Tree · Cupressaceae
Eastern Red Cedar
Juniperus virginiana
A tough native conifer that laughs off drought, lousy soil, and brutal cold and sticks around for centuries.
Full sun
Every 10–21 days
USDA 2–9
30–39 ft · 9–12 m
Overview
If you want an evergreen that just won't quit, eastern red cedar is hard to beat. It's actually a juniper, not a true cedar, and it grows wild across much of the eastern United States on ground that sends other trees packing. Give it some sun and it'll settle into clay, sand, rock, or dry alkaline soil and not complain a bit.
It pulls its weight as a screen, windbreak, or wildlife tree, too. Female plants hold onto frosty blue berry-like cones that keep waxwings, robins, and other birds fed all winter, and the thick foliage gives them shelter and somewhere to nest. And that reddish, aromatic wood? It's the classic cedar you know from lined closets and old fence posts.
It's a slow-and-steady kind of tree that can live for centuries, but there are two habits worth knowing about. It spreads fast into open grassland once fire isn't there to hold it back, and it's the alternate host for cedar-apple rust, so it really doesn't belong anywhere near apples or hawthorns.
Care
The short version: give it full sun, almost any soil that drains, and barely any water once it's settled. It won't ask for feeding on most ground, it needs hardly any pruning, and the main thing is to keep it well away from apple and hawthorn trees.
Light
Plant it in full sun and you'll get the densest, healthiest growth. It'll put up with a bit of light shade, but a shaded tree grows thin and open and loses the tight shape that makes it such a good screen.
Water
Once it's rooted in, this is one of the most drought-tolerant conifers of the eastern U.S., so the hose can mostly stay coiled up. Keep new plantings watered through that first season, then let the soil dry out between drinks and pretty much leave it be.
Soil
Honestly, few trees are this easygoing about soil. It does great in average, dry to medium, well-drained ground and shrugs off clay, sand, shallow rock, and poor or dry alkaline spots, taking a pH anywhere from 4.7 to 8.0. The one thing it can't stand? Soil that stays soggy.
Temperature
This tree is genuinely tough, happy from -40°F to 104°F (-40°C to 40°C), so cold just isn't a thing to worry about. It takes heat and exposed, windy spots in stride too.
Humidity
Outdoor humidity won't bother an established tree at all. What matters more is good airflow rather than moisture in the air, since crowded, damp foliage is exactly what the tip blights are waiting for.
Feeding
Here's an easy one: on most sites it doesn't need feeding at all. If growth really is poor, a balanced slow-release fertilizer in spring does the trick, but an established tree on ordinary ground gets along just fine without it.
Pruning
Pruning stays light, though it takes shearing well if you want a screen or hedge. Work in late winter to early spring, and while you're out there, snip off any brown galls and dying tips to keep cedar-apple rust at bay.
Repotting
Not applicable; grown as a landscape tree, not a houseplant
Size & spacing
Grown up, it hits about 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) tall with a spread of 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 m), so give it room to fill out. And don't expect it to race there, since it grows at a steady, moderate pace.
When to plant
No need to chase a sowing window with a tree this hardy. Just pop new plants in the ground in spring or fall so the roots can settle before summer heat or winter cold rolls in, and on female trees you'll get blue cones ripening from fall into winter.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Spring or fall
- Harvest: Non-flowering; female trees bear frosty blue-green berry-like cones that ripen fall to winter (Sep-Feb)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 2–9
Temperature: down to -46°C
Troubleshooting
A happy eastern red cedar won't give you much grief, but a few pests and fungi do show up on the foliage and twigs now and then. The good part? Most of it looks a lot worse than it actually is. Find what matches below and step in before it spreads.
Brown galls that push out orange jelly horns once spring turns wet
What you're seeing is cedar-apple rust and its relatives, fungi that bounce between the cedar and nearby apples, crabapples, or hawthorns. On the cedar the damage is pretty light, just galls and a little twig dieback. Prune out the brown galls in late winter before the horns form, and keep the tree well away from any rose-family plants close by.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy galls and infected branch tips in late winter to early spring before horns form
- Do not plant near apples, crabapples, hawthorns, quince, or serviceberry
- Apply a myclobutanil fungicide in early spring on high-value plants before infection (copper and sulfur are less effective)
Silk sacks dressed in bits of foliage swaying off the branches
Those camouflaged bags are the handiwork of bagworm caterpillars, which strip needles and thin out the crown as they munch. Each bag is stitched from bits of the tree's own foliage, so they're easy to miss. Pick them off by hand from fall through early spring to clear out the overwintering eggs, then spray Bt while the larvae are still small in late spring.
Fix:
- Handpick and destroy bags in fall through early spring to remove overwintering eggs
- Apply Bacillus thuringiensis or an approved insecticide while larvae are small in late spring to early summer
Yellowing foliage flecked with crusty specks across the stems
Those fixed little specks are juniper scale, and the fine stippling can also mean spider mites are around. Both drain the foliage and leave it dull and discolored, sometimes with sticky honeydew or sooty mold on top. Smother overwintering scale with horticultural oil, get the crawlers as they show up in late spring, and just cut out any branch that's badly hit.
