Alpine hill with dwarf pine. Alpine hill of stones in the garden

is a unique composition that repeats the mountain landscape in our gardens and parks. Remember the mountains of the Alps, which beckon with their beauty. A small part of them can be created in any area. You need to study what plants grow in nature in the mountain landscape and plant them in your garden.

It is impossible to imagine an alpine hill without coniferous plants, as well as stones. They are the basis of the composition. You can scatter stones randomly or create several tiers. On each of them certain plants are planted.

It would be appropriate to look at the alpine slide in the country, in a private garden or in a public park.

Alpine slide photo

Do-it-yourself Alpine slide

If you want to decorate your garden with an alpine slide, then you can use the services of a landscape designer or create a rock garden with your own hands. Be prepared for some difficulties, because creating a beautiful mountain landscape can take you a lot of time and effort, but you will save money and be delighted with the resulting beauty.

Alpine slide: how to do it?To begin with, choose a prominent place on your territory, the alpine slide should attract attention, but it looks good in the corner of your garden. Start with a detailed plan. Draw a future hill, imagine what size stones should be present on it, whether it will be created artificial waterfall or other body of water. Choose a size. You also need to decide how high the slide should be. For small gardens, it is better to choose compact compositions. Don't forget the irrigation system. You need to bring the hoses to your slide. Start choosing plants. After that you can buy everything necessary materials. The construction of the slide begins with the installation of stones. They can be large or small. Combine different forms and sizes. The main thing is to create a landscape close to natural. Plants are planted only after the installation of stones and irrigation systems.

What plants to choose for an alpine slide

Before you create an alpine slide, you need to decide what exactly will grow on it. Study the needs of plants: do they like light or grow in the shade, does the plant tolerate waterlogging or drought, does it like acidic soils or neutral, as well as others important factors for plant growth.

Alpine hill: what to plant?The alpine hill of coniferous plants always looks impressive. You simply cannot do without them. Choose dwarf pines and spruces for the lower tier, as well as beautiful junipers. Cone-shaped coniferous trees complement such a hill well. Do not plant plants close to each other, because each tree should be clearly visible. You can combine trees with different crowns on your alpine hill. For example, try to match cushion-shaped conifers with cone-shaped ones.

On the lower tier always look spectacular flowering plants. Do not forget about succulents, these plants are unpretentious, and some of them grow well on stones. Choose winter-hardy varieties echeveria(or dig them up for the winter). rejuvenated and saxifrage- These are the most popular plants for rock garden. Burachok rocky, perennial carnations, iberis, edelweiss can be planted on top, as well as decorate the bottom of your slide. Remember, for the upper tier it is better to choose sun-loving and undemanding plants.

Planting scheme for an alpine slide

Alpine hill in the shade: what to plant?If you decide to create an alpine slide in the shade of the house or in the corner of the site, which is often in the shade of buildings, then you should choose shade-loving plants. pay attention to host. This ornamental deciduous plant grows well in the shade. Its leaves are very beautiful, have unique patterns and colors, look good with stones. Can be planted nearby ferns. You can't do without astilbe. It blooms incredibly beautifully and loves shaded areas very much. But choose better undersized varieties. Compact junipers with blue needles also grow well in the shade. Some varieties of blue spruce are suitable for a shady area.

Popular types of conifers for alpine slides

Which conifers are suitable for alpine slides- this is the main question that arises before the designer. It is impossible to imagine an alpine hill without juniper. These compact coniferous shrubs- an integral attribute of such a composition. Juniper needles can be green, blue and even golden. You can play with color to create contrasts. Pine and spruce also look perfect in combination with stones. The main thing is to choose compact varieties. pay attention toPine MagnusThis plant is compact and attractive. Very compactpine - Pug, maximum height - 50 cm. Attractive plant - spruceNidiformis.the shape of the crown is nest-like.

