Privacy Shrub, green, leafy, fast growing?
 

Please suggest a fast growing, green leafy shrub for privacy?

Thank you.

Starflyte, before you go and start planting be sure to get ARC approval, we were looking into hedges at the back yard and found out that we would not be allowed due to deed restrictions.

Podocarpus grow fast and thick, are very resilient, are easy to trim, and make excellent privacy hedges. We have them on both sides of our birdcage/pool and are very happy with them.

If you get the o.k. from ARC, just buy mature greenery that's already at or near your desired height.

Whatever you use, don't jam it up against your screen, move them as far away as you can for many reasons. Health of the shrub(horticulture), airflow for you(engineering), and depth of vision(artist/designer) are some of those reasons.

Sage will typically look rough once you begin "hedge" trimming. Better as large stand -alone shrub, and a slow grower. Rainy weather can be a problem.

Podocarpus is by far the best for trimmable hedge for most TV homes, med. fast grower. Widely available in many sizes, but get a good warrantee because planted well you will lose 5-10%, and most installers these days are in a hurry for that big $$. Am seeing survival rates around 40-60% more often than not. Get through the initial couple months though, and it is a VERY resilient shrub in this area.

If you have the room for width, Viburnum O. very fast grower.. and gets faster. High maintenance. Viburnum S would grow slower but less maint. in the future. Walter's Viburnum is a slow grower. All will bloom nicely if you can keep the trimmers off them for a year...most can't.

In my designs I prefer to opt for a few large items, chinese fan palms, mature ligustrum trees, podocarpus (depends on location and topography, maint. wishes etc.). This often is the same price as side by side hedges, and much better looking, and WAY less maintenance.

If your "landscaper" suggests bottlebrush side by side... send them along to the next victim.

Sweet Viburnum is VERY fast growing and makes a good hedge. BUT, be aware that they are really fast growing. If you are not careful, a 12 inch bush planted in your yard will be 8-10 feet in height within a couple years. I don't think that I have ever seen anything grow so fast, other than bamboo.

Thanks!
 

Thanks to all! I really appreciate it! Now to study.

We have 4 Ligustrum's as privacy in our back yard. They grow fairly quickly and give great privacy.

Podocarpus is what I went with. Home Depot has a deal where you buy more than 12, the price per unit drops. I bought the smaller ones (about 2 feet tall) because they're quite a bit cheaper than the larger ones, so I won't have an actual privacy hedge for about 2-3 years. I am OK with that though. The price of the taller ones, which were about 4 feet tall, was almost $50 each. The 2 footers were only $17 each, $14 if you buy more than 12. As I understand it, they can grow 1.5 to 2 feet per year. Underneath it (not shown in the picture) I went with pine straw because it's super cheap. You can pick up pine straw bales for five dollars apiece at a place down in Leesburg, off of 441. I forget the name though.

I was going to go 2 foot off the property line, which is the minimum setback, but after I called to have the utilities marked I had to plant them closer to the lanai to avoid hitting any underground utilities.

Copper top sweet viburnum. I bought mine at Lowe’s in the fall. They don’t get as large as sweet viburnum

Check out the UF/IFAS plant app: FFL Plants.

Looks like you did a good job and should have a nice hedge over time. It’s great to have so much room to easily walk around the hedges when they get big and you have to trim them a couple times per year.

Now that our hedges are fully grown it’s probably not necessary, but during their rapid growth stage it helps to fertilize them. I used a slow release granular palm fertilizer from Lowel’s and sprinkled some on the ground above the roots in the early spring and again in the early fall. Also, we have a hose attachment that sprays a water and liquid miracle grow mix. I sprayed the entire row of plants with the mixture two or three times per year. Within three years we had a decent privacy hedge and after four years it was completely full.

That's great advice, I never thought about fertilizing them. Thanks!

This is sweet viburnum planted in late 2021 along our fence. I prune back to fence height about 2-3 times each year.

When first planted it was about 3/4 of the current height and uneven. First prune after the flowers set in early spring.

Had several homes at several states, never had a place that I wanted a fence or hedges. Like the open view