Japanese Flower Arranging

Purple-leaf Sand Cherry belongs to the family Roseaceae, a deciduous shrub that grows from 7-10 feet high. It's highly prized for its foliage which is red-purple and maintains them until the summer time. Its flowers are fragrant, borne singly and pinkish-white in color.

Purple-leaf Sand Cherry originates from Western Asia and was introduced to the U.S. by Dr. N.E. Hansen in 1910.

Considered as a hardy plant, it's easy to propagate by softwood cuttings. The fruits are purplish black. How to Grow Purple-leaf Sand Cherry.

Location. Select the best site that is an open field with full sunlight the whole day to ensure your plant to get the best color which boasts the plants' foliage attractiveness.

Soil. Being a hardy plant, Purple-leaf Sand Cherry grows in any average moist and well-drained soil.

Planting. Dig a hole twice the size of your container where the transplant was raised or the ones you bought from the nursery. Put some soil mix bought from nursery stores, or you can make your own soil medium by mixing equal parts, garden soil, sand, and compost and fill the hole with half soil mix.

Remove the transplant from the container and loosen the soil around the roots and insert the transplant in the half filled hole with soil mix. Add a small amount of soil around the plant to stabilize. Once stabilized, fill the hole with soil until the entire hole is totally filled with soil mix. Water the area to absorb and fill again some soil and water again.

Mulching. Dress or mulch around the plant base with any mulching materials like, grass clippings, saw dust, rice hull, etc. to maintain soil moisture and control weeds growth.

Pest and disease control. The most common insect pests of purple-leaf sand cherry are the Japanese beetles, aphids, and caterpillars that attacks the leaves during the summer months. Once the infestation is severe the trunk is infested with trunk canker disease that causes a serious problem to the plant.

Aphid can be controlled by keeping weeds out around the plant base. If you see some lady bugs and lacewings roaming in your garden don't destroy them, they're the natural enemies of aphids. Let them stay to eat the yummy aphids in your plants. For caterpillars, just хэнд pick them and feed them to your birds or simply crush them with your fingers.

Another diseases of Purple-leaf Sand Cherry are the powdery mildew and leaf spot. The powdery mildew is a white or gray fungus most found on the upper surface of the leaves and fruits. The leaves turns yellow or brown and curls distorted and eventually drop off. Infected fruits becomes dwarfed and dies. To control this disease is to expose the plant to adequate light with complete free air circulation. Don't wet the leaves when watering and plant sanitation should be observed. If the infestation is severe, apply fungicides.

The leaf spot is caused by fungi or bacteria. The leaves are filled with black or brown spots either ragged or circular, with a water soaked or yellow edged appearance of the leaf parts. Leaf spot can be controlled by collecting infected leaves and burn them to kill the disease. Avoid watering the foliage portion, instead direct your irrigation on the soil level.

Plant nutrition requirement. Apply fertilizer once a year or as the need arises when the plants appears stunted and malnourished.

Plant maintenance. You should prune your plants after the blooming ends in spring. The purpose of pruning them is to keep the whole plant in an oval shape form or to spread the plant's center at maturity for a beautiful appearance of the whole plant.

Happy gardening!

Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes about home gardening and Internet marketing tips. You can get a copy of his latest e book "Discover How to get started in Flower Gardening" and "Vegetable Gardening Мейд Easy", also get lots of tips, Free articles, and bonuses at: mywork.name/loans/go/go.php?sid=1.crisramasasa]