The dwarf broad-conical spruce Glauka Globoza was obtained from seedlings of prickly spruce in 1937, and in 1955 it first appeared on the market. The plant with blue needles and a compact crown is very popular in landscape design in many European countries, incl. and Russia.
Blue spruce Glauka Globoza - how to care for ephedra
Brief information about the variety
- Colour: needles are silvery blue.
- Height: 1.5-2 m
- Crown diameter: 2-3 m.
- Growing regions: tolerates a drop in temperature to -35 ° C) is suitable for the south of Russia, as well as for the middle and central zones.
- Landing features: scheme - 1x1.2 m. Likes a sunny place with a little shading.
- Immunity: high frost resistance (up to -35 ° С), weak resistance to diseases.
- Life span: 400-500 years.
General characteristics
Blue spruce Glauka Globoza is a fairly popular plant both among gardeners and among landscape designers.
The Latin name for the ephedra is Picea pungens Glauca Globosa.
In the first years of life, it forms a slightly flattened spherical crown, then it takes the shape of a triangle.
Ephedra is successfully cultivated in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Estonia and Belarus. Due to its good winter hardiness (tolerates a drop in temperature to -35 ° C), it is suitable for planting in the southern zone of Russia and in the regions of the middle and central zone.
External description
The dwarf plant grows slowly and only by the age of 10 does its size reach 1.5-2 m in height and 2-3 m in diameter.
Annual growth is 8-9 cm in length and 10 cm in breadth.
- The needles are thorny, sickle-shaped, silvery-blue, 10-11 cm long, 1 mm wide, densely cover the shoots;
- Branches are spreading, reddish in color, densely arranged;
- The central conductor is upright, covered with a brownish-red bark;
- Cone berries are oval-cylindrical, 5-10 cm long, light brown;
- Black seeds, 3-4 cm in size, ripen inside the cones;
- Refers to long-livers - life expectancy varies from 400 to 500 years.
The price for one seedling with a height of 30 to 60 cm is on average 1500-2000 rubles.
Landing rules
The successful cultivation of this crop depends on several factors - the quality of the planting material, place and soil, as well as the further care of the ephedra.
Sapling selection
Only healthy trees are suitable for planting.
It is better to choose a plant for planting in a specialized nursery, where you can purchase it with all varietal characteristics.
Buy conifers with a closed root system that are 1-2 years old. They take root better in a new place, do not dry out, unlike specimens with open roots.
Usually, trees are commercially available with an earthen ball, wrapped in burlap or planted in plastic containers.
Examine the crown - it should be alive, without any injuries or signs of illness. Ate, whose needles are covered with black dots, yellow or red spots, mold, are initially infected with an infection, so they should be discarded.
- Conifers with closed roots can be planted in spring (late April or early May) or autumn (first or second half of September).
- Plants with open roots are best planted in the spring, so that they have time to get stronger and take root before the onset of stable autumn cold weather.
Site and soil preparation
This plant prefers lighted areas with a little shade during lunch hours.
You should not plant needles in the shade, where they will slowly grow and lose their decorative effect.
Also, a site with a close passage of groundwater is not suitable for it - in a swampy area, the tree will quickly rot.
To protect against drying out, a place near the fence, not far from the wall of a house or outbuilding, but with access to the sun is suitable.
Norway spruce Glauka Globoza is not demanding on the composition of the soil and grows successfully on loam or sandy loam. It can also fully develop on rocky ground.
The main condition is to provide the plant with good drainage. Therefore, when planting on loamy or clayey soil, it is necessary to add a couple of buckets of sand or vermiculite per 1 m².
Additionally, sprinkle with humus or peat - 10 kg each. These components increase the nutrient composition of the soil mixture.
The plant does not tolerate soil acidification, therefore, the site must first be deoxidized with dolomite flour, calcite, chalk or slaked lime - 350 g per 1 m² is applied.
The place for planting is freed from garden debris, weeds, dug up and leveled.
Landing technique
Planting holes are prepared two weeks before the planned planting of plants so that the soil has time to settle.
The optimal scheme for a group planting is 1x1.2 m. The dimensions of the pit depend on the dimensions of the earthen coma and are approximately 80x100 cm.
In order to avoid rotting of the roots, a drainage layer is laid on the bottom. Use pebbles, crushed stone or brick chips.
Then it is half covered with a nutrient mixture of garden soil, peat, pine sawdust and sod in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 2.
An earthen lump is lowered so that the root collar is 4-5 cm above the surface of the soil, sprinkled with soil mixture, trampled and watered abundantly - 5-6 liters of water are consumed per ephedra.
