In landscape design compositions with conifers occupy a special place. And this is not surprising, because the combinations of such plants are attractive, and their beauty remains unchanged in both winter and summer. In addition, conifers are unpretentious in nature and resistant to diseases and pests.
The advantages of compositions from conifers
Coniferous plants have earned the great love of gardeners. These cultures look harmonious in single plantings and complex compositions. In addition, their beauty is preserved all year round. But an aesthetic appearance is not the only advantage of conifers. And their advantages include such qualities:
- unpretentiousness to the soil and living conditions;
- frost resistance;
- pest resistance;
- ability to destroy pathogenic bacteria.
In addition, unlike deciduous plants, conifers produce oxygen all year round, because they do not dump foliage in the fall. So, the microclimate in the area with such crops is favorable for people. In addition, caring for conifers is not burdensome, and all that plants need is rare watering, periodic top dressing, and pruning. And you don’t have to annually clean a ton of foliage under the trees.
The only drawback of these plants is their slow growth. And if you want to grow a hedge in a short time or immediately get a beautiful composition, then get and plant adult plants. Of course, this will cost a round sum. But you will immediately get the site that you dreamed about.
How to create a landscape
It is better to turn to professionals who will create a project of a composition of conifers in front of the house that fits perfectly and complements your site. But the services of landscape designers are not cheap. Therefore, not everyone can seek help from such specialists. Although, if you want to create a beautiful landscape on your own, it is not so difficult. The main thing is to adhere to the following rules in the process:
- Plant the composition at a sufficient distance from the point where it will be most often viewed. Thanks to this, the landing will look holistic. The distance must be at least two lengths of the tallest plant in the composition.
- To make conifers look spectacular, plant a lawn for them as a background.
- If there is a pond on the site, then its shores will be the best place to create a composition. At the same time, conifers here combine perfectly with weeping deciduous trees.
- Combine trees with different crown shapes and heights. For example, combine plants with a spherical and conical shape. But do not overdo it, so as not to overload the landscape.
- Avoid geometric accuracy. The tops of the trees in the compositions, with the exception of the hedge, should not be located on a straight line.
- Arrange your songs east or west. Then the plants will develop evenly, which is why the landscape will only benefit.
And most importantly - take into account the shades of needles and the shape of the crown of trees and shrubs when creating compositions.
Color combinations
Conifers and shrubs come in different shades. And when planting such crops, it is important to correctly combine the colors of the plants so that the flower bed does not turn into a colorful, unattractive spot. To do this, you need to adhere to several principles on how to create a landscape composition with conifers of various shades:
- If you plant three components on a flower bed, then two of them or all should be the same color.
- When planting five seedlings, choose plants with no more than three shades of needles.
- If you plant a large group in which there are more than 25 elements, then you can use trees and shrubs of various colors. But at the same time, combine them into groups of three elements with one shade of needles.
Adhering to these rules, you will create a beautiful composition of conifers, which will look organically anywhere in the garden.
Mixborders
A mixborder is a flower bed in which there are several groups of plants. Moreover, each of them smoothly flows into the next. In mixborders, coniferous, perennial and even flowering cultures are perfectly combined. The main thing is to select species that do not interfere with each other's development. When creating such a composition from conifers and perennials, it is necessary to adhere to the following rules:
- Plant the most voluminous and tallest trees in the background - larch, pine, yew.
- In the center, place medium-sized crops - spherical thuja, deciduous shrubs.
- In the foreground, grow ground cover and undersized crops - creeping juniper, flowering plants.
In general, a mixborder is a combination of crops in which plants are arranged in descending order of size. If you decide to plant such a composition of conifers and perennials, then choose spacious and lighted areas for it.
When planting plants, keep in mind that the width of planting of large crops should be greater than the area reserved for undersized plants. Do not try to maintain the exact geometry of the plantings, because the curvature will only emphasize the natural attractiveness of the landscape.
Hedge
The composition of conifers is often planted as an evergreen fence, reliably covering the area from prying eyes. If you want to create such a fence, give preference to the following cultures:
- Spruce prickly and ordinary. These plants create impenetrable thickets, tolerate a haircut, but grow slowly. To create a hedge, plant seedlings a meter apart.
- Juniper is ordinary. It tolerates a haircut and is not afraid of pests. For a single-row living wall, plant plants at a distance of 0.8-1 m from each other.
- Red cedar. This tall coniferous tree is undemanding to the soil and well takes root in urban conditions.
- Thuja western. Creates a dense wall already in the seventh year after planting. It tolerates pruning, is not afraid of the wind and is resistant to diseases and pests. To create a hedge, plant seedlings 40-50 cm apart. If you need a living wall, then the distance between cultures should reach 80-100 cm.
For low hedges, which can be used to divide the site into zones, choose Cossack juniper, Lavson cypress, spherical thuja varieties. If you want to get a really thick fence, then plant crops in 2-3 rows in a checkerboard pattern.