If your alpine slide has dimensions up to 10 square meters, then you can choose plants up to 100 cm in height, but not higher, because then a visual imbalance will be felt. Plants up to one and a half meters in height are suitable for a large slide.

Now you know what plants can be planted on your alpine hill. Show your imagination, you will definitely succeed!

Gone are the days when gardeners were mainly engaged only in beds, greenhouses and greenhouses. Today, many are addicted to creating on their own land plots beautiful and original flower beds because they want to receive aesthetic pleasure. Alpine slides have become very popular, with which gardens are more and more often decorated. At the same time, mountain plants and dwarf forms are widely used. conifers, which allow you to admire the greenery of the flower garden all year round. In the article, we will consider which coniferous plants to choose for an alpine slide.

Building compositions

For the design of rock gardens, there is a rich selection of miniature conifers, which have a variety of crown shapes - conical, spherical, flat, creeping, ovoid, cushion-shaped. Therefore, before you buy plants for an alpine slide, you need to think carefully about the composition, especially since seedlings of coniferous dwarfs are not cheap.

• The best decorative effect is achieved by a single arrangement of vertically growing plants with cone-shaped or ovoid crowns. The dominant plant is planted at the base of the hill or in its middle part. The space between them is filled with lower rounded or cushion-shaped forms. The basis of the rock garden are creeping ground cover species.

• When creating an alpine slide with your own hands, do not overload it large quantity plants, otherwise they will lose their individuality and the beauty of the forms will not be visible. When arranging groups of conifers, you can play on the contrasts of shapes and colors, or make a gradual smooth transition from one form to another. Stones, which are also decorative elements, should not be completely obscured by greenery. As a result of all efforts, the slide should look like a miniature natural landscape.

The choice of conifers for the alpine slide

• Since the alpine hill is a non-monumental structure of immense size, the plants must also be selected so that their proportions correspond to the size of the flower garden.

• Another condition that must be observed when choosing plants is their ability to grow in a given area and in a given climate. The gardener must learn everything about the seedlings - what kind of soil they prefer, how they relate to light and shade, moisture and drought, how they get along with their neighbors, how quickly they grow and increase their mass.
• Dwarf coniferous plants are ideal for placement among the rock garden stones: pines, spruces, junipers, thujas. The fact that they grow very slowly, only 3-5 cm per year, turns out to be a big plus. This circumstance makes it possible to preserve the decorative effect of the composition for a long time.

Types of dwarf conifers

Dwarf pines, some species

• Such pines look spectacular in rock gardens. Basically, they are low shrubs that are not afraid of the winds, have frost resistance, and unpretentious care, which is very attractive for use in landscape designs.

• For these plants, you need to choose places well lit by the sun and acidic soils with good drainage. Pines planted on alkaline soils begin to turn yellow. In such cases, gypsum is added to the soil.
• There are about a hundred varieties of these ornamental evergreens. North American pine became the progenitor of varieties Arctis having a conical crown, blue Chappewa, TuckersDwarf and Compacta pines with rounded crowns, varieties Uncle Fogy and Pendula with weeping branches, creeping shrub Schoodic, Wisconsin with a lush cushion-shaped crown.
• Very elegant low-growing cultures derived from weymouth pines. They have silvery thin and long needles, collected 5 pieces in a bunch, curly cones of light Brown and dense crown. These trees are resistant to shade and cold, they are great for decoration. north side slides. At the miniature Pumila varieties globular crown, Macopin has an extensive conical crown, Nana blue needles. The smallest is 50 cm pine Secret.
• The most common in horticulture are two types with mountain pinusmugo, one of which includes dense creeping shrubs with very long needles (Mops, Varella, MiniMops, Ophir). And the other kind is dwarf plants having short needles and a dense dense crown (Gnom, Kobold, Pumilio, Hesse).

• For ten years of the life of the form Brepo, Marie Bregeon and Pygmaea grow only up to 50 cm. They have a compact rounded shape. Extraordinarily beautiful cone-shaped stunted Alpenzwerg pine. It grows no more than 2.5 meters in height. It has dark green needles, which at low winter temperatures turn slightly golden at the tips, so in winter it seems that the tree glows.