Care requirements
The tree is easy to care for
Dwarf spruce Glauka Globoza practically does not differ in care from other conifers - it requires regular moistening, loosening, periodic feeding and a sanitary haircut.
Watering
In the first months of life, it needs to be watered often, but in moderation, so that the plant takes root faster and begins to build up green mass.
- Water consumption for seedlings up to 3 years old is 10 liters. Frequency - 4-5 times per season, subject to dry summer.
- Adult specimens, from 3 years old, moisturize less often - 3 waterings for the spring-autumn period are enough.
Blue spruce responds well to frequent irrigation - moistening the crown by sprinkling once a week will have a beneficial effect on decorativeness and protect against pests.
Loosening and mulching
To maintain moisture and air permeability, the soil around the bushes is loosened a day after watering.
Together with loosening, they weed the soil between the rows, remove harmful vegetation.
In order to avoid drying out of the earth and roots, mulch from peat or coniferous sawdust is introduced into the near-trunk zone. An additional layer prevents the growth of weeds, which greatly facilitates plant maintenance.
Fertilizer
To increase decorativeness, immunity against diseases, this variety of ephedra can be fed - in early spring before the start of sap flow.
Use nitroammofosku (30-40 g per 1 m²) or Kemira-universal (20 g per bucket of water). First, fertilize is applied, then watering is carried out in order to improve the absorption of nutrients and prevent burning of delicate roots.
Additionally, a month before the onset of autumn cold weather, it is recommended to add a mineral composition, which will strengthen the root system and increase the plant's winter hardiness.
A solution is prepared from superphosphate (15 g) and potassium nitrate (10 g), dissolved in 10 l of water.
The needles respond positively to foliar nutrition. During the season, the crown must be sprayed 2-3 times.
For these purposes, special water-soluble preparations are used, which include chelates or a mineral complex. To increase the nutritional value, you can add Epin or Zircon alternately to them.
Pruning
This tree naturally forms a beautiful compact crown, so it does not need a shaping haircut.
But if you want to transform it to your liking, it is worth doing a light pruning - only 2-3 cm of the length of all branches, since a cardinal shearing can cause stress and the spruce will simply die.
Some gardeners form a tree on a trunk, resulting in a cushion-shaped, dense crown. To do this, over the course of several years, shoots are cut in the lower part of the trunk into a ring, the upper part is cut to 2-3 cm in length.
Spruce will decorate your site
A compact spruce tree with such a crown is an original and attractive garden decoration.
Every spring, before the buds begin to swell, sanitary pruning is needed - all branches damaged by frost, winds, diseases and parasites, as well as branches growing inward, are cut out.
To prevent infection, the operation is carried out using a sterile object, and after that the cut sites are treated with one of the fungicides - Bordeaux liquid or copper sulfate.
Shelter for the winter
The description of caring for a dwarf spruce includes high frost resistance, so adult plants perfectly tolerate wintering without insulation.
Young spruce trees up to three years old should be provided with shelter - about 3-4 weeks before the onset of stable frost.
First, they are sprinkled with peat or pine sawdust, then the branches are carefully bent to the central conductor and tied with twine, wrapped in burlap, and covered with spruce branches or roofing felt.
They remove the insulating material in the spring, when the heat of the street stabilizes and the last frosts pass.
Reproduction
Gardeners use two methods of propagation of this needles - using cuttings and seeds.
Cuttings
Shoots are cut from the top of the crown in spring - in April or May. Cuttings 15-20 cm long with a heel (a piece of lignified bark) are used.
The lower part of the segments is cleaned of needles and shoots, then planted in a wet substrate of peat and sand (1: 1).
For successful germination, it is deepened by 3-4 cm at an angle of 45 ° C, watered, covered with a transparent covering material and placed in a place with diffused daylight.
It can take 2 to 3 months for rooting. During this time, the seedlings need to provide stable heat within 20-22 ° C, humidity at 65%, regular ventilation and irrigation with warm water.
As soon as they release new buds, the shelter is removed, the temperature is lowered to 17-18 ° C, they continue to moisturize and loosen the soil.
Young plants are transplanted to the site not earlier than a year after germination. Usually this procedure is carried out in the fall according to the same scheme and rules as planting purchased seedlings.
Seeds
This spruce, unlike other varieties, can be successfully propagated using seeds, although this process requires patience and a lot of time.
Germination rate is 70%. The collected seeds are stratified for two months, then sown in a moist soil mixture of peat and sand (1: 1).
