Plant, Tree & Shrub Library

Other Names:  Colorado Redcedar

Description:

A compact upright, pyramidal evergreen shrub with soft textured blue needle-like foliage all season long and showy blue berries, excellent for difficult landscape and garden situations. Also available trained in a spiral form.

Ornamental Features

Medora Juniper is a dwarf conifer which is primarily valued in the landscape for its rigidly columnar form. It has attractive powder blue evergreen foliage. The scale-like sprays of foliage are highly ornamental and remain powder blue throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Medora Juniper is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a narrowly upright and columnar growth habit. It lends an extremely fine and delicate texture to the landscape composition which can make it a great accent feature on this basis alone.

This is a high maintenance shrub that will require regular care and upkeep, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Medora Juniper is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Vertical Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

Medora Juniper will grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 6 feet. It tends to be a little leggy, with a typical clearance of 2 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 70 years or more.

This shrub should only be grown in full sunlight. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist growing conditions, but will not tolerate any standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selection of a native North American species.