Ficus Nitida is a little slower growing than Oleander and requires a bit more water. Citrus (Grapefruit) trees have dense canopy and also make good hedges.

Many bamboos grow very high and create dense clumps, Arundo is very fast growing.

A neighbour in n.phx had like 30-40 column ficus nitida. Looked real pretty..like a ficus nitida wall. The freeze in feb (26-28 deg) last year killed half of them. I lost 2 ficus nitida trees same time.

You should check out the thread "Can someone please help about vines" (I think that's it). We are talking about Lady Banks roses as a good privacy hedge. That's what I planted to cover an ugly chain link fence alone the alley behind our house. It has filled in exceptionally in just two years. Low litter, needs little water once established and is evergreen.

On the other two sides of the yard we planted Yellow Oleander (Lucky Nut, Thevetia), it's a cousin of the true oleander. It's a much prettier bush than traditional oleander: deep green, very shiny leaves. Very pretty when a breeze ripples through. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of them the first winter (2006) due to the freeze mentioned above. Some have come back strong, we completely lost 3 and the rest are just not performing that well. Wish we had planted all Lady Banks. BTW, we have 450' of ugly chain link we are trying to cover. That's a lot of holes to dig!

I love my olander! I have a hedge of them about 600 feet in Cave Creek. I have them on drip but I don't give them that much water. They stay green all summer with beautiful flowers. They were much cheaper than the fence I needed.
None of them died during the big freeze last year either.
Mickey

I just put in a hedge using photina. It has lovely red and green foliage and is not fussy. I mixed a couple of cassias in the line for interest.