Tree · Cupressaceae
Eastern Red Cedar
Juniperus virginiana
A tough native conifer that shrugs off drought, poor soil, and bitter cold and lives for centuries.
Full sun
Every 10–21 days
USDA 2–9
30–39 ft · 9–12 m
Overview
Eastern red cedar is one of the toughest evergreens you can plant. It's a juniper, not a true cedar, and it grows wild across much of the eastern United States on ground other trees won't touch. Give it sun and it settles into clay, sand, rock, or dry alkaline soil without complaint.
It earns its keep as a screen, windbreak, or wildlife tree. Female plants carry frosty blue berry-like cones that feed waxwings, robins, and other birds through winter, while the dense foliage gives shelter and nesting cover. The reddish, aromatic wood is the classic cedar of closets and fence posts.
This is a slow-and-steady plant that can live for centuries, but it has two habits worth knowing. It spreads aggressively into open grassland where fire no longer holds it back, and it's the alternate host for cedar-apple rust, so it belongs nowhere near apples or hawthorns.
Care
The short version: full sun, almost any well-drained soil, and very little water once it's rooted. It needs no feeding on most sites, little pruning, and keeps it well clear of apple and hawthorn trees.
Light
Plant it in full sun for the densest, healthiest growth. It will take some light shade, but a shaded tree grows thin and open and loses the tight form that makes it useful as a screen.
Water
Once it's rooted in, this is one of the most drought-tolerant conifers of the eastern U.S. and rarely needs watering at all. Keep new plantings watered through their first season, then let the soil dry between drinks and mostly leave it alone.
Soil
Few trees are less fussy about soil. It thrives in average, dry to medium, well-drained ground and adapts to clay, sand, shallow rock, and poor or dry alkaline sites, taking a pH anywhere from 4.7 to 8.0. The one thing it won't stand is soil that stays wet.
Temperature
This is a genuinely hardy tree, comfortable from -40°F to 104°F (-40°C to 40°C). Cold simply isn't a worry, and it handles heat and exposed, windy sites just as well.
Humidity
Outdoor humidity is no concern for an established tree. Good airflow matters more than moisture in the air, since crowded, damp foliage is what invites the tip blights.
Feeding
On most sites it needs no feeding at all. If growth is genuinely poor, a balanced slow-release fertilizer in spring is plenty, but an established tree on ordinary ground does fine on its own.
Pruning
Pruning is minimal, though it takes shearing well for screens and hedges. Work in late winter to early spring, and while you're at it remove any brown galls and dying tips to hold back cedar-apple rust.
Repotting
Not applicable; grown as a landscape tree, not a houseplant
Size & spacing
A mature tree reaches roughly 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) tall with a spread of 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 m). Give it room to fill out, and remember it grows at a steady, moderate pace rather than fast.
When to plant
There's no sowing season to chase with a tree this hardy. Set new plants out in spring or fall so the roots can settle before summer heat or winter cold, and on female trees the blue cones ripen from fall into winter.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Spring or fall
- Harvest: Non-flowering; female trees bear frosty blue-green berry-like cones that ripen fall to winter (Sep-Feb)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 2–9
Temperature: down to -46°C
Troubleshooting
A healthy eastern red cedar rarely asks for much, but a few pests and fungi show up on the foliage and twigs. Most of the trouble looks worse than it is. Match what you see below and step in before it spreads.
Brown galls sprouting orange jelly horns after spring rain
This is cedar-apple rust and its relatives, fungi that use the cedar as one host and apples, crabapples, or hawthorns as the other. On the cedar itself the damage is light, just galls and a little twig dieback. Prune out the brown galls in late winter before the horns form, and keep the tree well away from any rose-family plants nearby.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy galls and infected branch tips in late winter to early spring before horns form
- Do not plant near apples, crabapples, hawthorns, quince, or serviceberry
- Apply a myclobutanil fungicide in early spring on high-value plants before infection (copper and sulfur are less effective)
Silk bags wrapped in foliage dangling from the branches
Those camouflaged bags are the work of bagworm caterpillars, which strip needles and thin out the crown as they feed. Each bag is built from bits of the tree's own foliage, so they hide in plain sight. Pick the bags off by hand from fall through early spring to clear out the overwintering eggs, and spray Bt while the larvae are still small in late spring.
Fix:
- Handpick and destroy bags in fall through early spring to remove overwintering eggs
- Apply Bacillus thuringiensis or an approved insecticide while larvae are small in late spring to early summer
Stippled, yellowing foliage with crusty specks on the stems
Those fixed specks are juniper scale, and the fine stippling can also point to spider mites. Both drain the foliage and leave it dull and discolored, sometimes with sticky honeydew or sooty mold. Smother overwintering scale with horticultural oil, treat the crawlers as they emerge in late spring, and cut out any branch that's badly infested.
