Juniper, a very ornamental shrub

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Dense foliage and beautiful bark on a shrub whose natural bearing is sometimes columnar, sometimes spreading flat along the ground: juniper (Juniperus communis) is best known for the cones that flavour gin, and grown as a purely ornamental conifer. Give it well drained soil where water never stagnates, and it behaves the same through damp spells and full drought.

Planting juniper

Juniper is ideally planted in fall to ensure root growth and thus proper settling in in spring.

However, you can also plant in spring and water a bit more at the beginning.

Note that juniper tolerates virtually all types of soil, and behaves exactly the same whether conditions are moist or during a full-blown drought. But it does require soil that is well drained where water won’t stagnate.

• Follow our tips on how to plant juniper

• A common horticultural practice for container-grown plants, junipers included, is to soak the root ball in water before planting, often until air bubbles stop rising, since a dense, dried-out root mass can be difficult to rewet once in the ground.
• Set the juniper so that the top of the root ball sits level with the surrounding soil, since burying the collar of this conifer traps moisture against the bark and invites rot.
• On heavy clay, plant juniper on a slightly raised mound in a site with full sun, improving drainage across the whole bed rather than just the backfill, since junipers resent waterlogged roots.
• Give juniper an open position in full sun or part sun and space creeping cultivars at a distance matching their eventual spread, as shade thins the foliage and crowded plants lose their natural bearing.

Care and pruning of juniper

Caring for juniper is very easy because it requires practically no care.

Pruning isn’t really recommended, especially since much of the appeal of a juniper bush is its distinctive natural bearing, sometimes spiking up in a column, sometimes spreading along the ground.

If you must prune it to reduce or balance the branches, do it at the beginning of summer and avoid cutting too near the trunk, and prefer light pruning instead of cutting back severely.

• Never cut juniper back into the bare brown wood behind the green foliage, because this conifer has no dormant buds there and the stub will stay permanently bald.
• Wear gloves and long sleeves when trimming juniper, as the prickly needles and the resinous sap can irritate the skin of sensitive gardeners.
• A juniper in a container should be watered when the compost is dry several centimetres below the surface rather than merely dry on top, since confined roots cannot seek moisture yet junipers resent waterlogging.
• Cut out any shoot tips that turn brown and die back from the ends, removing them well into healthy wood and disinfecting the blades between cuts to limit twig blight.

Learn more about juniper

This is a conifer that adapts equally well to growing in the ground as it does to growing in a garden box on a terrace or balcony.

Sought after for its dense foliage and beautiful bark, juniper appeals also in that it has an extremely high tolerance to all types of soil and to pollution.

With a great many cultivars and species, there is a wide range of different shapes and leaves for you to choose from to decorate along edges, on rocky ground, to cover the ground or to garner a garden box on your terrace if possible.

Varieties of Juniper

Creeping varieties, Juniperus horizontalis, for example, grows low for ground cover:

• Bar Harbor
• Pancake
• Plumosa Compacta

Eastern Red Cedar is another family of junipers that is particularly tough:

• Burkii
• Emerald feather
• ‘Glauca’ is blue