To dwarf varieties pines retained their miniature size, it is necessary to periodically pinch the central growth buds and growing shoots, and also not to abuse fertilizers. Otherwise, the plants will grow, and the crowns will become loose.

Types of dwarf firs

In the catalogs, undersized spruces are divided into semi-dwarf spruce with a height of up to 3 m, dwarf - up to 1.5 m, mini-grades - up to 1 m and micro-grades growing up to 30 cm. The forms of crowns are conical or pyramidal, spherical and cushion-shaped.

• The real finds for rock gardens are mini-spruces that grow to a height of up to 50 cm in ten years and have wide crowns. These forms include Port Alberta Globe (AlbertaGlobe), with a crown diameter twice its height.
• The most popular are undersized e whether Nidiformis (Nidiformis), Echiniformis (Echiniformis). The latter has a slightly flattened shape and silvery needles.
• The well-known forest beauty common spruce (Piceaabies) served as the ancestor of many undersized decorative forms. A spruce shrub with a nest-shaped crown is popular Nidiformis (Nidiformis), growing only up to 40 cm in height, and having a chic light green crown, reaching up to 1 m in diameter.

• Little Gemm (LittleGem) has a dark green crown smaller than the previous spruce. It can be formed into a spectacular standard tree and grown in a rock garden or in a container.
• The graceful shape of a narrow cone has a dense crown WillsZwerg (Will "sZwerg). This plant grows just over one meter in height. It is interesting in that the young growing needles are much lighter than the old ones. Therefore, the Christmas tree, as it were, plays with different shades of green.
• Dwarf forms were also obtained from the species of prickly spruce (Piceapungens). One of them is excellent Glauca Globosa (GlaucaGlobosa). Its conical crown mainly grows not in height, but in width. It has elongated needles of a bluish color, slightly sickle-shaped. Very unpretentious. Well suited for creating compositions in a rocky garden.
• For growing in rock gardens, dwarf forms of Canadian spruce, which have bluish bluish needles, are perfect: Conica (Conica) with a pyramidal crown Laurin (Laurin), Dwarf (Gnom).

• Semi-dwarf spruce Daisy White (DaisyWhite) grows up to 2.5 meters in height and differs from all the others in soft yellow young needles, which change their color to green by summer. Its dense pyramidal crown will look spectacular in rock gardens, surrounded by more low plants with rounded crowns.
• For spruces, fertile, well-drained soil is preferable, giving an acidic reaction. They do not tolerate stagnant water in the ground. Better fit sunny places or light shadow. To give more decorative bushes can be trimmed.

Tui in rock gardens

In nature, arborvitae are conical evergreen trees of the cypress family, having a dense symmetrical crown, and having a fragrant smell. They bloom imperceptibly. The needles are not needles, but flat, elongated scales adjacent to each other. Plants are easily and painlessly cut. Therefore, they are successfully used for decoration of flower beds and hedges.

• Undersized thujas, which retain their decorative effect all year round, are perfect for growing in alpine hills. In addition, most varieties are frost-resistant.
• Most wide use in the regions of Russia received dwarf forms thuja western. This tree is not too capricious, it is winter-hardy and long-lived. In natural conditions, specimens of a thousand years old are still found.
• With dwarf slow-growing forms of western thuja, lovers are happy to decorate their rock gardens, for example, with a spherical shrub Danica. Its light green crown in 10 years grows in diameter to only 40 cm.

• The rock garden thuja western will look original in the role of soloist Filiformis (Filiformis). The tree has a dense crown in the form of a wide cone. It grows up to one and a half meters in height and has long weeping shoots.
• Grade Globoza (Globosa), on the contrary, has a rounded spherical gray-green crown, reaching 1 m in diameter. It is recommended to use it as an element of compositions. And here is a spherical Golden Globe (GoldenGlobe) has a smaller crown, but it has golden yellow needles.
• An ovoid crown will look unusual in the composition Woodwardii, growing up to 40 cm wide and having light green needles.

