Main Street Mount Joy Planters: Juniper

This article is the second in a series of eleven, featuring details about the native plants that can be found in the plant containers Green Man Enviroscaping LLC installed and maintains for Main Street Mount Joy.


The juniper, Juniperus communis, is one of the most widely distributed trees in the world. It is native to North America, Europe, and Asia.

Most specimens of the juniper grow as shrubs here, although some named varieties have been selected to retain the classic conical evergreen tree shape ~ which makes them perfect living substitutes for the artificial trees that had been used in the planters in the past.

You can see more juniper centerpieces than you can any other plant ~ along Main Street in Mount Joy, the juniper can be found as the centerpiece in the planters in front of Mick's All American Pub, the Mount Joy Borough office, Northwest Savings Bank, and Mosby's Pub. We wanted to try two locations on each side of the street to see how well they handle the variety of light and shade conditions encountered along the street, and to see how they fare living in the planters.

When 'tis the season, they will be able to be decked out in Christmas garb ~ we hope they truly shine in that role!

There are flowers ~ yellow ones that appear in April ~ but they are not of any ornamental value. As with many evergreens, the prime attraction of the juniper is the foliage, both in appearance and in fragrance. Of course, as with all evergreens, the needles do turn to yellow or brown and fall, just not all at once ~ the needles on the juniper will persist for three years, so that there's always some green there.

Junipers are fairly solid trees or shrubs. They grow well on poor soils and can tolerate wind, however, they do prefer full sun. The juniper is a great plant to use in a bird garden ~ it provides cover (even the smaller shrubs!) and larger specimens can provide nesting. The birds also eat the berries ~ which are edible when they're ripe but are poisonous prior to that (and they look similar, so use extreme care!)

Resources
Check out the juniper on the USDA PLANTS database here, on the Missouri Botanical Garden's Kemper Center for Home Gardening here (for the variety "Gold Cone", which was not one we used... they list other named varieties as well), and at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin here ~ all three provide excellent resources for plants, particularly in identifying or finding natives.

If you'd like to learn if and where the juniper can fit into your home landscape, please contact Green Man Enviroscaping LLC and we'd be happy to help you!