Tree of the week: Hollywood Juniper

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The Hollywood Juniper – Juniperus chinensis ‘Torulosa’(‘Kaizuka’)

Unabashed individualists, Hollywood junipers grow and twist as they please. With some coaxing they will develop into single-trunk trees instead of multi-trunk shrubs, but that is as far as their cooperation goes.

These irregularly upright conifers of the Cypress family with the vivid green foliage are at their most beautiful when allowed to grow naturally, are given the space to do so and have many decades to develop their picturesque twists and turns.

Originally found in China, Japan and Mongolia, they were introduced to this country in the 1700s.

The evergreen Hollywood juniper grows at a slow to moderate pace to become a graceful open structure, 15 feet high and 10 feet wide. It has a narrow cone shape while young, but stem and branches become more twisted with age. The gray-brown trunk is beautifully sculptured. Fragrant leaves are tiny, narrow and scale-like.

Inconspicuous flowers are followed by small, hard, berry-like fruits, blue on the outside and fleshy inside. The Hollywood juniper likes full sun or half shade and will take most any soil as long as it is well drained. The tree needs little or no pruning, does not shed and typically does not develop surface roots. It is drought-resistant once established but will take lawn sprinkling if not kept overly wet. It can survive in salt air.

A variegated form has green foliage interspersed with creamy white. It stays smaller and is less irregular in shape.

--Pieter Severynen