Juniper 

Temperature:  Very Versatile…cold cold to hot hot

If you live in Southern California you can plant a Juniper tree, if you live in Illinois you can plant a Juniper Tree, if you live in New York, guess what, you too can plant a Juniper tree.  The Juniper Tree can tolerate many different temperatures as you can probably tell by now.  But another great thing about the Juniper is that is comes in many different sizes from four inch high plants to groundcovers to shrubs to huge trees. I know you are so excited already but wait…most Juniper Trees only need supplemental watering under the driest of conditions.  This sounds too easy!

The one requirement is to plant your Juniper in well draining soil.  After that you are ready to get planting.  Your free plant will have foliage that has a green to silvery blue or yellow colors and produces red berries.  Juniper shrubs can be planted in a row to make an attractive hedge or a windbreak.  If you are looking for a hardy, low maintenance groundcover Juniper will work excellent.

One last plus when it comes to the Juniper…I know how can there be more good news?   The berries that come from the Juniper Tree have many different uses.  The berries are used to flavor many different meat dishes from European cuisines to Norwegian and Swedish dishes.  Let’s not forget my fellow Hungarians who also use the Juniper berries to flavor their specialty cuisines.  The Greeks used the berries in many of their Olympic events because they believed that the berries increase physical stamina in athletes.  Maybe ill try that for my next marathon, I might be able to make it around the whole block.  And last but certainly not least…today the berries from the Juniper flavors a popular liquor called gin.  If you can’t find a bottle of Gin at your local store, go to my bosses house, he was probably the one who bought them all, but don’t take all of his supply or I will not have a good day at work the next morning!

Enjoy your Free Plant!