Juniperus Communis Green Carpet or Juniper Green Carpet

Juniperus Communis Green Carpet is a very low-growing evergreen that spreads out like a mat to protect soil and create a bright pop of attractive neat green foliage. It’s an excellent ground cover for slopes, banks, front gardens and low-maintenance mixed borders.

Juniper Communis is the well-known common juniper. Juniper is a native conifer to many countries and one of the most widespread conifers in the world. Its foliage is richly scented when it’s rubbed.

The cultivar Juniper Green Carpet was bred to retain common juniper’s hardy aspects but create a low-growing evergreen suitable for gardens. It’s so successful it holds the RHS AGM and it’s a common sight in many UK gardens.

Green Carpet lives up to its name. It rarely grows above 10 centimetres and spreads out in a mat-like mound of branches with handsome green needles. Its branches grow haphazardly, bending and twisting, so that they entirely cover the soil beneath.

Height and Spread of Juniperus Communis Green Carpet
This is a prostrate conifer that spread across a metre but only reaches 10 centimetres tall in 10 years.

How Hardy is Juniperus Communis Green Carpet
Juniper Green Carpet is cold hardy and able to tolerate UK winters in well-drained soil. Once established, it’s drought hardy and forgiving of pollution.

How To Use Juniperus Communis Green Carpet
This low-growing evergreen creates excellent ground cover in a variety of aspects including banks, slopes, rockeries, front gardens, and mixed borders. It lines a pathway with admirable clarity and protects bulbs such as daffodils and snowdrops from summer drought and early spring’s harsh winds.

This shrub is not a standout plant, so it’s a suitable skeleton for both modern urban designs and country cottage-style flower borders.

A useful, practical, undemanding, and handsome Juniper Green Carpet is a garden essential.

How to Care for Juniperus Communis Green Carpet
Once it’s established, Juniper Green Carpet needs barely any care. It prefers full sun to partial shade in any free-draining soil.
Pruning isn’t required, but dead or broken branches can be removed at any point in the year. Mulch it well in early spring and keep watering until you see new growth. In very hot spells Juniper Green Carpet that’s growing in thin soil appreciates a can of water to keep its foliage green.