Run your hand over the dense silvery blue foliage and you feel tight, scale-like leaves pressed flat against the stem. Scattered through them you spot small frosted blue-black globes that look like berries. What you are holding is a juniper shrub. It is an evergreen conifer in the cypress family. It keeps its color all through your winter. And those blue globes are not berries at all.
The genus is Juniperus, and it sits in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. It is bigger than most people picture. Clemson Extension counts 50 to 75 species. Of those, 13 grow wild in North America. The University of Florida puts the count closer to 40 species. Why the gap? Botanists draw the lines in different spots. Some split one species into three, and some group three into one. So it is fair to say there are roughly 40 to 75 kinds, not one fixed number.
Here is the part most quick descriptions skip. Junipers are dioecious, which means a single plant carries either male or female cones, not both. The male plants grow small pollen cones that release clouds of pollen in spring. The female plants grow the fleshy seed cones, and those are the frosted blue globes you spotted on the branch. So if you want the blue berry look, you need a female plant.
Those female cones are why people call them juniper berries, but the name is loose. Each one is built from 3 to 8 fused scales. The scales swell and turn fleshy instead of opening up like a pine cone. So a juniper berry is really a cone in disguise. This same fruit flavors gin and some game dishes. Treat any foraging with care, though. The plant and its cones can be mildly toxic to pets, so keep curious dogs and cats away from them.
The foliage tells its own story. Young junipers often push out sharp, needle-like juvenile leaves. Mature growth then turns soft and scale-like. Many shrubs carry both kinds at once on different branches, which can make one plant look like two. Color runs from deep green to dusty blue and gray-green. The blue tones are the ones gardeners prize most. The texture stays the same all year because the plant never drops its leaves in fall.
That last point is what the word evergreen really means here. A juniper does shed old foliage, but it does so a little at a time. New growth replaces the old before you notice a gap. So the shrub looks full and green in January just as it does in June. This steady cover is one big reason landscapers reach for junipers so often. They hold their shape and color while most plants go bare and brown.
One name trips people up. Eastern red-cedar sounds like a cedar, but it is a juniper, Juniperus virginiana. True cedars sit in a whole different genus. So the common name is a bit of a mislabel that has stuck for centuries. The cone test settles it fast. If a plant has those fleshy blue cones instead of woody ones that open up, you are almost always looking at a juniper. The tag may say cedar, but the cones do not lie.
When you shop, keep in mind that the word shrub covers a wide span. Some junipers creep along the ground at barely 6 inches tall and work as living mulch on your slope. Others stand as rounded mounds you can tuck beside a path. A few climb into narrow upright columns or full trees. So a juniper shrub is really one slice of a much larger genus. Pick the form that fits your yard and your eye. You get the same tough, low-care plant across all of them, so the choice comes down to shape and size more than fuss.
Read the full article: Juniper Shrub Guide: Care, Types, Uses
