PlantFiles: Blue Rug Juniper, Creeping Juniper
Juniperus horizontalis 'Wiltonii'

LOL
I have had this little shrub in a gallon container for the last year. I have carted it around the yard continually trying to decide where best to use it. Well, with all of your help and guidance, I did find the BEST place for it.

I am going to give it away at the Plant Swap at Freeport Michigan on May 23. If you want it, come and get it. LOLOL.

Its healthy and doesn't eat much, it seems to be housebroken and somewhat friendly.

LOL.
I tend to give away plants that will not suit my lifestyle. My neighbor got our Cl.Josephs Coat rose because I couldn't mix orange and browns with lilac and pink, it was just looking a little too much like vomit colours. Ugh.

OK, back to the garden
Sher

I have these planted in a couple of beds in the front yard where they get full sun and adequate moisture because we have weedbarrier down and then we mulch over that.

One bed, on a downward slope, in the middle of the front lawn, was impossible to lanscape with anything other than a big tree. My mom didn't want that so instead with have the whole weedbarrier/mulch situation in a circle. We have a alberta spruce planted to the side and we've planted several of these plants, so that'll eventually cover the entire bed with some shrubs and flowers and bulbs poking through.

We'll see how it turns out.

In the meanwhile, my mom has started to use an organic acidic fertilizer on them and it did them wonders!

With out the sull sun, adequete water and the right kind of food, you should be able to get around the whole browning situation.

This is a good plant to control erosion on steep inclines. However sometimes weeds do come through the foliage and it's a pain to remove them. I recommend covering the ground between the plants with landscaping fabric and then pine bark mulch. Eventually the juniper will grow over it.

Groundcover Juniper to look their best MUST have full sun, and MUST be on adequate soil (better than typical Florida sand) and MUST have good drainage. They seem to appreciate mulch, but not against the crown. Plus, if you site them where you must touch them, they bite. They will survive less than ideal conditions, but they cannot look good then.

At my new place, I removed many of these plants. They'd been planted before trees matured. When I inherited them, they'd been surviving in some daily shade, and looked scraggly. I've never had luck moving these plants, so out they went for good.

I won't plant more. There are too many prettier, friendlier plants to use instead!

I find the middle of the plant turns brown, and then starts to die back....

Something of a burglar deterrent this one. The needles are some of the sharpest of any Juniper I know. I prefer it's green form ('Green Carpet' of course) for groundcover.