• In gardens located in warmer regions, forms obtained from thuja orientalis with fan-shaped needles are grown. These forms include golden yellow Aura Nana (AureaNana) with an ovoid crown, dark green columnar Justinka (Justynka). These varieties are not demanding on soil fertility, but do not withstand severe frosts.

Selection of junipers

A huge number of varieties and types of junipers puts gardeners in front of a difficult choice. These plants can have crowns that vary in shape and color. The shape of the crown can be cone-shaped, creeping pillow-shaped, sprawling, columnar. The needles can be golden yellow, green of different tones, silver-blue. And the shape of the needles themselves can be different - scaly or subulate.

• The natural distribution area of ​​​​these plants is almost endless - they are found in both northern and tropical regions. Junipers are unpretentious, can grow on any soil, do not put forward too high requirements for light and humidity, and tolerate winter cold well. For gardeners, this is just a godsend.
• The most widespread for the creation of rock gardens are dwarf and creeping forms of Cossack juniper (J.Sabina): sprawling green shrub Tamariscifolia (Tamariscifolia), white-motley Variegata (Variegata), blue-green Rocker Jam (RockeryGem).

• Of junipers horizontal interesting variety Andora Variegata (Andorra Variegata) only up to 40 cm high and with a wide cushion-shaped crown. Its unusualness lies in the variegation of needles: in summer it is bright green with white speckles, and in winter it acquires a purple-violet hue. A beautiful blue carpet creates a creeping grade Blue Forest (BlueForest). Its shoots directed upwards give the crown additional volume. Blue Ship (BlueChip) considered the most elegant creeping variety. A dense silver-blue carpet of its shoots becomes purple at low temperatures.
• In the solo role on the hill can be dwarf forms of medium-sized juniper. For example, grade Gold Coast (GoldCoast), growing up to 1 meter in height and up to 2 meters in width. This plant is decorative with its spreading golden yellow rounded crown. The same parameters are Gold Star (GoldStar) but he is more resilient. Variety Mint Julep (Mint Julep), on the contrary, it has a bright green weeping crown, reaching up to 2 m in diameter.

Junipers are planted in rock gardens, given the vastness of the future crown. Green varieties are placed on either side of the hill, golden yellow - it is better to land on the western or south side, and silver and gray - on the northern or eastern slope.

Today, a fairly extensive range of dwarf conifers suitable for placement on alpine slides is offered for sale. Evergreen conifers enliven the site in autumn, winter and spring, while deciduous shrubs and trees are at rest. The variety of shapes, textures and sizes of prickly beauties allows them to harmoniously fit into different landscapes.

Alpine hill has many styles and options for decoration. The best place location - slight slope. It can be laid out with stones, and planted between them undersized plants characteristic of the mountains. As a basis for a rock garden, a slope running along the terrace or near the edge of the site can serve.

When a rocky garden is created, irregularities and elevations are always formed. In addition to placing large stones, crushed stone is added to the soil.

In order for the alpine hill to bloom profusely and be well visible, you need to place it outdoors with plenty of sunshine. Some mountain plants are able to live in a poorly lit space, such as near a house or a fence, but they should also be illuminated by the sun for at least a few hours a day.

If you plan to place a rock garden in the shade of trees, then the choice of plants will be very limited, since after rain the water under the crown will dry out very slowly. In this case, you need to install massive stone blocks and plant ferns, such as ostrich and kostenets.