Fix:
- Apply horticultural oil to smother overwintering scale
- Treat crawlers with horticultural oil or an approved insecticide at the crawler stage
- Prune out and destroy heavily infested branches
Branch tips dying off, freckled with tiny black dots
Dead tips speckled with tiny black dots point to Phomopsis or Kabatina tip blight, fungi that sneak in after wet weather. On a healthy tree it's mostly just cosmetic, so don't sweat it too much. Prune out the dead twigs during a dry spell, skip the overhead watering, and give the branches room so the air can dry the foliage.
Fix:
- Prune out dead and dying twigs during dry weather
- Avoid overhead watering and improve air circulation
- Apply an approved fungicide to new growth on high-value plants if needed
Toxicity
Worried about the pets? You can let that go. Eastern red cedar isn't a poisoning danger, it's not on the ASPCA toxic lists, and people, pets, and livestock all get on fine with it. The only small catches are a mild upset stomach if an animal eats a lot of the oily foliage or berries, plus skin that the prickly young growth and aromatic sap can irritate.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats Mild
Cats aren't on the ASPCA poison lists, so a nibble's no real danger. One that chews a lot of foliage or berries might get a loose stomach for a day, though the aromatic oils tend to put a lot of cats off it anyway.
Dogs Mild
Dogs are fine around it in passing, but one that scarfs down a pile of the blue berries or foliage might end up with mild diarrhea. Nothing to panic about, just keep an eye out if a big amount goes down.
Horses Mild
Horses graze around it no problem. Eat a real load of the oily foliage or cones, though, and it can stir up a passing stomach upset, so it's not something to lean on as feed, even if there's no poisoning risk.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits browse juniper foliage in the wild and handle it just fine. There's no toxin here to fret about.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, sheep, and goats browse eastern red cedar with zero poisoning risk. Heavy grazing of the foliage is more likely to upset the rumen than to actually harm the animal.
Birds Safe
The berry-like cones are a winter staple for cedar waxwings, robins, and loads of other birds, which spread the seed around as they feed.
People Safe
No poisoning hazard for people here. The prickly young foliage and aromatic sap can irritate skin, though, so wear gloves when you prune, and don't go treating the berries as food.
Not a poisoning hazard, but foliage and the blue berry-like cones can cause mild gastrointestinal upset (such as diarrhea) if eaten in quantity, and the aromatic volatile oils are mildly irritating. Sap and prickly young foliage may irritate skin; wear gloves when pruning.
Varieties
Want a slim column or a low spreading shrub? Eastern red cedar comes in both and plenty in between, and a handful of selections keep turning up in gardens for good reason.
'Canaertii'
A garden favorite that keeps a dense, narrow pyramid of rich dark green foliage dotted with frosty blue cones.
'Brodie'
Looking for a slim vertical accent? 'Brodie' grows as an upright, columnar tree, and its soft, blue-green needles knit into a clean, narrow screen.
'Taylor'
A tightly fastigiate column that gets to about 20 to 25 feet tall but stays just 3 to 4 feet wide, great when you want a slim upright accent.
'Grey Owl'
A low, spreading shrub with silvery gray foliage instead of the usual upright tree shape.
How to propagate
Fancy making more? You've got three options: seed, cuttings, or grafts, and all of them take some patience. Seed's the slow, stubborn one, while cuttings and grafting are how you keep a named cultivar looking exactly like its parent.
SeedDemanding
Sow stratified seed in fall or spring · Months to over a year; seed has dormancy requiring cold stratification and can be slow and erratic to germinate
Out in the wild it self-seeds like crazy, but starting it on purpose? That'll test your patience. Grab some cones off a female tree in fall or winter, clean the flesh away, and give the seed a long cold stratification to wake it up out of dormancy. Even then it comes up slow and uneven, often anywhere from a few months to more than a year.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Take semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer to fall · Several months to root
Cuttings are the usual way to copy a named cultivar and keep its form and foliage color true. Take semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer to fall and figure on several months for them to root. Sure, it's slower than rooting a houseplant, but it's way more reliable than seed for getting the plant you actually want.
GraftingDemanding
Dormant season · One season
Grafting is mostly a nursery thing, where a chosen cultivar gets set onto seedling rootstock. The work happens in the dormant season, and a good union settles in over a single growing season. It takes real skill, so most gardeners are happy to leave this one to the pros.
Myths
Eastern red cedar is a true cedar.
Easy thing to assume, but despite the name it's a juniper in the cypress family, not a cedar at all. True cedars belong to the genus Cedrus in the pine family. The everyday name is just a misnomer that's been hanging around forever.
Cedar-apple rust really hurts the cedar.
On the cedar, the rust barely does anything beyond raising a few galls and killing off the odd twig. The serious harm lands on nearby apples, crabapples, and hawthorns, and the cedar's just playing the alternate host that lets the fungus finish its life cycle.