Taylor’s juniper is a popular columnar form cultivar of Juniperus virginiana, eastern red cedar. It plays an important role in the nursery trade in areas where cold weather hardiness is important, and cedar apple rust has become more prevalent. The tree makes a terrific choice for people looking for an attractive, durable, and fast-growing substitute for arborvitae and Italian cypress.
I. Appearance and Characteristics
The Taylor Juniper has a slender columnar silhouette for the garden to create a privacy screen and design element for the front door or used as a specimen plant. In addition, the Taylor Juniper offers a dramatic appearance to any landscape with a vertical height of up to 30 feet.
Placed to form a barrier, the hedge grows with a base spread to four feet and does not take up loads of space. As a result, the Taylor Juniper trees are fast growers with a growth rate of three to five feet per year.
The tree grows with rich blue-green foliage radiating in the light but needs enough space for sunlight to hit them from all sides. The Taylor Juniper makes for a dense privacy screen and adds depth to rock gardens or other landscapes.
Another notable thing is that the tree does have an extensive root system and is best grown away from foundations and structures. Another interesting fact is that many people see Taylor Junipers as a weed in the garden.
While the male Taylor Junipers do not flower, the female trees produce blue-purple berries that work well in bird gardens. The bark of the outdoor trees exfoliates from the trunk.
II. How to Grow and Care
Sunlight
Taylor juniper demand no less than full sun. It will show deficits in growth and color in anything less. The beautiful, rich blue-green foliage your tree is known for will appear lackluster in part shade. When creating a hedge be sure to plant your juniper with enough spacing between each tree to allow clearance for light to hit each side of the tree as it matures and the hedge grows. Allow the trees to grow into and create the hedge, do not do the work for them.
Temperature and Humidity
If you live in the cooler growing zones, then Taylor Juniper trees are for you. It grows much better than the Italian cypress in those regions.
The columnar will grow tall to form a privacy screen or hedge and will not struggle in freezing temperatures.
Still importantly, keep the air circulation moving in high-humidity areas to prevent fungal diseases and pests from invading your outdoor plants.
Watering
When planted, the red cedar tree will need supplemental watering for the root system to become established. The critical thing to remember is that this is not a straight species but a cultivar.
So, water weekly with ten gallons per caliper inch for the Tayolor Junipers’ trunk diameter. Do this during the growing season for the first two years to build a strong root structure. After that, the tree grows shallow roots; you need to water slowly but prevent overwatering.
Once your tree displays new growth and becomes established, you can water less as it can tolerate dry periods. Hence, underwatering is way better than overwatering, resulting in tree uprooting.
Soil
While the Taylor juniper is somewhat adaptable when it comes to soil it will thrive if planted in average soil that is somewhat moist but not wet. It will tolerate some dryness but will not tolerate wet soils at all, and therefore must have well-draining soil. The pH of your soil is another concern, anything lower than 7.0 is great. This should be tested, and amended before planting your tree. You can test it with a simple DIY pH testing kit.
Fertilizing
You can provide supplemental food for your Taylor Juniper tree but not compulsory. You can give them a boost of slow-release fertilizer made for evergreen conifers like fertilizer spikes. You can do this once a year during the growing season in spring.
Pruning
You should not have to do any pruning to your Taylor Juniper other then dead branches. The natural form of the cultivar is tall, slender and columnar with a pyramidal taper, the exact shape you would want from a coniferous evergreen hedge. Pruning may actually disrupt the cultivar’s natural form.
Propagation
Propagation of the Taylor juniper is done through semi-hardwood cuttings. It is easy with just a few steps and very little material. Just follow these simple guidelines to start your cuttings in no time:
- Mix one part peat and one part perlite in a bucket, moisten evenly, and fill as many small pots as you need for the cuttings you will make.
- Prepare your shears by soaking them in alcohol or a solution of 1 part bleach nine parts water as you prepare your potting mixture.
- This year’s growth removes about a six-inch cutting from the juniper, making a cut where new growth meets old growth.
- Strip the needles from the bottom, leaving only the top 1/3 on the cutting.
- Dip the cut end of the juniper stem in your rooting hormone of choice, coating it thoroughly.
- Insert the cutting into the potting mixture halfway, allowing it to stand freely.
- Spray the cutting and remoisten the soil with a misting of water and then cover with a clear plastic wrap.
- Place in a warm area with bright indirect light, removing the cover and misting daily.
- Remove the plastic cover once your cuttings have developed roots and allow them to harden up.
Pests and Diseases
One of the attractive features of the Taylor juniper is that the cultivar is reported to be cedar rust-resistant. Cedar rust is the biggest disease that affects the species. It alleviates the most serious disease worry that would hinder your tree’s health and the trees in the surrounding landscape.
Taylor juniper has to deal with the normal insects that bother cedars, junipers, and the like. Keep an eye out for bagworms and mites. Bagworms can be manually removed by snipping the bags off with shears and destroying the bags. You can spray mites off with a strong hose, or you can treat the tree with insecticidal soap, and most of all, keeping the tree well-irrigated will ensure the tree stays healthy enough that it won’t make an attractive target for the tiny pests.
III. Taylor Juniper Similar Plants
The Taylor Juniper is a cultivar and one of a kind, but there are other Juniper trees you can grow in your landscape.
- All Gold Shore Junipers
The Juniper grows well in the growing zone six to eight and makes for an exceptional ground cover. It has golden yellow foliage year-round with a warm orange-red tint in winter.
- Blue Pacific Junipers
These Juniper trees grow best in zone five to nine and are hardy, helping to prevent soil erosion. It has feathery green leaves turning to silver green in the winter.
- Blue Rug Juniper
It is a fast-growing creeping ground cover for steep hills. The low-growing shrub also prevents soil erosion, and it is disease-resistant.
- Dwarf Japanese Garden Junipers
The cultivar is another compact groundcover variety that flows outwards in a cascading way. It is ideal for rock gardens or growing down walls or a container. The leafage is a vivid green that transitions to a blue and purple shade when temperatures drop.
IV. Uses and Benefits
Due to its compact size and neat growth habit, the Taylor Juniper is often used as a specimen plant, in foundation plantings, or as a privacy screen. It can also be pruned to maintain a desired shape or size.