Drainage formation

1. The top layer of soil must be removed, usually it takes about half a meter.
2. Laying a layer of gravel or broken brick provide a quick runoff of water from the roots of plants.
3. To garden soil crushed stone or gravel is added, mixing with it in a ratio of 3: 1. If the soil is clayey, and also heavy, you need to additionally mix coarse sand.
4. Aesthetic stones should be laid on the surface in free placement, as the composition should look natural. The stones are laid a third underground with the flat side.
5. When choosing stones, several types should not be mixed, for example, solid boulders along with granite fragments. Depending on the color of the stone, plants can be selected. If they create a dark background, plantings that have green foliage with a silver sheen work well. A light background allows the use of dark, saturated leaf colors or their burgundy hue. If you can pick harmonious combination more small stones with massive, the site will resemble a highland landscape.
6. Plants sit in the gaps between the stones. If those varieties are selected that deteriorate from waterlogging, a layer of gravel is poured on the bottom of the dug hole before planting for drainage.

Rock garden from conifers

Spruce best suited for rock garden. Caring for her is not difficult, and the choice between species is great. For alpine slides, created in the middle lane, spruce, Serbian, Canadian, prickly are considered the most suitable. They are quite hardy, show resistance to frost. Need to land on open places, in the shade it is not desirable to have. With drought or excessive soil moisture, these plantations usually do not get sick.

It should be noted that Canadian spruce should not be in the bright sun, as it can burn a little.

Pine- quite a popular tree. Usually used for rock gardens Scotch pine. You can not spend a lot of time caring for this plant. Depending on the overall design, low pine, mountain pine or wanderer cedar are used. Mountain pine is usually a large plant, but some varieties are strikingly compact. The cedar wanderer does without cultivars, but it is excellent according to the criteria for a rock garden.

Plants should be planted in March at a depth of 70 cm to 1 meter. During planting, the root should not bend. Sod must be mixed with river sand. The most harmful factors that can disrupt the vital functions of a pine tree are excessive moisture or a strong, long drought.

cypress trees quite rarely used as plants for rock gardens. Most plant species cannot be planted in mid-latitudes, so choosing the right option is quite difficult. Scientists are trying to frost-resistant varieties Lawson's cypress, however, attempts to grow it in cold regions do not lead to success. Pea cypress can be adapted, but additional conditions will need to be provided. It should be in the shade, and in the spring to hide from the bright sun. Cypress blunt must be additionally wrapped in winter period.

Reduced soil and air humidity is detrimental to these plants, therefore, before planting, it is necessary to provide an opportunity permanent care followed by.

Larch differs from other conifers in its unusual appearance. It is quite unpretentious in care, can tolerate pollution, but for full growth it must be located on nutritious soil. Do not allow it to dry out or expose the plant over watering. Japanese, European, Latin American larch look great on the alpine hills. They always shed their needles before the onset of the cold season. Among the varieties, you can choose between options with winding branches or weeping.

Fir, hemlock, thuja are considered elite plants. Classic fir will seem too bulky for a rock garden. One color, balsamic or subalpine is suitable for him.

Moisture should always be enough, you need to check the soil before watering for its excess. Among the thuja, the western thuja will be the most suitable. It must be planted openly and the soil regularly watered. To decorate the rock garden is suitable canadian hemlock, it can be planted even in the shade. These plants do not require special measures to care for them.

Juniper It has big variety varieties and types. Almost all of them can be used in cold climates. Varieties with blue needles can burn out on spring sun, therefore, care should be taken to build a temporary fence for them. Only Cossack juniper does not need additional protection. Columnar plants for the winter need to be linked, as there is a risk of their deformation under the influence of a mass of snow. The most favorable wintering was noted in creeping varieties.

You need to plant juniper in the rock garden by choosing between early autumn and in early spring. Between seasons, you can put the plant in a plastic container. The distance between the juniper and other plants should be from one and a half meters. The pit breaks out with a depth of about 0.7 m. If necessary, it is filled up with earth. The main thing is that the tree does not drown in it. It is imperative to take care of the plant.

The plant is watered 3 times a season, the crown is sprayed regularly, once a week, it is necessary to periodically mulch the soil with peat.

This video talks about conifers for an alpine slide.

