green color does not change its color throughout the year;
• Aurea Pyramidalis (Thuja Occidentalis Aurea Piramidalis). The initially narrow crown grows in breadth over the years due to several branched trunks. Has a pyramid shape that is suitable for creating solitary landings. A frost-resistant variety will require a certain soil composition and individual watering;

Yellow Ribbon variety

• Holmstrup (Thuja Occidentalis Holmstrup) is not a very tall tree, by the age of 10 it does not exceed 2 m.The crown is narrow, very dense. Easy to cut, grows slowly, not demanding on soil and watering. It is universal in decor solutions: it can be used in the creation of hedges, in group and single compositions;
• Aurescens (Thuja Plicata Aurescens) is truly a giant. The variety grows up to 12 m, has a dense, wide crown. The frost-resistant beauty is not at all demanding on the growth conditions. The color does not change seasonally, the dark green needles with white stripes are very effective. But because of its size, it is more often used in open spaces with a large area: in parks, gardens, alleys;
• Excelsa (Thuja Plicata Excelsa) is another giant for large-scale compositions. The height of the tree reaches 12 m, and the width is 3-4 m. The arched branches form a wide columnar shape of the tree. The shiny surface of the dark green needles makes it stand out from other evergreens.

Thuja columnar: planting and care

For planting in open ground, you must prepare:

• hole 50 * 50 * 70 (± 10 cm). If the soil is heavy and damp, a 30 cm layer of drainage is needed (pebbles, crushed stone, broken brick);
• nutritious soil.To the soil in which the young thuja grew, you need to add twice as much peat and sand.

When planting, an earthen lump braided by roots does not need to be disassembled. It is installed in a pit on a nutrient mixture, and from the sides it is covered with the remaining substrate. The root collar of the tree should be at ground level.

After planting, you need watering and fertilization:

• in spring and summer plantings, fertilize with a complex preparation;
• during late summer or autumn planting, superphosphate is needed.

To create a thuja hedge, they are planted in a flat line at a distance of 0.5 m from each other (depending on the variety)

Young house trees need to be looked after more carefully:

• watering every week;
• shelter for the night from the cold;
• complementary food for coniferous crops;
• regular loosening and mulching of the soil.

An adult plant requires less attention to itself:

• thuja western columnar grows remarkably in the sun or in partial shade;
• watering should be moderate and not frequent. The correct substrate retains moisture for a long time. Only in hot weather do you need watering twice a week and additional irrigation of the needles.

Besides:

• it is important to saturate the roots with oxygen, for this you need to regularly loosen the soil;
• feeding is needed every spring. You can apply ready-made mixtures for conifers (most often these are complex fertilizers);
• over the years, the needles on the lower branches turn yellow and fall off. To hide bare twigs, you need to plant undersized bushes in the first row of the hedge;
• in winter, an adult tree does not need shelter. But it is important to fix the young top so that it does not break under a layer of snow.

If the thuja was planted in the fall, despite its frost resistance, the tree needs to be sheltered from the cold, since it still does not have a reserve of strength and food for wintering. The crown is covered with light non-woven materials to retain moisture in the needles. The roots are mulched with a thick layer of dry foliage.

Reproduction

Coniferous trees are propagated by seeds and cuttings. Seed reproduction takes up to seven years, so it is not popular with breeders. Cutting thuja is a long process, but not so laborious and with a greater guarantee of rooting.

Thuja propagation by cuttings

Thuja is cut in autumn. How to do it right:

• an adult branch with a lignified bark is needed for grafting. To form a crown of the correct shape, it is better to take the apical shoots;
• the stalk must be torn off, not cut off, and so that part of the bark from the trunk (heel) remains on it;
• put in water with root for 12 hours;
• plant at an angle of 60 ° in a mixture of peat, sand and turf;
• the seedling must be provided with heat at least 22 ° C and regular (not abundant) spraying of the soil.

For greater endurance, the trees, after the appearance of a good root system, are transplanted into schools for 2-3 years. For schools, the soil must be dug up and mixed with peat. In the process, you need to regularly loosen the soil, water moderately weekly and remove weeds. In the third year, the seedling will get stronger and will be ready for transplantation to a permanent place of growth.

Why do columnar thuja turn yellow

There are natural reasons for the color change in trees.

• individual parts of the tree grow for 3-6 years. In autumn, aged parts turn yellow and die off, this is a natural process of tree growth;
• columnar thuja of some varieties change their color with the onset of cold weather to bronze.

Combination of varieties Smaragd and Brabant in a hedge

The most common reason for yellowing of needles is the wrong composition of the soil:

• the high content of sand in the soil does not allow moisture to linger at the roots of the needles. The plant dries up;
• too clayey soil does not provide enough oxygen to the roots of the thuja, which makes them also starve;
• unsuitable planting site that promotes moisture stagnation and root rot.

Other reasons for color change:

• lack of fertilizers in the soil. With a lack of iron, the needles begin to turn yellow;
• fungal infection of the needles leads to a change in its color to red. For treatment, you need to use fungicides.

Composition in the garden with other decorative plantings

The tree lends itself to shaping, pruning and is great in combination with other conifers and ornamental plants for the garden. The main thing in caring for a columnar thuja is the right place and nutritious soil.