How to Grow Skyrocket Juniper From a Hardwood Cutting

Narrow landscape areas are ideal locations to plant the Skyrocket juniper (Juniperus scopulorum “Skyrocket”). Skyrocket's foliage has a blue cast during the growing season and, in fall, bears ornamental blue berries that are a favorite of birds and other wildlife. A variety of Rocky Mountain juniper, it is often mislabeled as a type of J. virginiana. Skyrocket's hardwood cuttings, taken in October, November or December, root readily.

Things You'll Need

• Nursery pot
• Coarse sand or peat moss and perlite
• Pruning shears
• Sharp knife
• Rooting hormone powder
• Paper towel

Instructions

1. Fill the nursery pot with moist sand or a combination of perlite and peat moss in a 10:1 ratio. Poke a 5-inch deep hole in the center of the medium.

2. Cut a 6-inch stem from the Skyrocket juniper and strip off most of its foliage, leaving a small tuft at the tip.

3. Use a sharp knife to lightly scrape the bark, on two sides, of the bottom inch of the Skyrocket juniper cutting.

4. Pour a dime-sized portion of rooting hormone powder onto a paper towel. Dip the wounded portion of the cutting into a cup of water and then into the hormone powder. Stick it, powdered-end down, into the planting medium.

5. Place the Skyrocket juniper on a heat mat set to no more than 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Place it in an area with high light. Allow it to remain on the mat for at least six weeks, in which time it should take root.

6. Allow the new Skyrocket juniper to grow in indirect sun, indoors, over its first winter. Allow the top of the soil, up to your knuckle, dry out between waterings.

References

• United States Department of Agriculture; Rocky Mountain Juniper; Michelle Stevens; January 2002
• “The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation”; Michael A. Dirr, et al.; 2006