Junipers have long been considered among the symbols of the New Year, first with their evergreen nature. It is interesting to note that they are long-lived.
What I discovered is that junipers are also a symbol of eternity. Side tales in the Bible don’t have a scriptural basis connected with junipers.
However, I encountered one tale about Elijah, the prophet, who was sheltered by the juniper as Queen Jezebel pursued him, and the juniper sheltered Elijah.
A New Year’s legend claims that Jesus’s parents sought shelter from junipers that covered a cave as King Herod’s soldiers pursued them on their flight into Egypt.
A few years ago, I received a letter from a lady in Ashland about some junipers in her front yard. The person asking this question enjoyed my column, and I told her that she was one of the reasons that I wrote it.
My reader is passionate about her front yard, and I do enjoy helping people. I saw a well-manicured yard when I arrived at the doorstep to check out the problem.
Before I did much checking, I saw her Broadmoor Junipers beside her north-facing wall, where they could not get enough sun. I also noticed the clay in which the junipers sat. They need rich, well-drained soil.
Many moons ago, when I was learning about plant diseases, I was taught about Broadmoor junipers. “Broadmoors” are low-growing bluish-gray ground covers. Usually, you will discover Juniperus Sabina “Broadmoor” in the mountains of southern Europe and central Asia, growing in sandy loams.
This juniper ranges from Spain to Siberia and is a rugged mountain plant that can take a lot of abuse.
You see problems in Broadmoor junipers mainly because they grow the best in full sun, southern exposure, and loamy soil. A challenge then comes to the juniper by planting them in clay soil on a north-facing wall with little air movement.
One of my professors talked about how the disease quickly wiped out a complete planting in a Virginia parking lot, so take note.
Winter can be a difficult time diagnosing plant diseases. We are looking at the disease at the wrong time of year to do a proper diagnosis in late December.
We could be looking at two separate diseases, one of which is fungi. Phomopsis Tip Blight appears in mid-April.
Kabatina Tip Blight appears in February and March as another fungal disease. Older branches are less susceptible to Phomopsis; therefore, most damage will occur on the terminal four to six inches of the branches. The foliage first starts out turning red or brown and finally ash gray.
You will see tiny gray marks or lesions going all the way around the branch tip, which causes the disease to spread beyond the diseased tissue.
Next spring, get a good magnifying glass and look at the diseased tissue. You should see tiny black mushroom-like fungi growing in these wounds. That should tell you that you are looking at this disease.
This Phomopsis tip blight does travel down the branch and can damage the plant from April through early June and late August to September, which means that it is a reasonably active disease.
For Kabatina tip blight, the disease first appears in February and March, well before Phomopsis.
If Kabatina has infected your juniper, the plant will turn a dull green, red, or yellow in succession. Small ash-gray to silver-gray lesions dot the leaves with tiny mushroom- like fungi or fruiting bodies that you should be able to see at the base of the discolored tissue.
Kabatina Blight only occurs in the spring and only affects the tips of the plant.
To determine which disease we are looking at, we either need to pay the money to take a specimen to a lab so they can grow it or wait until spring to see which of these two diseases has infested the juniper.
Have a pleasant stroll through the garden this week, inside or outside. If you have any problems in your yard, let me know how I can help.
My email address is ericlarson546@yahoo.com. You can find our blog at www.ohiohealthyfoodscoop.com.
I shall do my best to help.
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