Conifers are important to our timber industry, but their usefulness doesn't stop there. A conifer is a cone-bearing tree or shrub. Familiar ones are the loblolly, slash pine, long and shortleaf pine, and others. Junipers as a group tolerate cold, heat and drought and are among our most versatile plants. They are grown as stately, upright trees and are much overlooked and underused as ground covers.
Junipers even make great bonsai plants.
There are probably 20 to 30 varieties to choose from in our area. There is nothing prettier than a ground cover juniper planted in front of a group of red barberries with taller junipers planted behind them. The Leyland Cypress is perhaps the most popular landscape conifer and is great as a specimen or used in a grouping. It also happens to be the one I most often see used incorrectly. This cute little Christmas tree-shaped evergreen looks perfect on either side of the front entry way or snuggled against the house like a yaupon holly.