The longer you spend time hanging out with plants, the more fascinated you become with atypical foliage. Of course, atypical is a relative term. I discovered a plant the other day whose foliage was unlike any I had ever seen. I thought that perhaps this was a rare and endangered species. Little did I know. It turned out to be the most widespread woody perennial in the world!
I am talking about what is known simply as common juniper (Juniperus communis). It grows wild from Canada to Crimea to Japan and also qualifies as a California native since there are several outcroppings of common juniper in the northern and central parts of this state. It ranges in form from a 50-foot tall tree to a three-foot-tall shrub, depending on climatic and soil conditions. However, you do not find the arboreal version of common juniper – the one with the distinctive foliage – in most nurseries since it grows slowly, may reach up to 50 feet tall, but is amorphous in form, appearing as a multi-trunked mass of foliage growing in every direction. There are California native sub-species of common juniper but these are either low-growing shrubs or mat-like ground covers such as the silvery-blue leafed dwarf juniper (Juniperus communis montana).
What pulled me in when I espied common juniper for the first time were its needles, arranged in silvery blue clusters all along its stems. But you don’t actually see its stems unless you look closely since the needle clusters appear to be suspended like stars, even if cheek by jowl, completely covering the periphery of the plant.
Two other California native arboreal junipers are worthy of consideration as garden fare. Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) makes a handsome symmetrical tree that grows to a height of fifty feet, has aromatic green foliage, and can live for more than 2,000 years. California juniper (Juniperus californica), which you can see growing wild along the 14 Freeway from Acton up to and throughout the Antelope Valley, is a large sprawling shrub, suitable as a living screen, that grows to around 15 feet in Southern California, has bluish-green foliage, edible berries, and is highly attractive to wildlife. The indigenous peoples of California and the Southwest relied heavily on this and other junipers for both culinary and medicinal purposes. To get the most out of your juniper, make sure to acquire a female since most juniper species are dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The females are the ones that carry the berries (fruit).
The history of one alcoholic beverage owes its flavor to juniper berries. We are talking about gin, derived from the Old English work for juniper, which was genever and, before that, from the Dutch word jenever. William of Orange (the same royal for whom the monarch butterfly was named) played a role in popularizing gin. In the 17th century, after William had left Holland to become kind of England, he imposed a steep tariff on French brandy, hoping to encourage English manufacture of spirits. Gin was already familiar in England as a medicinal potion for the treatment of kidney problems, lower back pain, stomach ailments, gallstones and gout. So now it was merely a matter of introducing the public at large to the benefits of this potable. Gin is nothing more than ethanol derived from an agricultural product (corn, wheat, or barley, for example) that has been distilled in the presence of juniper berries from the common juniper plant for the purpose of imparting the juniper taste.
Junipers belong to a plant family (Cupressaceae) that includes cypress and cedar trees, redwoods and arborvitae. These plants bring a fragrance and a sense of environmental appropriateness to our yards and gardens because of their drought tolerance, virtual immunity to insect pests and diseases, and evergreen foliage that never shows signs of mineral deficiency. Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica) is a silvery blue horticultural masterpiece. In its youth, it has a perfectly conical form. As it ages, its branches diverge and it becomes less and less symmetrical but now its stunning cinnamon bark comes into view. Arizona cypress is sometimes used as a windbreak or screen along property lines.
California incense cedar is highly aromatic and has a magnificently symmetrical cone-shaped canopy in its youth which is compromised somewhat as the tree ages. Flat and decorous foliar fans distinguish this tree from all other conifers.
Tip of the Week: You can grow redwoods anywhere in the Los Angeles area but they sometimes need help with occasional deep watering, especially when young. Coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), at 350 feet, are the tallest trees in the world while giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) have the most massive trunks, to 30 feet in diameter, of any trees in the world. Oriental arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) are those gumdrop evergreens, yellow-green or blue-green in color, that are typically used as a hedge, growing between 3 to 15 feet tall, depending on the cultivar.
