Upright Junipers a Substitute for Very Large Italian Cypress

 

Italian cypress will grow to 40 feet and taller. Great for big buildings but not for homes. Consider smaller evergreen trees (conifers) like some of the upright junipers. Choose heat tolerant types if you do like 'Spartan'.

Q. I bought a few ‘Spartan’ junipers for a hedge or screen instead of Italian cypress. They are now about 8 feet tall and starting to fill in. How much water do they need?

A. ‘Spartan’ is an “upright” juniper that grows to about 15 feet in height and 3 foot in width when mature. Always water them so the soil has at least one day without water to “dry out” before the next irrigation. Like Italian cypress, they benefit from periodic deep watering rather than daily irrigations. If watered daily, they will likely die from root rot.

Because of their smaller size they are a better choice for a single-story home than Italian and other cypress’ like Arizona and Leyland. Like Italian Cypress, other types of cypress and junipers may have problems with spider mites during the hot summer months so wash them off with a hose during those times. If your soil is heavy or doesn’t drain easily, consider planting on top of a rise in the landscape, amend the soil for drainage, and use drip irrigation.

The problem with upright junipers is that they are untested for extremely hot, dry, and isolated locations found in some desert landscapes. A better plant choice for those areas is our native Utah juniper except that it can get large like Italian Cypress but has the same “root rot” issues. But its size can be controlled with irrigations.

Utah juniper is a Nevada native tree that does not use much water whose growth can be controlled with irrigation. They can get to 40 feet, like Italian cypress if watered with abandon.

Other upright Chinese junipers to consider besides ‘Spartan’ include ‘Blue Point’, ‘Hetz’, and the Rocky Mountain upright juniper ‘Skyrocket’ which grow to about 15 to 20 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Because of their “unknowns” to heat tolerance, I am usually hesitant to recommend them.