I have just heard about the Maligned Bradford Pear and in the UK Leyland cypress an much more antisocial tree than the BP in my opinion.

My earlier post gave the wrong impression. Junipers are cool. Bradford Pears and Leyland cypress are BAD

There is a "Leylandii Law" in England, to clarify the preservation of the 'right to light', a fundamental right in British Common Law, but not here of course.

Dan

Ok you two are losing me since I don't have any idea what you are even talking about.

I was hoping for a friendly discussion on why and why not junipers should be used in the landscape and I'm hearing the "British are coming, the British are coming".

"Blessed are the ears that hear the pulse of the divine whisperer, and give no heed to the many whisperings of the world" - Thomas p Kempis

Dan

I'm lost right along with you, Aloha! I think we may possibly have found a couple more folks that are off their meds!

;-)
Skybird

P.S. Don't have time right now to dis..... I mean disCUS junipers! In a friendly way, of course, when I have time! :-)

I'm a juniper fan. I think junipers have their place in the landscape. Especially here with our winds and normally scant precip. Why not incorporate a proven plant?
I live on what is basically a 2 acre ant hill. The native landscape I was given to work with includes tumbleweeds, bindweed, russian thistle, crap ash, elm, and a couple of non-weeping willows. I've planted around 50 seedling Rocky Mountain Junipers as the backbone of a windbreak on the north and west sides of the property. I've also planted Moonglow, Wichita and Sea Green Junipers around the place.
They're tough and need relatively little care. In 5 or 10 years they'll provide me with a framework of sun and wind protection that I can add prettier and less hardy plants to. There are so many different types of junipers, spreading, upright, blue, green and gold.
They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they've earned a place here.
Aloha, is this what you were after?

Barb

Dan, love the quote, but what in the world was all that other "whispering"?

Too cute Skybird about your dis...disCUS. I'll await what you have to say. I caught some of disCUS on another thread.

Treebarb. We planted some seagreens because we knew they wouldn't flop over from the snow but needed as much height as possible. Now that we are adding a window and will now see that area year round from the inside of the house, I'm thinking I would rather go with something that will flop but get much taller. How tall is your seagreen's if you don't shear them (standing by them and estimating is good enough). Do you have any columnar junipers that don't flop in the snow or at least spring back reasonably quickly. Also please include how you started your junipers by seed. I was thinking for getting skyrocket junipers for a 45' run. Since they are so skinny I will have to put more in. I don't want a "wall" just a major distraction to the side of the neighbors house. If you happen to have skyrocket too, how ugly is the winter color. I'm not fond of the summer color and I heard the winter color isn't so good. This is one of those situations that come up when I speak about the limitations we have here. Usually in making decisions, I complain that there are too many options, but not so much when it comes to landscaping in Colorado.

aloha,
I planted seedling trees. I did not start from seed. I got 6-12 inch seedlings from CSU. 25 were planted spring of 09 and another 25 this spring.

Sea greens get roughly 6ft tall by 8 ft wide. Mine are newer plantings with the largest being roughly 3ft tall by 4 ft wide. I don't have skyrockets, so I can't comment on their winter color. I'm giving you a couple of sites to check out. You'll need to cut and paste as I am a dolt and haven't figured out how to embed links, much less post pics.

I would recommend you look over the plant lists and find the height and spread you want, then search those plants to find the color, look and characteristics you want.

www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07403.html

www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07414.html

Come back and tell us what you like.

Barb

First, I'm not off my meds my current research focus is solar power and the urban landscape. 'Right to light' is a fundamental issue if we are going to put PV panels on roofs like they do in Europe to wean ourselves off fossil fuel.

;o)

I think the junipers that make us all angry are the tam junipers that smell like a litter box and look horrible. We had a function to go to today that took us through neighborhoods built not long after WWII, and cr*ptacular junipers fouled the landscape at every turn. Sara wanted to pass a law outlawing them, they were so horrible. But upright juniper? Not a problem. But don't get me going on how they are spreading throughout several states...

Dan

I'm also a juniper fan. Here's a nice columnar form, growing in Salida.

Treebarb, I'll call them on Monday to find out what they might have available next spring. It would be a fun place to get them too IMHO.

Dan, I've had tam before and never had any issues with offensive smell. I even had a bench nestled inside a spot amongst aspens. I used to have people come over all the time to check out my postage sized front yard and would comment how they loved it.

Because of the ackward area, I selected 3 Tams again. I say ackward because I not only have a fire hydrant (again), I also have one of the 6" wide utilities right in the front door site line. Frustrated, I just bought a fake rock. The tams will hopefully blend it in more. I saved a special spot to put a speciman of some sort (haven't decided). How large would you say they will get in the sun (I had a lot of shade before)? Besides the smell that you encountered what else didn't you like about Tams?

Sluice, I love the top part, but not so much the bareness at the bottom? Do you know what kind it is? I've never read about any junipers in Colorado getting that tall.

Aloha, I'm not sure what kind this one is, although it seems to resemble J. scopulorum 'Woodward'. My guess is that the bareness is due to deer browse.