This page is designed
to inform anyone wanting to know about junipers for personal use. Also
it will give a history on junipers as well as break them down to show
the different uses. It will also help aid you in picking out main characteristics
to distinguish them apart along with pictures to help visualize.
Without question the most used of all needle evergreens for general
landscape use. Junipers inhabit the most adverse cultural niches in
nature, and they bring this durability to the human-made landscape.
Highly variable in habit, junipers exist as 60 ft. tall trees and sprawling,
2" to 4" high groundcovers. All have small, needle or scalelike
foliage ranging in color from green to blue. They are readily transplanted
and will prosper in anything but wet soils. Full sun is necessary for
maximum growth. Mites, bagworms, and juniper blight are the principal
problems. Junipers are used for screens, groupings, masses hedges, single
specimens, groundcovers, and topiary. The following species and cultivars
represent the more commor types available for American landscapes.