Juniper 'Skyrocket'
Juniperus scopulorum 'Skyrocket' · Cupressaceae
The narrowest of all junipers: a pencil of blue-grey foliage several times taller than a person and no wider than a doorway.
- Size
- 15 ft tall, 2½ ft wide
- Zones
- 3 to 7
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Grown for its leaves
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around juniper 'Skyrocket'
The planner designed this bed around juniper 'Skyrocket' when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why juniper 'Skyrocket' stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Juniper 'Skyrocket' × 1, blue-green leaves
- 2 Bloody cranesbill × 6, pink
- 3 Leadwort × 16, blue
- 4 Coneflower 'Magnus' × 5, pink
- 5 Chives × 8, purple
- 6 Narrow-leaved foxtail lily × 4, yellow
- 7 Red spider lily × 3, red
Why this plant
- The only plant grown for its leaves. Leaf lasts all season, where a flower lasts a few weeks.
- The bed's only structure. Shrubs and grasses keep their shape when the perennials die down, and it is the only one here.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 15 ft it is the tallest plant here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to narrow-leaved foxtail lily (3½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- One plant, alone. A shrub is seen as an object, and needs clear ground around it.
Why now
- Here for its leaves, all year. They cover the 19 weeks between early March and late November when nothing on the plan is in flower.
- The only leaves in winter. From November to March it is what there is to look at.
Planned as an English border: 6 of the 6 groups (100%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. Cool colours (pink, blue and purple) with yellow and red as the warm notes. Leadwort is planted in four places along the bed, which gives it rhythm.
The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 5 Good, 1 Needs revision. Its weakest point is height and scale: Heights average about 12 in at the front, 18 in in the middle and 5 ft at the back. Along the back row the heights step up and down, between 3 ft and 15 ft, and no two neighbours are the same height. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where juniper 'Skyrocket' goes in a border
At 15 ft it belongs at the back of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is super tall (over 6½ ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
The cold-climate answer to the Italian cypress. Use it singly as a full stop, or in a row for a formal effect. It needs dry air: in the humid East it is prone to blight.
- A tall, narrow accent
- Formal avenues and pairs
- Screening in a narrow space
What to plant with juniper 'Skyrocket'
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- English lavender 'Hidcote': adds the flowers, late June to late July; low enough (18 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
- Russian sage: adds the flowers, mid July to mid September; low enough (4 ft) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
- Blue oat grass: adds the flowers, early June to early July; low enough (2½ ft) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
Questions about juniper 'Skyrocket'
Does juniper 'Skyrocket' need sun or shade?
Juniper 'Skyrocket' grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, on the lean side, with no feeding, and little watering once settled. Once settled in, it stands drought.
What zones does juniper 'Skyrocket' grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 7. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Above zone 7 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
How far apart should juniper 'Skyrocket' be planted?
24 in (60 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 2½ ft (75 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 15 ft (450 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many juniper 'Skyrocket' plants do I need?
At 24 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 3 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 6 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 10 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used one in one group.
Is juniper 'Skyrocket' poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat juniper 'Skyrocket'?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
What does juniper 'Skyrocket' look like in winter?
Juniper 'Skyrocket' keeps its blue-green and silver leaves all winter, so it is one of the plants that hold a bed together from November to March, when the perennials have gone.
Is juniper 'Skyrocket' good for bees and butterflies?
Juniper 'Skyrocket' is visited by butterflies and songbirds.
It is native to the United States and Canada (this is a named variety of the native plant).
More Juniperus
- Creeping juniper 'Blue Chip' Juniperus horizontalis 'Blue Chip'
- Creeping juniper 'Blue Rug' Juniperus horizontalis 'Wiltonii'
- Creeping juniper 'Mother Lode' Juniperus horizontalis 'Mother Lode'
- Japanese garden juniper Juniperus procumbens 'Nana'
- Juniper 'Blue Arrow' Juniperus scopulorum 'Blue Arrow'
- Juniper 'Blue Star' Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star'
- Juniper 'Gold Cone' Juniperus communis 'Gold Cone'
- Juniper 'Grey Owl' Juniperus virginiana 'Grey Owl'
- Juniper 'Old Gold' Juniperus x pfitzeriana 'Old Gold'
- Juniper 'Sea Green' Juniperus chinensis 'Sea Green'
- Shore juniper 'Blue Pacific' Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific'
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Shrub
- Size
- 15 ft (450 cm) tall, 2½ ft (75 cm) wide
- Plant
- 24 in (60 cm) apart
- Height class
- Super tall (over 6½ ft)
- Place in the bed
- Back
- Flowers
- None: grown for its foliage
- Leaves
- Fine texture, evergreen; blue-green, silver
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 7
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Lean, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Cupressaceae
- Comes from
- Western Canada, western USA to Northern Mexico
- Attracts
- Butterflies, songbirds
- Stands up to
- Deer, drought, salt, pollution
Checked against NC State Extension and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.