My junipers have a lot of brown foliage at the base. What should I do to improve the health of my plants?
— Tom Ogilvie, Northbrook
The plants in your photo appear to be a cultivar of Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis) that is a great evergreen choice for a full-sun site. There are different cultivars in a variety of shapes from low and spreading to upright and columnar along with foliage that can be blue-green, green or silvery. Their resistance to deer browsing is another advantage of this plant. Junipers are underused in the landscape. Chinese junipers need full sun and soil with good drainage to thrive. They will decline as shade increases and if the soil remains too wet. A planting of spreading junipers in a shady and moist bed near my home completely failed about a year after planting.
The damage shown in your photo seems to be only on the lower portion of the junipers. Since the junipers are planted along the edge of your driveway, I suspect that the brown foliage you are seeing was caused by mechanical damage. This could be a result of a snowplow that brushed the junipers while pushing snow over the course of the winter. If there was an ice-melting product used and mixed in with the snow, that could have burned the foliage. If there was a disease issue or if the plants were struggling in the site, you would see dead or off-color foliage throughout the entire plant, not just at the base. Try to prune out the dead foliage to improve their appearance.
I prefer to use cultivars of Chinese junipers, as they have some resistance to cedar apple rust, which is more prevalent during wet springs. This disease requires two species to complete its life cycle, Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) cultivars and crabapples or apples. Cedar apple rust causes yellow to orange spots with black dots on crabapples and apples. Cedar apple rust has a dramatic appearance on junipers when the bright orange gelatinous masses with tentacles appear on the branches. It’s good practice to avoid planting Eastern red cedars near crabapples, hawthorns and apples. I plant Eastern red cedars too, but I prefer Chinese junipers because of their disease resistance.
For more plant advice, contact the Plant Information Service at the Chicago Botanic Garden at plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org. Tim Johnson is senior director of horticulture at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
