Juniper Trees .com - juniperus garden plants

Welcome to Juniper Trees .com. This site is dedicated to using junipers in the garden - we look at juniper varieties, their planting and growing, as well as taking a look at junipers in other uses such as herbal and artistic.

Juniper trees are wonderful and very versatile garden plants, beautiful to look at during any season of the year. Tolerating a wide range of growing and soil conditions and a certain degree of drought, juniper trees add permanence to the garden landscape as they maintain their foliage throughout summer and winter. Foliage colours within the same plant vary a little too, depending upon season.

The wide range of shapes and foliage textures of juniper trees provides great variety and possibilities for visually exciting effects when designing the garden scene. Junipers available to the home gardener range from prostrate or ground-hugging carpets of neat, dense foliage to upright, tree forms that provide shelter and background design.

Foliage Colours

Juniper trees also come in a wide range of foliage colours, from silvery-grey or grey-blue, through mauve and purple in the wintertime, to apple-greens and dark greens, cream-tipped, bronze and yellow-gold. They contrast with and enhance each other, as well as a wide range of other garden plants.

Easy to Grow

In general juniper trees should be grown in free-draining soil, and do well in poor or impoverished soils. They do not like boggy or water-logged soils. Junipers will grow in alkaline or acidic soils. Their native habitats are often rocky or mountainous in nature, and they look particularly good in such settings in a garden, especially when planted with other plants from these areas, for example heathers, low-growing shrubs and alpines. However, juniper trees also look good in a contemporary garden with grey-leaved plants, for example, and are effective against steel planters, gravel mulch and paving. They do not look so good when competing for space with herbaceous plants or other plants that will lie against their foliage and make it go brown.

Juniper Bonsai Tree - Large (Juniper procumbens 'Nana')

Exceptional Juniper cultivars

There are junipers for almost any landscaping situation in the garden. One of the most popular upright junipers is the Skyrocket Juniper.

A low growing bushy juniper of great attraction is Blue Star, while a popular completely flat and ground-hugging juniper is the Blue Rug Juniper.

Junipers also make popular bonsai trees - click on this link for sources and information: Juniper bonsai trees.

So where can you buy juniper plants online? Visit our juniper plants page for many sources.

Junipers have also been used for hundreds of years in herbal and refreshing products; aside from those on this page you can view more products made from juniper here: Juniper products.

Other Beautiful Garden Junipers

The Green Mound Juniper is an exceptionally good low-growing juniper with wonderfully neat and attractive foliage effectively used in the garden beside paving or steps and also widely used to make bonsai trees.

Juniper Information and Resources at JuniperTrees.com

Using Junipers in Your Garden
Using junipers in the garden - how to avoid 'design mistakes' and use these striking plants to their best advantage.

Ground Cover Plants: using Junipers
Junipers can make ideal ground cover plants.

How to grow Junipers
How to grow junipers - their cultivational requirements in the open ground and in containers.

Juniper Resources and Links
Good juniper resources and links are in fairly short supply, however we have found some of the best.

Link to this site
Add an extra resource about junipers for your visitors.

What are Juniper trees?
But what are Juniper Trees, scientifically speaking?

JUNIPER BERRY - 4 oz

4 oz - Juniper /Juniperus communus Juniper Berry: (Juniperus communis) Eastern Europe Juniperberry - Steam distilled from the berries or a combination of berries and twigs. Scent: Balsamic, spicy, similar to pine. The scent is sweet and balsamic (similar to Gin) and the oil has antiseptic qualities.

Description: The oil is distilled from the berries of this shrub. Oil from the ripe fruit is superior to that of the liquid distilled from the unripe, green berries. The berries take two or three years to ripen, turning blue when ripe. Juniper oil is often adulterated with turpentine, which diminishes its quality. The oil is either colorless or pale greenish-yellow.

Traditional uses: to energize and relieve exhaustion, ease inflammation and spasms, for improving mental clarity and memory, purifying the body, to lessen fluid retention, for disinfecting. It is often prescribed by herbalist for its antiseptic, disinfectant, sedative, and stimulant properties. It may also be blended with bergamot, grapefruit, lavender, lime, and rosemary to prepare many different mixtures for different ailments.

Uses: The oil is used as a diuretic and carminative for flatulence and indigestion. It also aids in relief of stomach complaints. A few drops in a bath may relieve premenstrual bloating. The oil can also be applied externally as a stimulant. For aching joints, juniper oil may be mixed with a carrier oil and rubbed onto the body. May cause irritation of sensitive skin. Should be avoided by those with kidney disease.

Qualities: Anti-rheumatic, antiseptic, diuretic, stomachic, carminative. Antiseptic, cleansing, promotes mental clarity, stimulates lymphatic drainage.