Fastest Growing, Most Hardy

[yenling83]

I'm curious from your experience what would you say the top 3 fastest growing and most hardy types of Junipers are?

Thanks!

 

[darrellw]

San Jose (Juniperus chinensis 'San Jose')
Procumbens (Juniperus procumbens)
Shimpaku (Juniperus chinensis 'Shimpaku')

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I'm not going to disagree with Darrell's list, but I think it is hard for me to rank junipers because they are ALL relatively hardy and fast-growing in my opinion.

 

[Smoke]

Foemina
San Jose
Prostrata

Fast compared to what?

Foemina will grow to three inches+ across in 5 to 6 years. San Jose and prostrata will take about 15 years to get to 3 inches across. About an inch/5 years. Oh...you want movement...add 30% more time to those numbers.

Trident maple will get to three inches in about four years in the ground.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

What about Hollywood juniper, Juniperus chinensis 'Torulosa'? I see them around here and even into Florida. They seem to grow pretty fast, and being in the chinensis family, the foliage is a good color and texture. I haven't grown one, but they seem like they could be good candidates.

 

[yenling83]

Thanks for the replys!

Smoke- I mean fastest comparing only differnt types of junipers with other types of junipers.
So say 5 years per 1 inch w/ San Jose and prostrata. What about Shimpaku-how man inches per year? What about Kishu Shimpaku and Itowagawa?

What do you think about growing trunks w/ movement and curve, then grafting shimpaku or other foliage onto Fomina? I feel like I've never seen this and there's probably a reason why.


I believe this questions is also depends where you live. i.e. sierra juniper might do really well in one location, but not in another.

 

[darrellw]

In my experience, San Jose will bulk up the trunk faster that Shimpaku or Procumbens. But unless you then graft new foliage, you have to deal with San Jose's tendency to have juvenile (needle) and scale foliage at the same time.

 

[Dwight]

I've had procumbens grow like crazy but never really bulk up.

How about horizantalis such as blue rug ( New England native )

 

[misfit11]

I'm not going to disagree with Darrell's list, but I think it is hard for me to rank junipers because they are ALL relatively hardy and fast-growing in my opinion.

RMJ are very slow growing.

 

[Dav4]

RMJ are very slow growing.

Actually, based on my personal experience, I would say that RMJ have a comparable growth rate to other junipers when grown in pots and fertilized. I've got several yamadori that might have taken upwards of 500 years to achieve trunk girths approaching 6-8 inches, but they were growing in very hostile conditions during that time. I actually need to watch my RMJ more closely then my shimpakus for wire damage...their smaller branches fatten up pretty fast, and I've had them put on 8 - 12" plus of new growth in a summer (when I lived in MA).

Dave

 

[jk_lewis]

That seems to me to be an unanswerable (with any validity) question, and therefore, rather pointless.

It does depend on where (climate, sunlight, wind, snow, ice, rainfall (including acid rain) ) you are growing them.

Also depends on:

Their overall health.
Their age.
Where they're growing - field, grow box, training pot, bonsai pot.
How and how often they are fertilized.
Various cultural practices -- pruning, pinching, wiring, etc.
Substrate.
Health at any given time.
Their size.

and probably many, many other conditions.

 

[yenling83]

That seems to me to be an unanswerable (with any validity) question, and therefore, rather pointless.

It does depend on where (climate, sunlight, wind, snow, ice, rainfall (including acid rain) ) you are growing them.

Also depends on:

Their overall health.
Their age.
Where they're growing - field, grow box, training pot, bonsai pot.
How and how often they are fertilized.
Various cultural practices -- pruning, pinching, wiring, etc.
Substrate.
Health at any given time.
Their size.

and probably many, many other conditions.

Yes, you are correct- However I'm just wondering about this in theory. So Let's assume we could some how magically put them into their ideal growing conditions- which I understand would not all be in the same location, possibly the same soil, etc. Also you give each juniper the same amount of water, fert and over all treated it the same, they were the same age, etc. If you could give each juniper it's perfect environment, then in what order would the differn't types of junipers grow?

Also, I'm wondering about this mostly in terms of trunk thickness. I like AL's answers that was the kind of thing i'm really interested in.

 

[capnk]

Yenling,
We grow shimpaku - kishu and itoigawa varieties. I consider them "semi-dwarf" compared to some of the large garden variety junipers.
Several people have told me that one cannot grow shimpaku in Oregon because it's too wet.
I will have to disagree with them.
I can offer you observations on the two varieties.
The kishu grow much longer leaders and will make bigger bushes.
In spite of the fact that the itoigawa look like smaller bushes, they trunk up better than the kishu.
If you are trying to grow trees for trunk size, you would be wise to put them in the ground. We put them in root control bags. We have just lifted a workshop group of itoigawas with trunk diameters of 2 inches or more. They were in the ground 5 years.
Good luck,
Chris