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.
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.
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.
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.
