RickCorey said:You might want something fast-growing to provide some privacy while your ideal trees grow in.

How many linear feet of screen do you need?

Lots of big trees would be VERY expensive.

Small trees will take some years to spread enough to touch each other, and get tall enough for your purposes.

Even bamboo takes 2-3 years to add 5-6 feet to the size you buy in pots. And clumpers will spread sideways even slower than they add height from year to year.

Fargesia rufa only spreads sideways a few inches per year at the base, but since they droop like umbrellas, the foliage spreads sideways much faster for the first few years. It grows UP quickly, then flops OVER, spreading wide.

Here's a good website for searching for bamboo varieties. ABS. I think Zone 5 means -20 F in an average winter? Good luck with bamboo! I think many will drop their leaves when that cold.

http://www.bamboo.org/BambooSo...

Yup. Searching ONLY for clumpers:

-20 F: none
-15 F: 6 varieties of Fargesia murielae and Fargesia nitida
-10 F: 9 varieties, all Fargesia, including Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa' , which I guess is the "new" name for my F. rufa.

2009:


2013: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2014

Rick

Thanks for the advice - much to think about. The issue I have is nearly 300 feet of screening (of some sort) needed - 105 along the property line and 102 along the back with nearly another 100 between us and the neighbors. I lived in Florida for 15 years and used bamboo a lot for screening. Zone a little different up here but I'll check out the link you sent.

Really appreciate all the sage advice people - thanks so much.

Frillylily said:I planted some burford holly 3 years ago and the neighbors goats ate them and they came back and have grown pretty quickly. It said slow growth on the tag, but I think they have doubled in size. I love them because they are ever green and glossy and sort of deer resistant. (deer will eat anything... but these are last resort I hope, although the goats ate them immediately, go figure...) Of course there is always the possibility that the tag was wrong. But at any rate they are a holly of some sort, you may also consider yews?

I don't think the neighbors have a goat - just a miserable looking Doberman.... not sure what he eats except small dogs and children....

I like the holly idea - don't think we have much of a deer problem - we are more urban.

oh, now, now, he might be a nice doberman !

My Romeo said he waited in line for a VERY long time to get a doberman body, but realized at the last min that he was in the poodle line, so that is how he got a poodle suit even though he is a doberMAN. He says while showing his tiny little teeth.....

best thing to do also is drive around your area and see what others have planted that is doing well. I never could grow holly at my last place, but when we bought this house it already had a large holly tree, so i took a chance on the shrubs thinking the soil conditions must be ideal. Ditto for dogwood, always died for me, but they do well here. I also suggest to plant a variety of mixed things, because that many of one type would not be well... you will have the occasional death resulting in a hole to replace, and not only that but if disease/pest strikes, it will wipe out your entire work.

I did plant some knock out roses 3 years ago and do practically nothing to them but water, and they are 3 ft tall and wide now. They bloomed almost all summer last year and added some nice pops of color.
Spirea, lose their leaves in winter but offer a variety of leaf/flower colors.
Lilacs, but these grow rather slowly-do live long though
you will not like crepe myrtle they take forever to show up in the spring.
Ive had good luck w wigelia ( which I can't spell )

Burning bushes-the deer love mine

might look into viburnums

I also planted some box wood, does great for me
Privet, grows really slow and is taking forever to take off, but the soil where I put them is not that great, rooty, ect.. really was a desperate attempt to 'make good neighbors'

you might also consider smoke tree, many of these branch out pretty low and have a bushy type form.
rose of sharon also grows fast and has a tallish form to it, which prunes easily.
you may even consider putting up some privacy fence closer to your house area and then bushes for the rest, that way even if you can't afford the fence it all off, you can fence off the part closest to the porch

Welcome to All Things Plants, Antony!

I'm not sure there are any evergreens that are actually fast growing -- but you might plant a mixed border with fast-growing deciduous trees (willow, poplar) and whatever sort of evergreens that you prefer; any type of really fast-growing trees are relatively short lived, so they would be ready to be taken out by the time the evergreens get to a significant size.

dyzzypyxxy said:Wow, that is really pretty, Rick. It looks like a miniature of my 35ft. bamboo clump out back here . ..

