Juniperus scopulorum ‘Blue Arrow’ Rocky Mountain Juniper

Blue Arrow is a spectacular, narrow, upright variety of the Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) with bright blue-green foliage and a cold-hardy range of USDA zones 2 to 8. Its year-long beautiful color, hardiness, and columnar form won it the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 2012.

This stunning tree has long, vertical branches with tight, ropy foliage that gives it a feathery appearance. It has a medium growth rate of 8″-10″ per year and reaches 7′ high × 2′ wide in 10 years. Junipers are dioecious, meaning male and female flowers are on separate trees. They are wind-pollinated, so if there is a male tree nearby, the female tree’s tiny yellowish-green flowers mature into silvery-blue berries and then produce seeds after about 18 months.

Blue Arrow is an excellent cold-hardy substitute for Italian Cypress. Although it is smaller, it has a similar form and will grow in much colder climates. It is excellent for narrow spaces, as an accent tree in the landscape, in informal groupings, in containers, or planted in a row as a barrier, screen, windbreak, hedge, or along an entranceway. Its small, narrow size is perfect for urban gardens, courtyards, and rock gardens and provides an elegant, classic look to Mediterranean-style gardens.

This tree grows best in full sun and in a variety of soils. It can thrive in mildly acidic to alkaline loam, sand, rocky, or clay soil as long as it is well-draining. Water the tree at planting and when young. Once established, it will be drought-tolerant and will only need watering during extended dry periods. A layer of mulch around the tree will also help keep the soil cool and moist and reduce weeds.

Companion plants for Blue Arrow need to have the same sun, soil, and moisture requirements. Shrubs such as yews and dwarf spruces, nandinas, flowering quince, viburnums, cotoneasters, and abelias complement the tree with different sizes and textures. Flowering perennials such as Russian sage, lavender, lantana, blanket flower, heather, lilyturf, echinacea, coreopsis, salvia, dianthus, and Shasta daisies all bring a spot of color against the bright blue-green of Blue Arrow. Ground covers such as sedums, creeping phlox, ground-hugging junipers, creeping thyme, rockrose, creeping euonymus, pachysandra, and hardy ice plant add color and interest around the base of the tree.
Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, Blue Arrow Rocky Mountain Juniper is also deer and rabbit-resistant, pest and disease-resistant, and tolerates urban pollution, coastal exposure, and road salt.