The planting depth is 2-3 cm. The optimum amount is 2 g per 1 m² (1 g contains about 220-230 seeds). Crops are moistened, mulched with pine sawdust, covered with foil, placed in a room with a temperature of 20-22 ° C and diffused daylight.
Seed propagation is a laborious process
In the process of germination, they are periodically irrigated with warm water and ventilated. After the mass emergence of seedlings, the shelter is removed, watering continues, the regime is lowered to 17-18 ° C.
A double pick is carried out and seated in separate containers with rejection of yellowed and weak shoots.
Transplantation to a permanent habitat is carried out after 7-8 years of home cultivation.
Diseases
Spruce blue prickly has a weak immunity against diseases and pests, therefore it requires careful care and attention.
Rust
One of the most dangerous fungal infections that can lead to the death of needles.
It manifests itself in the form of red or orange growths on the surface of the trunk and adjacent shoots.
The treatment is carried out as follows: first, the diseased parts are removed, then the crown and soil around the needles are irrigated with the drug Ridomil Gold, Skor, a solution of copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid.
Schütte
The peak of development occurs at the beginning of summer, during a period of extreme heat and high humidity.
Plants are most susceptible to thickened planting. Signs - massive yellowing and shedding of needles. At the end of August, numerous black dots can be seen on the needles - the sporulation of the fungus.
At an early stage, it is necessary to remove all yellowed parts, collect the crumbling needles, and treat the crown with Skor, Hom or Ridomil Gold.
At an advanced stage, trees are removed from the site and burned, and the soil is spilled with a 2% solution of copper sulfate.
Mushroom cabin
A fungal disease that leads to wilting of the top of the tree and the subsequent drying out of the entire crown.
Treatment consists of two stages:
- first cut out the infected areas;
- then the crown is treated twice with one of the fungicides - a solution of copper sulfate, Bordeaux liquid or karbofos.
Spruce whirligig (cone rust)
This disease, first of all, affects the cones from the inside, as a result of which they acquire a brownish tint and massively crumble from the tree.
At an advanced stage, young shoots and needles are damaged and leads to their drying out and shedding.
To combat this sore, fungicides are used - malofos, a solution of copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid. Double treatment is carried out with an interval of 7 days.
The same funds are suitable for prophylaxis in spring (late April) and autumn (early October).
Pests
Spruce needs to be regularly treated against pests
In addition to diseases, the dwarf spruce suffers from the invasion of harmful insects:
- Spider mite. Envelops the nodal parts, kidneys, needles with small cobwebs. In the affected areas, the plant turns yellow and dries up. For the fight, acaricides are used - Aktellik, Aktaru or Fitoverm.
- Stem pests (bark beetle, sawfly). Signs of appearance are small holes in the trunk. If the tree is not treated, it will die in a short period of time. For the destruction of insects, Fundazol, Engio are used. For prevention, ferromone traps are installed along the boundaries of the site, and the crown is treated in early spring and autumn with insecticides.
- Aphid. This parasite sucks juices from young spruce organs - buds, needles, shoots. To get rid of it, folk remedies will help - ash and soap solution, tobacco, garlic or pepper infusion. At an advanced stage, it is advisable to use chemicals - Fundazol, Actellik or Aktaru.
- Shield. This parasite also loves to feast on the juice of young organs, leading to their yellowing, drying out and falling off. A double treatment with a mixture of soap and kerosene with an interval of 5 days will help to get rid of it. Chemicals are also effective - Actellik or Aktara.
- Spruce Hermes. Signs - the appearance of a whitish fluffy bloom in the bud area in early spring, galls appear on a young growth. Methods of struggle - first, it is necessary to cut out all the affected areas, then sprinkle under strong pressure to wash the Hermes from the needles. The final stage is the processing of the crown with a suspension of mineral oil (250-300 ml per 10 liters of water). In case such treatment did not give any results, it is worth using chemical agents - Caesar, Balazo, Confidor Maxi, Aktar, Mospilan or Commander.
Application in landscape
An evergreen plant with a blue compact crown has found wide application in landscape design:
- it is planted singly in any corner of the garden or in the center;
- combined with ground cover junipers, heather, mosses, undersized decorative flowering crops;
- grown in groups on flower beds, along alleys, curbs;
- used as the main element in mixborders, ridges, rockeries;
- due to its slow growth and dwarf size, spruce is often cultivated in tubs or containers, placed next to the gazebo, near the terraces.
Gardeners reviews
Everyone who has been growing this culture for more than one year leaves only positive reviews about it.
dwarf needles are not afraid of gas pollution, severe frosts, does not need a shaping haircut - this greatly facilitates its care and makes it possible to grow it anywhere, regardless of climatic conditions;
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