Juniper
Juniperus chinensis
A tough, low-care evergreen with fountain-like, arching branches, easy to keep to size and used for foundations and mass plantings. Once established it shrugs off drought, salt, air pollution and deer. Give it full sun, since it thins in shade, and good drainage: too much moisture is what usually kills junipers.
- Mature size
- 5 × 7 ft
- 1.5 × 2.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Medium
Juniper at its mature size
A mature Juniper grows 4 to 6 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Juniper looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Arching branches of dark mint-green feathery foliage.
Photos
Growing Juniper
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Hedge, foundation planting, deer resistant, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- China, Japan, and Mongolia
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Juniper, that’s about 7 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Juniper in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other junipers
Creeping Juniper
Blue Star Juniper
Juniper
Eastern RedcedarAll drawn to the same scale.