A good species choice for your climate and hardy.

Dax

hey mel..

you are jumping into this gardening thing.. head first... you may as well learn some KEY WORDS for the future...

conifers are conifers... but also trees ... but they are not shrubs[term of art] ... but they are bushes [which means little]

not every 'bush' out back is a shrub though... its a common term [oh god i hope they can avoid bringing the other topic here .... lol...] ...

shrubs are .. and this is a layman definition.. large.. woody ... usually flowering ... usually big ... plants ... think lilac.. mock orange... spirea. ... etc ... though there are many dwarf or small versions ...

once established.. they are usually free range.. and THOROUGHLY care free ... but for having to whack them back with a truck or bulldozer once every few years...

and that is the key to a shrub.. REJUVENATION PRUNING ... google that for guidance on how to properly care for these potential monsters ...

most conifers on the other hand.. again.. superficially .. hold their needles .. but they are NOT really 'evergreen' [another common word for a bunch of divergent plants and not a term of art] .. since there are many other plants that fall under the term evergreen .. think holly ... and many southern type plants .... and some conifers are actually deciduous ....

conifers are trees.. and are planted and cared for as trees ... which is basically the same for shrubs ... [plant properly.. water properly for a year or two.. and use some good mulch.. and then basically free range thereafter.. for the most part ...]...

BUT YOU WOULD NEARLY NEVER prune a conifer .... as you would a shrub.. or you will kill it ... and that is why learning the proper terms.. will help in the long run ... how about that.. i actually made it full circle.. before the caffeine buzz made me forget the point of the whole thing ... lol ..

as per your plant.. nice name ... decent plant.. bit scratchy if your little one dives into it ... you will be happy with it ...

personally i have had some problems with juniper... tip death ... there is a disease/blight associated with such ... but i would NOT worry about that.. and in my z5.. i am not sure a bunch of it is NOT just winter burn...

it is NOT bad enough for me to spray.. and i dont bother with such with the mud monkeys around ...

there are a few juniper i have destroyed.. based on such.. and those I THINK were juniper sclorpum wichita blue ... sp??? .. that is close enough for google to show you some images of it, if you care

if you really want unusual .. you will have to start mail ordering..

if you do not know how to PLANT a conifer.. that has severely winding roots [potted too long] ... a new post might be very helpful ... on some level you need to insure that the roots start growing out .. and not continue in the circles ...... post away ...

good luck

ken

ps: PERSONALLY... IMHO.. [note the qualifications] ... i hate the pom pom foo foo bonsai-ed plants ... you will learn a lot about pruning keeping it that way .... but if you are thrilled.. and your toes are curling ... all the power to ya ....

oye vay Ken! Thanks for the schooling. I had a feeling that foo foo plants wouldn't be your thing, but you've always been one to say something like 'do whatever suits ya... it's your garden!"
Yes, I am jumping in head first. Good thing I'm not a total newbie. I just really wanted to get that caragana replaced and started shopping as soon as stock was available. It's such an prominent spot in my front yard! And it was YOU who really helped me determine that since nursing it back to it health would be a long process, it was best to replace!

I've always had an affinity for some foo foo stuff, but not all.

I'm not too worried about Mia falling into the tree/bush/shrub WHATEVER. She's almost 4 and should have good enough footing by now. I'll keep the 1 year old daycare kid out of the area though!

I've seen a lot of these kinds of pom pom types in the area, so they must do 'ok', at least. I just noticed a pom pom two doors down. I hope they don't think I copied them.... I never even noticed theirs till after I had mine!

I think for this first year, maybe two, I am going to try and wrap the poms in burlap, just to make sure they don't burn. I'm not great at watering till the ground freezes, so I should offer myself the added insurance.

take a few minutes to really look inside those pom poms.. before they start growing ... and look at how it was pruned to maintain such .... you ought to see a lot of cutting inside them ...

many juniper can grow 1 to 3 feet per year .... though i suspect the mint will be a bit slower ...

to avoid yours starting to look like medusa... you will have to be fairly aggressive in pruning it...

but it might be much harder to look inside.. later in the summer with all those snakes flailing about ....

you paid good money.... for the foo foo.. so now you will have to learn to tame the foo.. back into foo foo ...

make sense??

ken