With pond and waterfall

To build an alpine slide, complicated by the design of a reservoir or waterfall, you need to familiarize yourself with the stages of their design and arrangement. To make them yourself, you need to understand general scheme and order of work.

The construction is divided into stages:

1. The place under the reservoir is pre-marked using driven pegs and a rope. Next, a pit of the required depth is dug.
2. A shape should be established in the pit garden pond, then checked general level. The resulting container is slowly filled with water. The surrounding space must be covered with sand, while pouring it with water. It is necessary to seal it along with filling all the voids formed. For convenient watering, you can connect a hose.
3. A hill is poured from the sand, the stones are laid with a slight slope back, however, parallelism should be visually indicated. To make the embankment natural, all lines should diverge smoothly. If the site has a slope, then the embankment does not need to be made, and it is better to place the reservoir at the end of the slope. If the place is chosen absolutely flat, then the hill is strengthened retaining wall built of brick or stone. At the same stage of construction, a cascade is made, it is needed for a waterfall. For this you can buy finished structure, however, the location of flat stones at a given height is possible.
4. There must be a pump in the reservoir, which must be placed completely under water. The hose runs through the ground, so it needs to be buried a little, it is well camouflaged by plants and stones.
5. A layer should be built on the alpine hill fertile soil. It is made from compost, sand, crushed stone and sawdust mixed with soil.
6. Plants can be planted both on the shore, alpine hill, and inside the reservoir.

Alpine slides in the garden in the country and on the site of your house: photos of different designs, diagrams

Before planning a design own rock garden, you need to familiarize yourself with the successful options for its formation. You need to compare your site, the possibilities with the sample you like. Highlighting interesting solutions from the schemes and their embodiments, you can safely use them in the design of your own alpine slide, decorating with your own developments.

Photo gallery: Alpine slides in landscape design with a waterfall, a pond, with conifers and other photo examples.

And this video tells about alpine slides from cereals.

When choosing it is necessary to take into account their need for care, fertilizers, watering, as well as compliance with requests for weather conditions a certain area.

The selection of ornamental and coniferous plants, the arrangement of a reservoir and a waterfall are additional difficulties that must be taken into account when planning work.

Alpine slides for many years have been an integral attribute of almost any suburban area. And even if you have a small area of ​​​​land, there will definitely be a corner for an alpine slide. The easiest way would be to invite a professional landscape designer, but at the same time, creating a site design with your own hands is very exciting and interesting.

Since the alpine hill is a mountain landscape in miniature, then the plants should be selected appropriately, conifers will look especially good.

The first thing to do is to study the characteristics of conifers, their varieties, and select those that fit your criteria, that is, the height of the tree, the color of the needles, and the intensity of growth. Remember that in the background the slides will grow more tall perennials that require more moisture. So you need to think about watering them in advance.

by the most suitable plants for alpine slides are low and slowly growing trees: various conifers, spirea, cinquefoil, juniper, spruce, fir, pine, thuja. Herbaceous perennials are also good, which grow into a beautiful thick carpet. Among them can be both flowering and decorative species.

Since almost all the plants that are planted in an alpine hill are perennials, they all grow with different speed, but rather slowly. In this case, it is best to dilute the planting of perennials with annuals, so that the height and density of plants can equalize in the first year and a half.

But be careful with your choice. annual plants- many of them produce a lot of self-sowing seeds, which in the future can create difficulties in the form of weeds you do not need. Such plants are well suited: undersized marigolds, gazania, sea lobularia. Before planting, carefully study the care and needs of plants so that they coincide with the main perennials.

Marigolds are undersized

Also, in addition to perennial and annual plants, stones and boulders are used to create a slide. different sizes, which are laid out according to the intended composition. Therefore, all plants are planted at a small distance from each other - somewhere around 20-30cm. Those places where there are no stones are usually covered with fine gravel.