Fix:
- Apply horticultural oil to smother overwintering scale
- Treat crawlers with horticultural oil or an approved insecticide at the crawler stage
- Prune out and destroy heavily infested branches
Branch tips browning off with black pinpoints on dead twigs
Dead tips dotted with tiny black specks signal Phomopsis or Kabatina tip blight, fungi that move in after wet weather. The damage is mostly cosmetic on a healthy tree. Prune out the dead twigs during a dry spell, skip overhead watering, and give the branches room for air to dry the foliage.
Fix:
- Prune out dead and dying twigs during dry weather
- Avoid overhead watering and improve air circulation
- Apply an approved fungicide to new growth on high-value plants if needed
Toxicity
Good news for pet owners: eastern red cedar is not a poisoning hazard. It isn't on the ASPCA toxic lists, and people, pets, and livestock all tolerate it. The only real cautions are mild, an upset stomach if an animal eats a lot of the oily foliage or berries, and skin that the prickly young growth and aromatic sap can irritate.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats Mild
Not on the ASPCA poison lists, so a nibble is no real danger. A cat that chews a lot of the foliage or berries might get a loose stomach for a day, and the aromatic oils can put some off it anyway.
Dogs Mild
Safe in passing, though a dog that eats a pile of the blue berries or foliage may end up with mild diarrhea. Nothing alarming, but keep an eye out if a large amount goes down.
Horses Mild
Horses graze around it without trouble. Eating a real quantity of the oily foliage or cones can stir up a passing stomach upset, so it's not a feed to lean on.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits browse juniper foliage in the wild and handle it fine. There's no toxin here to worry about.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, sheep, and goats browse eastern red cedar with no poisoning risk. Heavy grazing of the foliage is more likely to bother the rumen than to harm the animal.
Birds Safe
The berry-like cones are a winter staple for cedar waxwings, robins, and many other birds, which spread the seed as they feed.
People Safe
No poisoning hazard for people. The prickly young foliage and aromatic sap can irritate skin, so wear gloves when you prune, and don't treat the berries as food.
Not a poisoning hazard, but foliage and the blue berry-like cones can cause mild gastrointestinal upset (such as diarrhea) if eaten in quantity, and the aromatic volatile oils are mildly irritating. Sap and prickly young foliage may irritate skin; wear gloves when pruning.
Varieties
Eastern red cedar comes in shapes that range from a tight column to a low spreading shrub. A few selections turn up again and again in gardens.
'Canaertii'
A favorite ornamental selection that holds a dense, narrow pyramid of rich dark green foliage studded with frosty-blue cones.
'Brodie'
An upright columnar tree with soft blue-green foliage that makes a clean, narrow screen or accent.
'Taylor'
A tightly fastigiate column that reaches about 20 to 25 feet tall but only 3 to 4 feet wide, perfect for a narrow upright accent.
'Grey Owl'
A low, spreading shrub with silvery gray foliage rather than the usual upright tree.
How to propagate
You can grow eastern red cedar from seed, cuttings, or grafts, though each takes patience. Seed is slow and stubborn, while cuttings and grafting are the way to keep a named cultivar true.
SeedDemanding
Sow stratified seed in fall or spring · Months to over a year; seed has dormancy requiring cold stratification and can be slow and erratic to germinate
The tree self-seeds freely in the wild, but starting it on purpose tests your patience. Collect cones from a female tree in fall or winter, clean off the flesh, and give the seed a long cold stratification to break its dormancy. Even then, germination is slow and uneven, often taking anywhere from a few months to more than a year.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Take semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer to fall · Several months to root
Cuttings are the usual way to copy a named cultivar and hold its form and foliage color. Take semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer to fall and expect them to need several months to root. It's slower than rooting a houseplant, but far more reliable than seed for getting the plant you want.
GraftingDemanding
Dormant season · One season
Grafting is mainly a nursery method, used to set a selected cultivar onto seedling rootstock. The work is done in the dormant season, and a successful union establishes over a single growing season. It takes skill, so most gardeners leave this one to the growers.
Myths
Eastern red cedar is a true cedar.
Despite the name, this is a juniper in the cypress family, not a cedar at all. True cedars belong to the genus Cedrus in the pine family. The everyday name is just a long-standing misnomer.
Cedar-apple rust badly damages the cedar.
On the cedar the rust does little more than raise a few galls and kill back the odd twig. The serious harm lands on nearby apples, crabapples, and hawthorns, with the cedar acting only as the alternate host that completes the fungus's life cycle.