{"id":11398,"date":"2019-05-01T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=11398"},"modified":"2019-03-26T16:52:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T20:52:23","slug":"russian-arborvitae-for-cool-areas-of-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2019\/05\/01\/russian-arborvitae-for-cool-areas-of-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Arborvitae For Cool Areas Of The U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br>Russian arborvitae and Siberian cypress &nbsp;(<em>Microbiota decussata<\/em>) is an underutilize ground cover (USDA hardiness zones 3-7).&nbsp;This tough juniper-like evergreen hails from Siberia and demonstrates exceptional cold hardiness to -40 \u00b0 F. In extreme northerly&nbsp;sites,&nbsp;the lacy evergreen foliage may turn complete brown in the dead of winter and re-sprout in spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Microbiota-decussata-3-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Microbiota-decussata-3-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Microbiota-decussata-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Microbiota-decussata-3-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Microbiota-decussata-3.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Russian arborvitae (Microbiota)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> <br>In the cool temps of zones 5 and 6 microbiota really prospers. It struggles (melts down) in zone 7 unless cozied up under afternoon shade. Its soft feathery green foliage develops a purple to russet cast where winters are abnormally harsh. An early spring warm-up&nbsp;quickly restores&nbsp;its cool medium green hue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growth rate is&nbsp;slow to medium. Feed, if needed, in early spring with a general purpose granular fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or equivalent. Pruning is rarely necessary except to check its spread or to remove any broken branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The flat sprays of low growing microbiota range&nbsp;between 8-15 inches in height and 6-8 feet in width over several years. Microbiota is a great alternative to some disease plagued ground cover junipers.&nbsp;It is tolerant of dry shade.&nbsp;Deer and most disease and insect pests don&#8217;t bother it.&nbsp;It wants good soil drainage and cool summer temperatures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adjacent to&nbsp;my driveway I use microbiota to cascade over a low retaining wall. Foliage&nbsp;tolerates windy exposed sites once it&nbsp;becomes fully&nbsp;established in 2 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am seeing more independent garden centers selling this terrific ground cover. E-commerce specialty nurseries also sell it. Plant container grown nursery stock in late winter thru spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Varieties:<\/strong> Celtic Pride\u2122  &#8211; an exceptional cold hardy form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian arborvitae and Siberian cypress &nbsp;(Microbiota decussata) is an underutilize ground cover (USDA hardiness zones 3-7).&nbsp;This tough juniper-like evergreen hails from Siberia and demonstrates exceptional cold hardiness to -40 \u00b0 F. In extreme northerly&nbsp;sites,&nbsp;the lacy evergreen foliage may turn complete brown in the dead of winter and re-sprout in spring. In the cool temps of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,1037,778,645,800,665,628,853,750,551,843,1060,601,729,777,630,646,7,113,1222,655,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11398"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11403,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11398\/revisions\/11403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}