Orange galls

Today we spied an attachment to our juniper bush that looked like an undersea monster.  We found out that they it was an Orange Gall. Susan cut them off and we wrapped and threw them in the chiminea.

Pretty, but scary looking.

Galls On Leaves; Branch Tips Die Back because of Rust.   A disfiguring disease caused by the cedar apple rust fungus sometimes covers juniper branches with bright orange galls. These swellings, an inch or more in diameter, appear on junipers that are near infected apple or crabapple trees (the disease needs both junipers and apple trees to complete its life cycle). Leaves are infected during the summer, and by the following June they develop green swellings. By fall, the swellings have turned into chocolate-brown circular galls. The next spring the galls form many long, yellow to orange "horns", especially during warm, rainy weather.
Spores released from these horns infect apple leaves, which fall prematurely. Infected juniper branch tips die, but the shrubs are usually not seriously affected. Prune out galls in early April before the horns develop. On apple trees, as many as six sprays of wettable sulfur at 10 day intervals are needed to obtain control. Begin when leaves first emerge. Plant varieties that are resistant such as: Columnar, Chinese (Pfizer), Prostrate or Andorra junipers.