If you have a small, rocky area (about 6 square meters), then the height of the plants for the slide should not be more than 50-70cm. For large plots with an area of ​​​​more than 30 sq.m. - the height of the crown can reach more than one and a half meters. Therefore, as we said earlier, you need to know in advance about such things as the growth of an adult tree in order to harmoniously combine all the plants on the alpine hill with each other.

Now we will analyze the features of some coniferous plants, the height of which in its final form does not exceed one and a half meters.

Dwarf species of mountain pine:

"Winter gold" - crown shape - shrubby, spherical; the height of an adult plant is 0.5 m; diameter - 1.0 m; the color of the needles - in summer - bright green, in winter - golden yellow. Frost resistant variety.

"Mughus" - crown shape - shrubby, spreading, sometimes creeping; height of an adult plant - 1.5 m; diameter - 0.6 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Gnom" - crown shape - shrubby, dense, spherical; height of an adult plant - 1.5 m; diameter - 1.5 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Mors" - crown shape - shrubby, spherical; the height of an adult plant is 0.5 m; diameter - 0.5 m; the color of the needles is greenish-blue.

Dwarf pine Winter gold

Dwarf species of juniper:

Chinese juniper - crown shape - semicircular; height - 0.7 m; diameter - up to 1.0 m; the color of the needles is green or bluish-gray.

Juniper scaly - crown shape - cushion-shaped, compact; height - 0.5 - 0.1 m; diameter - 1.5 m; the color of the needles is bright, silver-blue. Frost resistant variety.

Common juniper - crown shape - creeping; height - 0.2 - 0.3 m; diameter - 1.0 m; the color of the needles is green. Frost resistant variety.

Juniper Cossack - crown shape - pillow-shaped; height - 0.5 - 0.8 m; diameter - 1.5 m; the color of the needles is dark green or bluish-green. Frost resistant variety.

Lying juniper - crown shape - semi-creeping, dense; height of an adult plant - 1.0 m; diameter - up to 2.5 m; the color of the needles is green or bluish-gray.

juniper chinensis

Dwarf types of thuja:

"Hoseri" - crown shape - spherical; the height of an adult plant is 0.5 m; diameter - 0.6 m; the color of the needles is dark green. Frost resistant variety.

"Little Dorrit" - crown shape - spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.8 m; diameter - 0.6 m; the color of the needles is dark green. Frost resistant variety.

"Danica" - crown shape - spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.8 m; diameter - 0.8 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

Thuja Hoseri

Dwarf species of spruce:

"Little Gem" - crown shape - spherical-flattened; the height of an adult plant is 0.5 m; diameter - 0.5 - 0.7 m; the color of the needles is light green.

"Nidiformis" - crown shape - nest-like, with a deepened middle; height of an adult plant - 0.5 - 1.0 m; diameter - 0.8 - 2.0 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Will's Zwerg" - crown shape - narrow conical, dense; height of an adult plant - 1.0 - 1.2 m; diameter - 0.4 m; the color of the needles - young - pale green, old - dark green.

"Echiniformis" - crown shape - cushion-shaped, compact; height - 0.2 - 0.6 m; diameter - 0.4 - 0.8 m; the color of the needles is green.

Norway spruce Little Gem

Finally, we would like to say that the most milestone in creating an alpine slide is its planning. After all, you will have to familiarize yourself with a lot of material regarding many plants before you can choose the ones you need. So take your time, think everything over, and think big, presenting a finished composition when your trees are 2-3 years old. And only after approving each plant, get to work. I wish you success!

In the classic Alpine landscapes in close proximity are the most different plants all sorts of weird shapes. For artificial rock garden on personal plot most often chosen different kinds dwarf conifers: miniature spruces, firs, dwarf pines, as well as junipers and thujas. It is not recommended to plant coniferous plants at a short distance from each other. Each plant should demonstrate the uniqueness of its shape as clearly as possible so that the alpine slide looks spectacular from any side.

coniferous plants for rock gardens, as a rule, undersized ones are used.

