My neighborhood was built 25 years ago. It has finally reached the age where junipers are consuming several homes. When the trees went into the landscapes, they were little and looked harmless. It’s not the juniper’s fault that people didn’t read the label before planting it next to the foundation, only to discover later, to their horror, that the tree’s mature size is 15 by 12 feet, as big as the average dining room.
The juniper’s reputation is further besmirched when, instead of admitting the error and replacing the pfitzer with a more appropriately sized cultivar, most people hack away at the monster, making it into one of those green blobs that inhabit older Denver neighborhoods.
Junipers, allowed to be junipers, are quite beautiful and one of the few evergreens that can stand up to our weather year after year. These intrepid evergreens come in all shapes and sizes, colors and textures.
Most varieties require sunshine (shade can weaken the plants and lead to disease and pest problems), but a few do tolerate shade. One of our native junipers Juniperus communis, is a low, spreading understory plant in the foothills. I’ve seen it similarly treated in a Denver garden, where long tendrils trailed out beneath mature shade trees.
Some of the most attractive junipers, especially those selected for their unusual forms, coloration and dwarf size, actually require protection from strong afternoon sunshine, making them the perfect choice for partially shaded sites.
With silvery, starlike foliage, upright Juniperus chinensis “Blue Alps,” does well on the north side of my house. Golden-tipped “Mac’s Golden Upright” in a rock garden in the backyard appreciates afternoon shade provided by Austrian pines. A neighbor’s cottonwood shades petite “Gold Cone” during the hottest part of the day in another rock garden.
This year I couldn’t resist bringing home, from a specialty nursery in Oregon, tiny Juniperus communis “Echiniformis”, whose name means “hedgehog.” It is supposed to stay only 6-12 inches. Juniperus horizontalis “Pancake” will get only 12 by 30 inches. You’ll have to do some searching for these and other unusual junipers. (Try the Internet.)
Larger junipers do have other uses. The low, spreading types, the ones that quickly outgrow borders around lawns, make a perfect lawn substitute, green but not water greedy.
For foundations, skip the pfitzers and choose something that stops growing when it gets to the size that fits the space. Drought-tolerant upright junipers, with their columnar habit, are the ideal trees for narrow spaces when they have room to reach their full height of 20-30 feet, and a width of 6-10 feet.
Bringing home a juniper is like bringing home a puppy. Make sure you have space for the one you choose.
Marcia Tatroe is a garden writer and lecturer. E-mail her at Rlaurora@aol.com.