Rockeries
Rockeries or rocky gardens are very popular among gardeners. They retain their beauty all year round, and it’s easy to care for them. To create such a composition of conifers in the country, choose the most lit place on the southeast or southwest side of the site. Please note that rockeries look spectacular, with an area of 3.5 m² or more. In addition, when planting a rocky garden, adhere to the following rules:
- Avoid symmetry and strict ordering in the arrangement of the components of the composition.
- Do not create too bright accents. The color scheme of rockeries should be discreet.
- Use rocks of the same shade but different sizes in the composition.
As for the choice of plants, for landscaping the long-range landscape, use medium-sized trees and shrubs - thawed pine, pine, larch, pyramidal juniper. In the middle of the composition, plant yew berry, Lavson cypress, thuja Smaragd, Canadian spruce. Fill the space between the stones with better creeping species of conifers: horizontal or scaly juniper, microbiota. Ground-cover flowering crops can also be used, such as stonecrop, saxifrage, and stubble.
Circular landing
Such compositions of conifers and shrubs are also called all-round combinations. Their difference lies in the fact that the decorative effect of planting is visible from all angles. As a rule, they are planted in round flower beds and in paving openings.
Looks great composition with an asymmetric shape. For such a circular planting in the center of the flowerbed, plant a coniferous crop whose growth significantly exceeds the height of all plants used for composition. Around the first tree, at an equal distance from it, place lower plants, preferably of the same species. Make sure that the height of these shrubs does not exceed the middle of the growth of the central crop. Plant the following rows on the same principle.
Creating asymmetric circular compositions from conifers is quite difficult. And this can only be done by experienced landscape designers. If you are new to this business, then it is better to grow symmetrical combinations. To do this, plant a tall plant in the center, and around it at an equal distance, several shrubs of the same size. Such a landscape looks attractive, while creating it is not difficult.
Topiary
Topiary are plants that are given diverse and bizarre shapes. For this, various techniques are used, including a haircut.
Creating bizarre compositions from conifers in front of the house is not so difficult. And if you are a beginner topiary, then choose yew, spruce, or juniper for your experiments. These plants tolerate pruning well and can be shaped as you wish.
To get started, try creating simple geometric shapes - a ball, cone, cylinder. At the same time, choose cultures whose crown resembles these figures. Then, when pruning, the plants will suffer less. Feel free to use patterns or homemade restraints such as hammered pegs or taut ropes. They will help to achieve the correct shape.
Particularly spectacular look garden compositions with conifers, in which a spiral crown. A novice gardener can create such beauty. To do this, wrap a wide ribbon around the trunk of a young seedling with a cone-shaped crown and cut off all twigs in open sections. Next year, places that need to be cut will be already clearly visible. And after 2-3 such scraps, you get a tree with a crown in the form of a spiral shell.
Compositions from conifers and roses
The combination of these types of plants looks especially impressive. But creating such a composition is not so easy. After all, coniferous plants are aggressive and displace roses. To prevent this from happening, plant crops one and a half meters from the flowers.
For combination, select compatible plant varieties. From vertical thuja, Smaragd and Brabant are well adjacent to roses. If you plant spherical junipers, then choose the variety Moonglow, Blue Arrow, Sky rocket. And of roses, give preference to the varieties Winchester Cathedral, Lady Emma Hamilton William Shakespeare, Molineux.
Plant compatibility
Some conifers, despite their unpretentious nature, poorly coexist between themselves and deciduous plants. And before planting the composition, you should learn about the characteristics of crops:
- Spruce and fir perfectly adjoin each other, but with pines and cedars they do not take root well.
- Birch and bird cherry extract from the soil the nutrients necessary for the normal growth of evergreens. Therefore, they should not be planted nearby.
- Larch does not tolerate the neighborhood with any coniferous plants.
- Tuyu should not be planted next to the spruce. From this their growth slows down.
Consider these rules before drawing up a landscape design project.
How to choose a plant for composition
Buy conifers and shrubs in special nurseries or garden stores. But before you buy a seedling, carefully inspect it. First of all, the tree should be healthy, without signs of disease and pests, as well as damage to the needles and crown. It is advisable to purchase plants grown in containers. In this case, they can be planted at any time of the year. Many nurseries also sell them in burlap or wire mesh. Such plants can also be bought safely. But if you are offered a copy with open roots, on which there is no earthen coma, then it is better to refuse to purchase. Most likely, the plant will not take root.
Coniferous seedlings are a rather expensive pleasure, and at a young age, trees and shrubs of different species are so similar that only specialists can distinguish them. Therefore, in order not to make a mistake with the plant, before going to the store, arm yourself with a catalog with a description and photo.
Choose varieties that are zoned for your climatic conditions. The following conifers take root well in the middle lane:
- Cossack, Virginian, rocky, Chinese juniper;
- prickly and European spruce;
- mountain, black and ordinary pine;
- thuja western;
- Camfer Larch;
- yew berry;
- fir and cypress.
And this is not a complete list. In general, from the whole variety of conifers, you will always find a specimen that fits perfectly into the landscape.
Compositions of conifers and perennials, photos of which are presented in the article, will become an ornament of your site. And caring for this beauty does not take much time and effort. The main thing is to choose a good place for the plants and provide them with minimal care, and then they will please with an attractive appearance and rapid growth.