Tinyrose - I have no experience growing citrus, but I was at the nursery today on the same mission: screening us from a neighbor's house. In our case, we were thinking of a lime. I looked at the citrus section, where they had a helpful sign about the difference between "Dwarf", "Semi-Dwarf", and "Standard". As I recall, the "Semi-Dwarf" was 10' to 20', and the "Standard" was 20' to 30'. I may have this a little bit wrong, but it gives an idea. The bad news is that when I asked the nurseryman about it, he said it would take years for the tree to reach those mature heights. Years is what we don't have (also, I'm not sure if he was talking about the lime tree, or about citrus in general). HOWEVER -- maybe someone more knowledgeable will chime in on this topic with better information.

Valencia (or any citrus) growth rate depends upon so many factors. Root stock is one of them. Soil type, planting conditions, water, etc. blah blah. HOWEVER...let's say that you purchase Valencia on an appropriate root stock, and that all of the planting conditions are good! You can expect an average of about a foot to 18 inches of new growth per year (which would be a moderate rate).

If you purchase larger trees, the growth will be very slow for the first couple of years, after which they will begin to play catch-up. Smaller trees get going much earlier, shifting into high gear in very short order.

Remember that it is not good for any plant to be over fertilized in order to achieve an accerated growth rate.