The guy I bought my seedlings from said the tend to grow in the direction they're planted.

Assuming he meant that the trunk tends to lay mostly horizontal when planted so they would grow more vigorously in the direction that the trunk is pointing.

That would make sense too that if the plants were in partial shade, they would grow towards the light.

I do see a trunk and thst mskes sense. Which means I planted them in the wrong direction.

The guy also told me that the seedlings new growth tends to grow more upright the first year and then begins growing more along the ground the second year.

Mine are in their second year this season and some are still sending up vertical shoots in places. These were sold to me as 'native' Juniperus horizontalis (root flare is at left).

your first mistake was planting it 6 inches from the foundation.. i expected better of you ..

are they growing toward the wall heat.. or the reflected sun??

i would expect them to grow south.. aka.. towards the sun ... if they were out in a field on a small hill ... this spot is so messed up.. they might do anything..

if it were me..

in sept.. dig around this one.. and create a soil mass of one shovel size... leave plant there..

go dig new hole.. of one shovel size.. tote soil over to the plant.. set aside..

grab plant on shovel.. walk to new hole. plop it in.. put hose on trickle for a hour.. refill old hole....

now.. at this size .... is the time to move it.. rather than messing with staking etc ...

many horizontalis appear to spike up.. but the weight of the plant forces it horizontal as time goes by .. yours looks like normal growth ..

and being buried under a foot of snow all winter will also squash it down ... especially if you walk on it;.. lol ...

ken

Thanks, ken, for your concern but I don't want them anywhere else.

And I'm a little surprised about you ken, giving out such detailed suggestions by seeing only one closeup picture of a seedling? What has happened to you? lol

FWIW: It's just a narrow sandy strip along the side of the garage where nothing grew except weeds and mowing created a sandstorm. It's not any kind of focal point or in plain view of anywhere so I thought it a quick easy way to spruce things up a bit. :^)

I chose J. horizontalis because of its short height and drought tolerance.

They are actually 12" out from the slab. And that was the limit because the bed is only 18" wide to begin with! lol

BTW: There was about 4ft. of hard compacted snow blower snow on top of these most of the winter but that didn't have any effect on how they plant grew the following year.

eta: Picture finally loaded in this post.

They will outgrow that narrow bed in no time and will look butchered if you try to keep them inside it. Wrong plant for that narrow bed.

Where do you expect them to go? They have no room in any direction!

Once you cut off the growing portions that dare escape the confines of that tiny bed you'll have nothing left but hard gnarly stems that soon turn into trunks.

If it was me I'd expand that bed quite a bit and move them away from the structure so they have room to be what they are.

If this is the only space you are willing to give them then I can think of many better plant choices.

This is all well and good, but this thread wasn't about me.

I was trying to help someone else who asked a question.

FWIW: I didn't make the bed wider because it would've interfered with me being able to drive a vehicle between the buildings for access for backyard deliveries.

If these plants don't work it's nbd, It's just another learning experience imo and I'll replace them with something else.

@BillMN-z4a if it were my bed, and the junipers didn't work out I would likely look at planting a tall upright grass like Karl Foerster. I think it would look good and fit nicely. Not sure about sun and cold tolerance. Just an idea.

Thanks kidhorn2. (was there a kidhorn1 ?)

<disclaimer>

Again, this thread has NOTHING to do with my beds or the way I garden. Never has.

And I wasn't looking for advice when I answered kitasei2 and I kept things OT best I could. <disclaimer> ;-)

I've gardened or been around gardening longer than a lot of people have been alive.

I don't know everything and don't try to pretend that I do.

I'm always trying something in my yard and enjoy doing it whether it fails or succeeds but I try to lean towards success. :)

I don't like grass plantings. Maybe it's the sandy ground here and it doesn't do well without constant attention or maybe it's because during my farming years, I fought against grass and weeds that took moisture and nutrients away from the crops. Maybe it's a little of both. ;)

As long as we're at it, this is what the bed looked like last season. I created it just to have something alongside the garage. I started the junipers towards the front and used the zinnias as a 'nurse crop' of sorts until the J's got rooted (I wouldn't do that again bc the Z's are water hogs and nutrient hogs). I did have plenty of positive comments from neighbors.

And just to clarify, this bed was kept narrow bc it was already a 'squeeze' to get a minivan with a trailer behind to make the turn into/out of the back yard (property line just a little past right side of picture). I kept the south (far) end of the bed 4' short of the garage corner just for that reason. I'll enjoy the junipers at least a couple of years and learned a little about planting and growing them. 8^)<

As an aside: My BIL, now deceased, had a saying, 'If you can't impress them with intelligence, dazzle them with BS'. I never agreed with that notion but apparently there are some on this forum that run with that idea wholeheartedly. :-\

Update:

Nearly 5 years later, this is what the native juniper horizontalis looks like this season.

They are absolutely gorgeous! 😁

They've looked this good for the previous couple of years, since it's filled out completely, and I've done a little pruning, removing dead sprigs occasionally and did a couple of light tidying up sessions.

You can still see the lawn edging in a couple places, showing the juniper isn't that far over it, into the grass.

It's green all summer and the weeds don't like to grow there.

I think it's a good, low maintenance choice for a narrow, sandy strip along the garage.

Lol Bill, I never saw this thread originally, but it came to my attention today after you updated. But as I'm reading through, I kept thinking wait.... Bill did NOT post this question! Why is everyone piling on Bill for his junipers? LOL! And quite frankly, doing it in a rather rude manner! Sorry you got so much heat just for trying to help someone. As they say, no good deed....

Anyway, your junipers look great and I'm glad they work for you!

kitasei, I hope your junipers worked out for you too! I've considered some low growing junipers on a slope along the road but I keep hesitating due to height. I need to keep sight lines in mind (busy road, driveway in the middle of a blind curve exacerbated by a telephone pole and neighbor's stone wall!) so for now the slope is still just weedy grass!

:)

Dee

Thanks Dee!

I'm always looking to keep the maintenace here low by planting zone hardy, drought tolerant woody conifers and trees, that will grow around here.

I acquired these as seedlings, mail order, from reesville ridge nursery (Summer of 2021?) if anyone is interested.

He who laughs last.... 🤣