# Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)

> A tough evergreen for windbreaks and screens on dry, poor ground, whose frosted blue cones on female trees feed cedar waxwings and other birds all winter.

Also called red juniper, Virginia juniper, red cedar, pencil cedar, red savin. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/eastern-red-cedar/

![Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) narrow evergreen trees standing in a goldenrod meadow in fall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/eastern-red-cedar-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Nicholas A. Tonelli, CC0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEarly_Autumn_%282%29_%2821926610576%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 30 to 50 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 9
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: 38 states and the District of Columbia, north to North Dakota, south to Florida and west to Colorado (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia). Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Evergreen, Drought tolerant, Wildlife value, Hedge or screen, Salt tolerant, Erosion control, Street tree
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Eastern red cedar is a juniper, the most widespread conifer of tree size in the eastern states, with fragrant, rot-resistant heartwood used for fence posts and cedar chests. It was once nearly the only wood for pencils. It resists drought better than any other conifer native to the East, and it withstands extremes of heat and cold. Where fire is kept out, it spreads into grazed pastures and prairie, and on the Great Plains it can turn tallgrass prairie into closed cedar woods in as little as 40 years. It is among the best trees for shielding soil from wind erosion, and its fibrous roots hold thin soils in place. Set it in rows as a windbreak or an evergreen screen on dry, open ground.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Ratings of its pace run from slow to fast, so our growth estimator takes the middle, about a foot and a half a year. It makes a narrow, pointed tree 30 to 50 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide, and on the best sites it can pass 100 feet. Trees first bear cones at about 10 years old, and some live more than 450 years.

Male trees shed clouds of yellow pollen from late winter into spring. On female trees, the berrylike cones ripen from green to frosted blue between September and November, about a quarter inch across. They hang on through winter, and waxwings, bobwhite, wild turkeys and many other birds eat them, along with foxes, raccoons and opossums. Its dense crown gives birds nesting and roosting cover, and it hosts the caterpillars of the juniper hairstreak.

It grows wild in every state east of the 100th meridian and north into southern Ontario and Quebec. Its home is old fields, fence rows, glades and limestone outcrops, and planted trees have spread it far across the Great Plains.

## How to grow Eastern Red Cedar

Eastern red cedar wants full sun, and it takes shade only when young. It grows in almost any soil that drains, from sand and clay to thin, rocky ground over limestone, acid or alkaline. It stands drought, wind and salt spray, but not ground that stays wet. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 12 feet apart for a screen and up to 24 feet apart as single trees. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in early spring, while they are still dormant, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow cleaned seed thickly outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep under mulch, since germination is often poor. Most of it comes up the second spring. For spring, keep it damp at room temperature for six weeks and then in the refrigerator for ten weeks first.

Water weekly through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Keep grass and weeds pulled back for the first two years. Deer browse it hard in lean winters, and mice and rabbits gnaw seedlings, so cage young trees where they are many. It needs little pruning, and early spring is the time for any.

Trees 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 is the alternate host of cedar-apple rust and the related hawthorn and quince rusts, which do far more harm to their other host than to the cedar. Keep it a few hundred yards from apples, crabapples, hawthorns and serviceberries, including the ones we grow. Bagworms, mites and twig blights also turn up. The cones feed cedar waxwings and many other birds through winter. Eaten in quantity, the cones and leaves can cause diarrhea.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Eastern Redcedar, Lawson 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/eastern-redcedar)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Juniperus virginiana, Anderson 2003](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/junvir/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Juniperus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Juniperus.pdf)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Juniperus virginiana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/juniperus-virginiana/)
- [University of Florida IFAS Extension, ENH-486/ST327: Juniperus virginiana, Eastern Redcedar, Gilman and Watson 1993, revised 2006, reviewed 2014](https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST327)
- [University of Minnesota Extension: Cedar-apple rust and related rust diseases, Koetter and Grabowski, reviewed 2026](https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/cedar-apple-rust)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Eastern red-cedar](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/eastern-red-cedar/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Juniperus virginiana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=JUVI)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet: Eastern redcedar, Juniperus virginiana](https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_juvi.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide and Conservation Plant Characteristics: Eastern redcedar](https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_juvi.pdf)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 2: Juniperus virginiana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=210000931)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: eastern redcedar](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=97)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Juniperus virginiana](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.128692/Juniperus_virginiana)
- [State rare plant lists read for Juniperus virginiana: Illinois 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)

## 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)
- [Native hedges, screens and windbreaks: which trees to use and how far apart to set them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-hedges-screens-and-windbreaks/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for wildlife: what deer, squirrels, bears, bats and turtles get from a planting](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-wildlife/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Eastern Red Cedar, add ?species=eastern-red-cedar with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=eastern-red-cedar&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Eastern Red Cedar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=eastern-red-cedar): 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 itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=eastern-red-cedar
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Eastern Red Cedar is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=eastern-red-cedar
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Eastern Red Cedar needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=eastern-red-cedar:3
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Eastern Red Cedar flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.