The Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine, otherwise known as the Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ or Japanese Black Pine, Green Pine, Thunberg Pine, is a rather well known tree plant by gardening enthusiasts around the world.
Best known for its low maintenance and slow growth, this tree will likely liven up your house (or garden) with its green colored leaves. But, only if you learn how to take proper care of it for it to thrive.
Fortunately, this is exactly what we’ll cover in this Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine Care Guide. So let’s dive in.
The fundamental caring guidelines for every Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine can be summed up into the following:
- Water: The Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine needs at least weekly watering, or more in extreme heat, preferably with regular water.
- Light: Keep your Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ in an environment where it can receive partial to full sun on a daily basis.
- Soil: Make sure to keep the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine in soil with well-draining properties, so ideally, one that is made of clay, loam, chalk, and sand.
And that’s practically it! If you keep these three factors in check, your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine will likely have all it needs for it to survive and even thrive.
Scientific / Botanical Aspects
In botanical terms, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine belongs to the Pinaceae family, the genus Pinus and the species Thunbergii, hence its scientific (or botanical) name Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ (PY-nus MEW-goh).
Other common Pinaceae species include Pinus Contorta Var. Contorta, Rocky Mountain Fir ‘Green Globe’, Japanese Red Pine ‘Low Glow’, Alpin Star Korean Fir, Lantana Camara ‘Monike’ Plant Patent #17,612, Physocarpus Opulifolius ‘Podaras 3’ Plant Patent #22362, Photinia X Fraseri, Picea Mariana ‘Nana’, Pinus Flexilis ‘Vanderwolf’S Pyramid’, Pinus Strobus ‘Nana’, Scots Pine ‘Glauca’, Raspberry Lemonade™ Ninebark, Austrian Pine, Loblolly Pine, Dwarf Pine ‘Mops’, Picea Abies ‘Nidiformis’, Picea Abies ‘Pumila’, Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’, Bissett Bamboo, Ceanothus X ‘Blue Sapphire’, Blue Atlas Cedar ‘Glauca Pendula’, Compact Tanyosho Japanese Red Pine, Pinus Contorta Var. Latifolia ‘Chief Joseph’, Abies Balsamea ‘Nana’, Dwarf Mugo Pine and Dwarf Pine ‘Carstens’.
As with other Pinus’s, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine is an evergreen plant, which means it will be present year round in your garden.
Growing Region
The Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine is a plant native to the Japan and South Korea.
Knowing your plant’s native region is very useful, as it can give you tips on which environment is best for your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine. If you keep it in mind, you can try to replicate these conditions at home, and you’ll likely end with a healthier plant.
With this in mind, the Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ will be most used to the heat zones in the 5 – 8 region, as the plant hardiness level falls between 5b, 5a, 6b, 6a, 7b, 7a, 8b, 8a and the ideal climate zone is between 3, 3A, 3B, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
Growth and Size
Growth
In terms of size and growth, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine is a relatively slow grower, which makes things easy for any plant enthusiast.
Size
But what exactly does this mean for your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine? How large a pot should you consider, how tall, how wide can it get? Let’s jump in…
The Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ can grow up to 20′ – 60′ (6m – 18m) in 20′ – 60′ (6m – 18m) and 12′ – 20′ (3.6m – 6m) in 12′ – 20′ (3.6m – 6m).
These dimensions make the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine a relatively large tree compared to others, so it’s best to keep this fact in mind since it will affect where you want to keep yours at home.
Also, expect it to grow in a wonderful compact, and rounded shape, which is something worthwhile to remember when making your garden landscape plans.
This is why experts recommend keeping an area of approximately 240″ (600cm) free so the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine can spread to its best extent.
Water
In terms of watering, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine is a fairly simple plant to take care of.
This is mostly because it has a straightforward watering schedule and somewhat regular watering needs.
Specifically, most experts agree that the Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ needs at least weekly watering, or more in extreme heat, preferably with regular water.
Which is why it is considered a plant with relatively average needs in terms of water.
Watering
As a rule of thumb, you should remember to keep your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine in soil with well-draining characteristics, as these will guarantee the right conditions for your plant to grow and thrive.
When you consider this, this is why you should aim to choose soil that has good drainage, moist, occasionally dry, and very dry properties to keep the right moisture levels at all times.
But, if you want a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to watering your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine then you should consider the famous ‘finger’ test. To perform this test, you just need to put your finger in your plant’s soil and determine if it’s moist or not. If it is, then don’t water; if it isn’t, then please do. In any case, this test will allow you to know if your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine needs or does not need water, every time.
Soil Mix
As mentioned earlier, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine prefers to have soil with good drainage, moist, occasionally dry, and very dry properties at all times, reason why you need to make the soil mix out of clay, loam, chalk, and sand.
This is why most experts agree that the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine requires soil with high organic matter, which will give you the right conditions it needs.
In addition to this, expert gardeners recommend having preferably alkaline, acid or neutral soil.
Light and Exposure
In terms of light & exposure, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine requires partial to full sun in order for it to thrive under the right conditions.
Most experts agree that this tree will do well as long as you keep it in full sun, and it will be able to grow properly.
Specifically, we recommend that you place your Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ in full and direct sun (more than 6 hours of direct sunlight per day).
Season
Being an evergreen plant, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine will be present year round in your garden.
But, you can expect it to have its ‘prime-time’ during the spring (early, mid, late), the summer (early, mid, late), the fall, and during the winter.
Flowers
You can expect your Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine to flower around the spring months from April to June (spring).
The Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine produces some wonderful gold/yellow and insignificant flowers around this time of year.
Foliage
The leaves from the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine have a beautiful green color during most of the year.
In particular, they have a needles arrangement in its leaves.
You can expect the leaves from your Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ to be around (3-6 inches) in size.
Attracts, Tolerance and Resistance
The Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine is well known for its tolerance to salt, drought and animals like deer, so don’t worry if any of these come along, your Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ will be fine.
Garden
How should you then organize your garden to include your new Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine? Here are some recommendations by expert gardeners.
Most Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’ owners agree that this tree will look great in most contemporary, asian/zen and rustic gardens of all types.
Other owners consider that they complement well most gardens of japanese garden, coastal garden, informal and cottage, and in traditional garden styles.
In particular, the Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine’s best location within your garden is in beds and borders, others use it for landscaping in a wildlife garden, urban garden, specimen, rock garden, mass planting, container, border, or a woodland garden.
Companion Plants
Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine’s do well with some other plants beside it. One good companion plant is the Acer, which will pair up nicely with your leafy friend.
Others consider that a nice Ilex will work well too, so choose whichever you find works best for you!
Conclusion
So that’s it! These are the main plant care requirements that you need to keep in mind in order to have a healthy Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine in your garden or home.
