Description

Leaves: Small scale- and awl-shaped leaves on same plant very similar to Rocky Mountain juniper; colors vary widely depending on cultivar, from yellow to green to blue; evergreen.

Twigs/buds: Young, foliage covered twigs are thin and flexible; buds are inconspicuous.

Flowers/fruit: Dioecious.  Berry-like fruit nearly round; 1/3" in diameter; bluish and white-waxy at first but brown when mature.

Bark: Gray-brown; fibrous and furrowed in thin strips.

Wood: Unimportant and little-used, but presumably similar to other junipers.

General: Native to China and Japan, but widely planted all over the world.  Drought, cold, and heat resistant and tolerant of high pH soils; as with all junipers easy to over-water.  Shrubby or upright.  Shade intolerant.

Landscape Use: One of the most commonly planted ornamental junipers.  Good for hedges and foundation plantings.  Zones 3-7.

Cultivars: 'Blue Point', 'Glauca', 'Gold Coast', 'Gold Star', 'Hetzii', 'Hetzii Columnaris', 'Hetzii Glauca', 'Iowa', 'Keteleen', 'Maney', 'Mint Julep', 'Mountbatten', 'Old Gold', 'Pfitzeriana', 'Pfitzeriana Aurea', 'Pfitzeriana Compacta', 'Pfitzeriana Glauca', 'Prostrata Variegata', 'Ramlosa', 'Robusta Green', 'San Jose', 'Saybrook Gold', 'Sea Green', 'Sea Spray', 'Spartan', 'Spearmint', 'Torulosa', var. sargentii, 'Variegata'.

Characteristics