The Best Time to Prune a Green Mound Juniper

Features

• A Green Mound juniper grows up to 8 inches tall and spreads slowly, maturing at 4 to 6 feet in width. Favored as a ground cover due to its low height and soft foliage mat, this shrub forms a smooth green carpet with minimal woody lumps or upright branches. Green Mound juniper grows in full sun to light shade, requires moderate water and is drought-tolerant when established. Cultivars thrive in a variety of conditions but need well-drained soil as they are prone to root rot. As this shrub is grown for foliage and not for flowers, pruning is timed for foliage maintenance and not to protect future flowering wood.

Pruning

• Maintenance pruning shapes Green Mound juniper by controlling its existing overall size and thickness. Winter to early spring is the best time for annual pruning as this allows for shaping before the spring growth begins. Pruning juniper branches around the winter holidays provides evergreen sprigs and decorative branches. Cut back branches that do not conform to the shrub's overall spread. Prune individual branches back within the green foliage, ending the cut before the branch is bare of needles. When one branch is long and out of bounds with the general low-growing plant, cut the protruding branch back to a healthy side branch or lateral. Make this cut under or within other foliage to maintain the plant appearance. Remove entire dead branches back to healthy shrub junctions.

Trimming

• A light pruning or thinning and heading in late spring redirects the juniper's new growth. Thin or snip out inner branches having sparse foliage. The shrub then shifts its spring energy from these unhealthy branches into the developing foliage. When the ground cover creeps outside its boundary, head branches back up to a third of their length. This encourages new branching and foliage through the growing season. Thin out ground branches that are rotting in spring from winter ground contact or yellowing from lack of sunlight.

Considerations

• Prune out dead or injured branches whenever they appear because weakened branches develop and spread disease. Completely remove dead branches in the center of the plant, but be aware that Green Mound juniper does not grow from old, bare wood. Severe pruning is not helpful in rejuvenating an old plant and often kills the entire shrub. When the juniper appears unhealthy or dies back, remove the plant and replace with a new, disease-resistant cultivar.