# Common Juniper (Juniperus communis)

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

Also called ground juniper, dwarf juniper, prostrate juniper, old field juniper, Canadian juniper. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-juniper/

![Common juniper (Juniperus communis) pale blue berrylike cones among sharp, needlelike leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/common-juniper-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Fungus Guy, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACommon_juniper_berries_%28Mica_B%29.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 2 to 10 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 9
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground, sandy barrens, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: [Alaska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AK) and 39 other states, north to [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA) and west to [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Alaska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AK), [Arizona](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AZ), [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Idaho](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ID), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Montana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MT), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [Nevada](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NV), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New Mexico](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NM), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [South Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SD), [Utah](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=UT), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [Wyoming](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WY))
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: April to May
- Fruit: Berrylike cones, August to October
- First crop: About 10 years
- Mature spread: 12 ft
- Traits: Evergreen, Drought tolerant, Wildlife value, Erosion control, Winter interest, Salt tolerant
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

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.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Juniperus communis, Tirmenstein 1999](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/juncom)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Juniperus chapter, Bonner](https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/32626.pdf)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 2: Juniperus communis](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200005424)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Juniperus communis var. depressa](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/juniperus-communis-var-depressa/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Common juniper](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/common-juniper/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Juniperus communis](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=279617)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Juniperus communis](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=JUCO6)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Juniperus communis, common juniper](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/common-juniper)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Juniperus communis](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/juniperus/communis/)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Juniperus communis](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.1275555/Juniperus_communis)
- [State lists: Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board 2025](https://dnr.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dnr/espb/documents/et-list-review-and-revision/2025-illinois-list-revision/2025-e-t-checklist.pdf)
- [Other state lists: Maryland March 2026](https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/Maryland-NHP-RTE-Plant-List.pdf)
- [Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Natural Resources: Common Juniper](https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/common_juniper.html)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other junipers (Juniperus) we grow: [Creeping Juniper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/creeping-juniper/index.html.md), [Eastern Red Cedar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/eastern-red-cedar/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Common Juniper, add ?species=common-juniper with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 2, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=common-juniper&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Common Juniper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=common-juniper): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Common Juniper as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=common-juniper (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Common Juniper is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=common-juniper (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Common Juniper needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 3 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=common-juniper:3
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Common Juniper where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=common-juniper&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Common Juniper goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=common-juniper&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Common Juniper flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=common-juniper