Arbor vitae.

Decorating the landscape of a garden plot, forming urban park zones and even courtyards in the conditions of city houses, the use of ornamental plants from flowers to trees is widespread. One of the favorite gardeners can be called thuja, or as it is popularly called "tree of life". Tuya Vostochnaya occupies a special position - it will be discussed in this article.

General description.

Thuja is an evergreen tree belonging to the cypress family and is directly related to conifers such as juniper and cypress. There were establishments from America and East Asia to the regions of our country. Today we will talk about decorative thuja, which includes 5 types:

- Japanese or standish

- Western or Thug

- the eastern one has more than one name, for example, flatfish.

- folded or giant

- Korean

Let's consider each of them

Western thuja.

The birthplace of western thuja is North America, it is this species that is most often used by landscape designers for decoration. Young seedlings tolerate transplanting well and quickly adapt to a new place. The view is not whimsical to sunlight, grows well on the shady side, but the sunny side is still a priority. In the wild, it grows mainly in well-humid clayey areas. Caring for the plant is not difficult, the appearance is decorative and pleasing to the eye.

Japanese.

Japanese thuja has a second name for Standish. In its natural habitat, it is most often found in n in the highlands. The species does not tolerate polluted oxygen, in other words, it is picky about the quality of the surrounding air, for this reason it is not grown in urban conditions. It has an unusual color, branches on one side are white (lower part), on the other green (top). Japanese thuja easily tolerates cold weather conditions.

Korean.

This type of thuja is a shrub. Frost tolerates badly, from the word "absolutely". The main advantage in comparison with other species is the spreading crown of the plant. The needles are soft and painted in two colors: the back side is silvery, and the outer side is green.

Folded.

Thuja Folded ranks first in terms of height among all species. It can stretch up to seventy meters, and the trunk girth will reach up to two meters. The rest of the varieties of this species are much smaller.

Eastern.

The eastern thuja is known under several names, for example, the flathead is also she, or platycladus. The most favorable conditions for it are a warm climate without severe frosts in the winter season. For example, in the area of ​​the city of Sochi, she will be comfortable. In the wild, eastern thuja is most often found on the highlands of China, from this location it is also called Chinese. In most cases, it grows singly, but sometimes it grows in small groups on rocky and rocky areas.

The dimensions of an adult tree in height are, on average, 10 meters, and the diameter of the crown develops up to 11 meters. But there are eastern thuja trees reaching 18 meters in height. The trunk is dark beige, the branches are orange-yellow.

Shoots have a flattened wide shape, their number is constantly increasing. The branches are distributed along the diameter of the trunk, and their ends point upwards.

The needles of the needles are tightly pressed against the branches, and the life cycle of the needles is from 3 to 5 years. The circumference of the needles reaches a maximum of three millimeters, and the color changes depending on the season.In the warm and hot period from spring to autumn, the needles are marsh and pale yellow, with the onset of cold weather they change color to burgundy brown.

Eastern thuja transforms in summer due to the cones appearing on it. The fruits are heterosexual, not large in size, one and a half (male) and two centimeters (female). The color of the cones is plum-bluish or green. After completing the ripening process, the fruits become chocolate-colored and dry out. In October, the scales of the cones open and the seeds of an elongated droplet form fall to the ground.

80% of the root system is located in the upper layers of the soil, the remaining 20% ​​are the main roots and go deep into the soil.

Eastern thuja is a long-liver plant. In their homeland in China, trees of this variety are known, which are more than ten centuries old. On decorative plantings, this species can grow up to two centuries.

Eastern thuja feels quite well in the shady area and develops without any deviations, but on the sunny side this process will occur faster and better. The best soil for forming a dense crown is loamy and sandy loam, but non-fertile soils may also work. It is not recommended to plant the eastern soil, dense with excess moisture. He is calm about transplants.

Basic landing rules.

Landing is performed in any of three possible periods:

- Spring

- the first month of summer

- autumn

It is during these seasonal periods that eastern thuja seedlings take root best. When transferring the seedling to a permanent place, it is better to deepen the root collar, thanks to such a simple action, the root system will give a good growth.

We draw your attention to the fact that the flatfish does not tolerate stagnant water. For this reason, in the soil with closely located groundwater, it is imperative to organize drainage before transferring the seedling.

After the thuja seedling is transferred to a permanent place, the plant is watered abundantly. Further, for better adaptation and rooting for 60 days, watering is performed once a week.

Care.

From late spring to the first half of autumn, the main thing in caring for thuja is periodic watering. In the case when the summer is dry and hot, the irrigation scheme additionally includes irrigation of the tree crown in the morning and in the evening.

