Photo: Fungus Guy, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · Wikimedia Commons

Common Juniper

Juniperus communis

Also called ground juniper, dwarf juniper, prostrate juniper, old field juniper, Canadian juniper.

A hardy, spreading evergreen shrub with sharp, silver-banded needles in threes and blue berrylike cones, for poor, dry, sunny ground.

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Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings and seed. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May.

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EvergreenDrought tolerantWildlife valueErosion controlWinter interestSalt tolerant

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 2–10 ft
USDA zones: 2–9
Growth rate: Slow
Flowers: April to May
Fruit: Berrylike cones, August to October
First crop: About 10 years
Mature spread: 12 ft
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, sandy barrens, dry uplands, old fields and edges
Native range: Alaska and 39 other states, north to North Dakota, south to Georgia and west to Oregon
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Common juniper is the most widespread conifer in the world, a low, spreading evergreen of dry, rocky hillsides, dunes and old pastures across the North. In the East it is mostly a broad, vase-shaped shrub a few feet tall. It differs from our creeping juniper in its sharp needles, set in threes, which never turn to scales. Its berrylike cones flavor gin. Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio list it as endangered, and Indiana and North Carolina list it as threatened. It helps hold the soil against erosion. Use it as a tough evergreen ground cover on a sunny, rocky bank or poor, sandy soil.

Size, growth and what to expect

Common juniper grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a shrub 2 to 10 feet tall and 8 to 12 feet wide, and its trailing branches can root where they touch the ground. Plants can live more than 170 years. Its needles turn bronze in late summer and through winter.

Tiny cones open in April and May. On female plants, the berrylike cones take two or three years to turn from green to dark blue-black with a pale bloom. They ripen from August to October and stay on the plant for two years. Robins, chickadees, waxwings and wild turkeys eat them, and birds spread the seed.

It grows wild from Alaska to Newfoundland and Greenland, south through New England to the mountains of the Carolinas. It reaches west through northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and Nebraska to the mountains of Washington, California, Arizona and New Mexico.

How to grow Common Juniper

Common juniper needs full sun and declines in shade. It grows in poor, sandy, gravelly or rocky soil, acid or limy, as long as it drains well. Once established it stands drought, wind and road salt, but it does poorly in hot, humid summers. Set plants 8 feet apart and keep them 6 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, and put the native soil back in. It is hard to raise from seed, since much of the seed is empty and the rest has a deep dormancy. Keep the seed damp at room temperature for two to three months, and then in the refrigerator for three to four months. Sow it a quarter inch deep in early spring, before the weather turns warm.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Keep weeds and taller plants from shading it, since it fails in shade. Do not prune into the bare center, which will not grow new shoots.

Plants are male or female, and only females bear the berrylike cones, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. The wind carries the pollen. Juniper tip blight, scale insects, mites and bagworms can trouble it, and it is susceptible to cedar-apple rust.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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