Planting plants in the rock garden

There are two options for arranging plants in groups.

The first option is the layout according to the color and contrast of the shapes. The second is transitional forms, smoothly complementing and passing into each other and creating a certain dynamics of size. Preparation and selection of a substrate for planting conifers in a rock garden should be carried out in accordance with their biological features. The time of planting different plants in the rock garden may also vary. Not all dwarf conifers normally tolerate excessive soil moisture and abundance sunlight. Most of them should be covered in a special way for the winter. This fact must be taken into account when planning an alpine slide. Currently on the market you can find a huge list of dwarf conifers that will perfectly decorate your rock garden.

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Coniferous for rock garden

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Spruces in the design of rock garden

Spruce is ideal for rock garden. For the middle zone of our country, you need to choose certain varieties, unpretentious, frost-resistant and hardy.

Spruce is a tree familiar to each of us from the very early childhood. Its crown shape is cone-shaped. Despite this, it is spruce that is ideal for growing in rock gardens. It is unpretentious in care and presents a huge variety of shapes and color shades. Most suitable for an alpine slide created in the middle lane of our country, the following varieties: Norway spruce, Serbian spruce, Canadian spruce and prickly spruce. They are distinguished by high frost resistance and endurance. It is preferable to give the choice to open, unshaded places (however, some shading is still acceptable). These varieties tolerate drought and excessive soil moisture well. Canadian spruce has one feature: in the bright spring sun, it is prone to burning. Therefore, when landing on a hill, she needs to provide protection from the scorching sun. Serbian spruce is characterized by excellent frost resistance, thanks to which it winters well.

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Pine as the main detail of the landscape

Some varieties of pine are compact and miniature. They are suitable for landing in the rock garden.

Pine, along with spruce, is one of the most popular coniferous trees in Russia. The most famous species is the Scotch pine. This is the most stable and undemanding species in terms of care. In addition to Scotch pine, low pine, mountain pine, and elfin cedar are successfully used in the design of alpine hills. Mountain pine is a fairly large, tall plant for a slide, but its various varieties are surprisingly compact. Although elfin cedar does not have cultivars, it is great for rock garden decoration. The plant is usually planted in a permanent place in March. Planting depth - 0.7-0.8 m. Care should be taken to ensure that the root does not bend during planting. soil mixture consists of sod land and river sand. If the soil is too acidic, then 250 g of lime is added to the hole. The most harmful factors for pine of any kind are excessive aridity and excessive moisture. Otherwise, these trees will fit perfectly into the artificial alpine landscape.

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Cypress: a unique plant for Russia

Cypress trees often get frostbitten in winter and burn in summer.

Cypress trees are currently quite common on sale, but they are rarely preferred for preference. The reason for this is quite simple. The bulk of the stone pine forests are absolutely not adapted to growing in the middle latitudes of Russia, so their selection for rock garden is quite difficult. The most famous of these is Lawson's cypress. AT botanical gardens Europe has its cold-resistant representatives, but attempts to grow it in Russia end in failure. The needles regularly burn and freeze in winter. Fits well in our climatic conditions pea cypress, but even he needs special conditions of detention. It must be planted in shady areas of the hill and covered in the spring from the bright sun. A blunt cypress requires additional shelter even in the winter. All varieties of cypress do not tolerate low humidity soil and air, so they should be chosen for rock garden with great care.

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Larch: a plant with falling needles

The ideal coniferous plant for rock garden is larch. She is unpretentious in care, puts up with pollution.

Of all the conifers, larch is perhaps the ideal tree for decorating an alpine hill. She tolerates pollution well, although she prefers to grow nutrient soil, unpretentious in care, but does not tolerate drying out or excess moisture. Japanese larch, European larch and Latin American larch are good in landing on rock gardens. The main distinguishing feature of larches is that they shed their needles for the winter. This fact gives them a special elegance of form in the winter. Among the larch varieties, both types with winding branches and weeping ones are distinguished.