In addition to moistening the soil, in the warm season, cleaning of weeds around the perimeter around the tree is mandatory, plus mulching the earth.

Fertilize the soil every season of the year, except for winter. They start with nitrogen-containing ones, with the onset of summer they switch to phosphoric ones, and in the fall they end up with potassium-containing ones.

The eastern thuja is propagated in two ways: seeds and cuttings.

In the process of development, the ephedra releases volatile biologically active substances, which in turn suppress bacteria that are harmful to humans and not only bacteria, given this fact, thuyu is often planted in the immediate vicinity of the house.

Thuja rightly occupies a leading place in the list of favorite plants among the conifers of landscape designers, with the help of this plant they create hedges, form alleys, decorate the perimeter of park paths, and so on. A plus for the design is the excellent mold tolerance.

Due to the properties of wood, oriental thuja is often used for the manufacture of furniture, windows and other things.

Brief descriptions of the eastern thuja varieties.

When choosing your variety of thuja, you need to somehow navigate. Pay attention to the characteristics: crown, color of needles, dimensions of an adult tree, etc. etc. to date, about 60 varieties have been bred and registered, in their description the color has a gradation from gold to aqua.

Thuya Aurea.

Aurea is an incredibly beautiful variety of oriental thuja, this tree belongs to the ornamental. Its growth rate cannot be called fast; in one year the tree grows by only 8-10 cm.

Thuja Aurea has a more compact subspecies: the dwarf thuja Aurea Nana. Its leaves shimmer with a golden color, and the shape of the plant itself is oval-conical.

There are no particular priorities in terms of soil selection.Frost resistance is not great, for this reason, for the winter period of time, it is necessary to shelter trees, especially only the seedlings transferred to a permanent place. When choosing a landing site, give preference to heights that are closed from strong winds.

Thuja Aurea is also subdivided into western and eastern, the second tolerates strong drops in temperature worse, the crown is dense, but in comparison with the first it goes slower. The shape of the branches gives the tree a ribbed appearance.

Thuya Yustinka.

Justina is a product of the work of Polish breeders. The crown of the tree consists of short skeletal branches with many shoots on them. Treat dwarf plants, like the above described Aurea, but the annual growth gives a little more from 10 to 11 centimeters, the same can be said about its frost resistance.

The branches forming the columnar shape of the tree are directed upwards, the rest of the branches spread out in all directions, but in a vertical plane.

The color of the needles is marsh.

Tuya Morgan.

This variety was bred and brought to us from Australia. In comparison with the two previous varieties, it changes the color of the needles depending on the season. In summer it is emerald green, mint green, or lemon with a touch of green. In winter, the color becomes burgundy red with a slight shade of orange.

A big plus of this variety is that the crown practically does not need to be adjusted to shape it. It grows naturally in a triangle with densely growing branches.

The growth rate per year is almost the slowest of all varieties, only 5-7 centimeters. The height of an adult tree varies from 1.4 to 1.5 meters, the crown span reaches 0.9 meters.

Like the above described varieties, it does not tolerate cold temperatures well, and needs shelter for the winter. But there is also a plus, thuja Morgan easily tolerates dry weather.

Thuja Platycladus.

Placticladus tree with a cone-shaped crown. In adulthood, the growth reaches 10 meters, and the crown width reaches four meters. The tree grows in size by 15 centimeters per year. The color of the needles is bright green.

Feels most comfortable in light partial shade, but the sunny side is perfect. The branches are pressed against the trunk and grow upward.

Thuja Pyramidalis.

Pyramidalis in an adult state stretches up to four meters, but the crown girth is not large and reaches 150 centimeters in diameter. The shape of the shrub is columnar. Annual growth up to 10 centimeters.

The Pyramidals variety is frost-hardy and shade-tolerant. With the onset of spring, shady conditions are created for young seedlings, since an unstable plant is susceptible to sunburn. For such care, any agrofibre is suitable, which is removed from the shrub after the soil has completely thawed around the perimeter of the plant.

The needles of this variety are yellow in color and vary from season to season.

Thuja Golden Minaret

Golden Minaret thuja with yellow needles.

It stretches up to four meters, the girth of the crown is a meter and a half. The needles can change their color depending on the planting site, the shadow side is green, the sunny side gives a golden yellow color. Lowering temperatures to -15 tolerates normally, but does not like windy places.

This variety accepts mulching well. It includes peat and tree bark for the Golden Minaret.

All varieties of eastern thuja perfectly decorate and decorate the site, in addition, the air will always be clean and with a lower content of microbes.