Photo: Joshua Mayer, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Creeping Juniper

Juniperus horizontalis

Also called creeping savin, creeping cedar, trailing juniper.

A slow, mat-forming evergreen of northern dunes, rocky shores and prairie slopes, with blue-green scale leaves that turn purplish in winter.

EvergreenDrought tolerantSalt tolerantWildlife valueWinter interestErosion control

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–2 ft
USDA zones: 2–9
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, rocky ground and the coast
Native range: Alaska and 17 other states, north to North Dakota, south to Illinois and west to Montana
List all 18
Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming
See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Creeping juniper is a low evergreen shrub whose long branches trail across the ground and root as they go, making a mat up to 10 feet wide. It grows wild on sand dunes, beaches, rocky shores, cliffs and dry prairie slopes. Its range runs across Canada and the northern states, south to New England, New York, the Great Lakes and the northern Rockies. Its scale-like leaves are blue-green in summer and turn purplish in winter, and its mats hold soil well on dry, open slopes. Illinois, Iowa and New York list it as endangered, Vermont as threatened and Minnesota as a species of special concern. Use it as a ground cover on a sunny bank, in sand or among rocks.

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator, and it spreads much farther than it grows tall. It makes a mat usually under a foot tall, rarely to 20 inches, with branches trailing 10 feet or more. The scale-like leaves are green to blue-green in summer and turn purplish in winter. The bark peels in thin strips.

Tiny pollen and seed cones open in April and May. On female plants, the berrylike cones take a year or two to ripen, turning dark blue with a white bloom from August into November, and they hang on through winter.

Deer, elk and bighorn sheep browse it in winter, and birds eat the cones and spread the seed. It grows wild on dunes, beaches, rocky headlands, cliffs and dry prairie slopes. Where it meets eastern red cedar, the two can cross.

How to grow Creeping Juniper

Creeping juniper needs full sun and a well-drained soil, and it will not take shade or wet ground. It grows in sand, gravel or shallow soil over rock, acid or limy. It takes drought, heat and some salt. Plant it 5 feet from a wall and set plants 6 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant in 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: few seeds sprout, and they sprout slowly. Sow fresh seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep, and mulch the bed over winter. Stored seed needs 30 to 120 days damp in the refrigerator before a spring sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It is slow to establish, and its branches root where they touch the ground.

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. It can suffer juniper blight, and it can carry cedar-apple rust, which spots the leaves of nearby apple trees.

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

Sources (10)