Pinus mugo - Mugo Pine or Swiss Mountain Pine (Pinaceae) ------Pinus mugo is known as a spreading, slow-growing with miniature needles) emerge in spring evergreen shrub with ascending branches and -twigs mature to be rough (needle-scarred) and black- relatively short needles. Mugo Pine is used at brown branches with age, often concealed by the foundations and entranceways, on embankments, dense and long-persistent needles within rock gardens, as a facer shrub, as formal or Trunk informal hedges, and in raised planters. It often gets -dark gray, broken into plates on larger specimens, larger than intended, but is tolerant of pruning or often unseen as the plant is normally a shrub that shearing. branches and foliages to the ground
FEATURES USAGE Form Function -small- to medium-sized -foundation, entranceway, group planting, evergreen shrub (in most embankment, facer, specimen, raised planter, or cases) hedge evergreen shrub -ultimate size is highly -Mugo Pine should be used more often as an dependent upon the embankment cover, as its shallow root system and cultivar, but the smallest spreading growth habit will combine, over time, to cultivars ultimately mature at about 1.5' tall x 3' wide, create a solid evergreen cover in sunny, exposed and the largest selections in the nursery trade can areas eventually become very large shrubs (10' tall x 15' -Mugo Pine can also be used as an effective non- wide) thorny barrier hedge, and either formally sheared to -upright mound or upright flat-top growth habit, the desired height and width, or informally left alone spreading at an early age Texture -slow growth rate -medium texture Culture -thick density -full sun to partial shade Assets -very adaptable to poor soils, clay soils, sandy soils, -low branching and dense evergreen foliage occur to dry soils, soils of alkaline pH, and is tolerant of the ground moderate shearing -attractive candles (new stems) are held prominently -propagated by seeds, grafts, or rooted cuttings above the flat-topped, mounding, or rounded shrub -2 serious pests (pine sawfly larvae and pine needle -slow growth rate (an asset since it is often sited at or scale) that can be controlled with appropriate near foundations) monitoring when they occur Liabilities -abundantly available, primarily as relatively -most "dwarf" cultivars get much larger than compact cultivars in container form, but also in B&B advertised with age form for the larger selections -2 serious pest problems: pine sawfly larvae -newly emergent growth (candles) can be sheared (alarming cosmetic chewing damage) and pine needle back halfway for even more dense and formal growth scale (subtle long-term damage that leads to plant the following year decline if untreated) -can be left unpruned if it has ample space to grow in Habitat a sunny location, since it is naturally a dense and -Zones 2 to 7 low-branching shrub, but it is often sited at -Native to the Alps in Europe (where it takes on a foundations, and therefore by habit and necessity mixture of shapes and sizes that range from large regularly sheared into a shrubs to large trees [up to 80' tall]) rounded or flat-topped shape SELECTIONS Foliage Alternates -2 needles per bundle, -evergreen globed shrubs of various foliage color from 1-2" long, (Picea omorika 'Nana' [blue-silver-green], Pinus persisting for up to 5 strobus 'Blue Shag' [blue], Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz yrs., maturing to a dark Midget' [green]) green color -evergreen spreading shrubs (cultivars of Juniperus Flowers chinensis, Rhododendron, Taxus x media, etc.) -ornamentally -naturally table-topped, vased, or flat-topped inconspicuous evergreen shrubs (Pinus densiflora 'Umbraculifera') -monoecious Cultivars - Variants - Related species Fruits -P. mugo 'Enci' - slowly maturing to 3' x 5', very -small cones are densely twiggy with short needles, with a table-top relatively rare growth habit Twigs -P. mugo 'Gnom' - a true dwarf form, with shorter, -attractive light green more dense needles and a flat top, slowly maturing to candles (vertical stems 1.5' x 3', sometimes grafted onto a standard