Hey, how old is that rhododendron beside it? That's a lovely combination and would be (mostly) evergreen for Antony's privacy planting, too. The bamboo never loses all its leaves here, even if we get freezing temps but it does shed leaves ALL the time, and more in winter.

>> but it does shed leaves ALL the time, and more in winter.

(excited)
And it survives long-term? I assumed that if there was much winter leaf-drop, the plant would be weakened. maybe I could gt something less cold-hardy but with thicker culms! I really wanted to harvest plant stakes and trellis poles and purlins for a hoop tunnel, but my pretty little baby is still closer to "thick grass" than to poles.

>> Hey, how old is that rhododendron beside it? That's a lovely combination

Thank you! It's actually a three-way grouping with a red Rhodie, a white Azelea, and little F. rufa.



All the flowering bushes were probably put in by the park owner decades ago.

I have an even older (I assume), tree-like Rhodie (I assume) with elaborate large blooms in a pale purple. THAT one needed severe pruning before I moved in, and now it has a long woody stem before any leaves or blooms start. Too shady, probably. Too shady to get good photos!









(There was an even more shaded Rhodie-or-something that was 90% dead when I met it - mostly sticks but some leaves. A few years later, someone "helping" me ripped it out of the ground. GRRR!!!!)

I also have another great old Rhodie, this one wdie and not so tall, WITH sun, that starts with small, dark red blooms that fade to light red, then pink, then off-white as they get bigger. We watch it closely in season to get all the color combinations. Wish I knew the name!











See the orange bush lurking int he background of the last photo? A neighbor owns it, I have no idea what it is, but that orange is COOL!

Absolutely fabulous rhodies, Rick. Very nostalgic for me as the house I grew up in, up in Vancouver BC had masses of them, and old ones like yours, too. Not in bloom, since I was there clearing out the house to be sold, but this is the last picture I have of the huge pink ones in the front driveway. There was also a massive thicket about 60ft. by 20ft. of the 'wild' rhodies with the small purple flowers.


Yes, my tall bamboo is a tropical clumping variety but when it starts to get cold at night, it just stops growing new culms and probably keeps half its leaves all winter unless it gets really cold. I definitely have all the bamboo stakes and supports I can ever use or give away . . . and it makes a really gorgeous sound in the wind, too. It might not keep very many leaves where Antony is, but where you are, Rick, it might really do fine. I also have a clump of a smaller type that is about 20ft. tall with 1/2in to 1in. thick culms that taper elegantly. That one makes awesome bean poles and stuff. I think it's known as Weaver's bamboo.

When I was very young, we had a patch of lilac, large enough for me to crawl into. Heaven!

I drool at your bamboo! Funny how fond we get of bamboo, despite its lacking blooms altogether!

Somewhere on my "ToDo" list is picking a larger bamboo variety. You convinced me it might do well even if less cold-hardy, and I DO have shady spots.

>> a massive thicket about 60ft. by 20ft. of the 'wild' rhodies with the small purple flowers.

That thicket may show up in my dreams.

I used to climb around West Rock Park in New Haven, when my legs were more functional and I was half my current age. There was a huge thicket of SOMETHING shiny and vigorous half way up the Rock - Mountain Laurel? No idea. But there it was, like a fancy-shmancy botanical planting amongst scrubby juniper and not much else growing on trap rock. Like Mother Nature waving a wand and decree-ing a stately pleasure dome in the middle of a rockpile.

She is generous!

you may also consider a vine. Some vines will grow on themselves forming a dense shrub. If you mow around them on all sides they are not invasive. They only spread where you want them to. I did this with a honey suckle-evergreen variety in zone 5. It got about 5 ft tall and wide and we just mowed around it. It grew fast and smelled so sweet when it bloomed. I had the purple leaved variety.