Dwarf Burford holly is readily available, tough as nails, and gets to be about the right height for you. They come in all size pots for all size budgets. Prettier options, if appropriate for the growing conditions, are forsythia, azalea, or camellia.

For quick cover, you could plant some smallish evergreen shrubs for long-term growth, and in between you could plant some Butterfly Bush (buddleia). Get the small, cheap ones from the Growers Outlet and they will be five feet high by the end of this summer. When the permanent shrubs get large enough, remove the buddleia.

Wax myrtle makes a nice screen and is evergreen.

Ditto: Wax Myrtle makes a nice, evergreen screen. here is mine.

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I had to block the neighbors too. I used variegated privets. They grow fast! Also stay green in the winter. Some leaves fall down in the fall but still dense enough to not be able to see the neighbors. Once established, they are low-maintaince. The variegated gives a nice color.

http://gazebo-gifts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=67

Mine are about 15 feet high now. They will go as high as you want by second yr.

Good luck.

Variegated privet can set seed and can also revert to the all green privet. Since this is a highly invasive shrub in the southeast, do us all a favor and don't choose this.

Here is a link that might be useful: Invasive plants in the southeast

Please no Privet!

Oh... I want baby ones to make other hedges. I never see baby seedlings. I've had the hedge for about 5-6 years. Guess if you wish for them, you don't get it. I love my hedge though! Would do it again anyday.

Wax Myrtle is also a great bird shrub, you'll get cedar waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers all over it in the winter.

What about Eleagnus? Or would that be a little to big for what your wanting? May want to ask about it at the nursery. And it has edible fruit you can make jelly out of. Or some primrose jasmine, blooms and gets large. trudyjean

Vnginger, ask your neighbors about seedlings. I'm plucking out privet (and eleagnus) seedlings all the time thanks to MY neighbors.

what about lorepetulum? it grows pretty fast and it has great looking foliage.

I know it's hard to imagine that privet is so invasive, even though I kept reading over and over that it was. But it really hit home when I went to a wooded park near my house. I went with my daughter and her friend for a little "walk in the woods" and I was very disheartened to realize that almost every shrub in the wood was a privet - ligustrum. Then you start to notice it everywhere almost to exclusion of other shrubs, in places that's not cultivated or taken care of. The far reaches of parks, along the highways--it's everywhere, like kudzu.

EFam, sorry your thread has been slightly hijacked. Twinkle is right about the buddleia--it is fast growing and will provide cover while you wait for slower-growing shrubs to grow (BB is invasive, too, sigh, but not as bad as other things, and named cultivars are not as bad as common butterfly bush). Most good hedging plants are somewhat slow growing. Roses, however, make great hedges and are pretty fast growing.

My current solution is to have a sweet olive and a couple of hollies and while I wait for them to grow, have set up between them shrub roses and a trellis for a variegated porcelain vine and passionvine to grow up.

Rose

I have a similar need for an informal hedge and would like advice. We have a sloping back yard (full sun on one side and part shade on the other) that I'm slowly filling with old garden roses, peonies, iris, lavender, rosemary, hydrangea, etc. The former owners had junipers along the edge of the yard but several have died and we pulled them all out a few months ago. I'd like a variety of shrubs as background for the roses and a bit of privacy from the neighbors. Was thinking about a mix of laurels, viburnum, and maybe some cryptomeria. Can anyone offer advice on shrubs for a cottage garden? Height can vary from 4 - 8 ft or so.

I sure don't mean to hijack the thread, but it is hard not to make people aware of potential problems, especially new gardeners.

Tea Olive is a lovely fragrant evergreen shrub (and can be purchased in most stores). Florida anise is also good. A new selection of Abelia was profiled in today's Home and garden section in the paper. Abelia might fit the bill for a cottage-y look.

I'm think of replacing my (inherited) privet hedge with either tea olives or gardenias. I think the gardenia would look better, but tea olives are so easy to care for. I have another hedge of tea olives, which I love. It does grow quickly for me, but it is still easy to keep in control. I usually trim it to about 3 feet this time of year (after it stops blooming) and it's back to 5 feet by the end of the summer. I know that's shorter than they would like to be, but the tea olives seem to cooperate so far. The privets on the other hand...

Actually, it was pretty funny, and a bit sad. I whipped out the hedge trimmer last night for a "quick trim". My new hedge trimmer was no match for the mighty privet though! After an hour of madness trying to tame the shrubs, I finally cut them down to the ground. I'm sure my neighbors were shocked when they woke up this morning! Now I'm think that this would be a good time to yank them out of the ground, and replace them with something more grand (and less of a white fly magnet).

What about Red Tips?...lot's of people don't care for them...but, I think they are pretty...they are fairly cheap, they grow fast, you can keep them as a shrub...or, let them grow into trees...they are an evergreen...nice color all year...and they provide privacy.

I agree with red tips ... they are great growers and have wonderful waxy dark green leaves. Look wonderful year round and would be in the price range you are looking for. I have to trim mine back in the spring and fall to keep them in bounce. But that is only because the builder put them in a spot that is MUCH to small for them. Stil .. I really like them as well!!

Oh, dear Ashli and Shines4U, Red Tips are lovely but they frequently fall victim to a terrible black spot that ruins them. A good look-alike substitute is Cleyera. It gets large enough to be a good screen.

Red Tips have problem with blight and also with extreme cold. They look good and are great, but are easily killed by the above in the Atlanta area. I vote for Cleyera also. It makes a beautiful hedge. Only problem with it, is that it is a relatively slow grower. Another alternative is Leyland Cypress, if you don't mind eventually having a 20-30 foot high hedge. My neighbor 2 doors down does for a similar problem. Wax Myrtle, various hollies, euyonomous(sp?), ligustrium, lots of stuff in the Atlanta area just depending on your taste. Agree - no privet hedge of anykind. If you do want that, you can have all you want for free from the NW corner of my woods or just about anywhere in old vacant lots.

Last spring I purchased tea olives from Grower's Outlet. There were 2 plants in each pot, so I gently separated them and planted for a hedge. They have grown well and look great. At $10 per pot ($5 per plant) what's not to love?

Here's a challenge: We would like to plant a similar hedge between us and a neighbor, about 15 ft high, but the soil is only 1ft deep there, then you hit solid rock. Would Tea olive do well there, or would it blow down in the first good storm? It would be withing 10ft of the house.

when you say solid do you mean one solid slab or just lots of rock with little or no dirt? Some things can work their roots bewteen rock you would think impossible, but there is a difference if you are talking a slab.

Who resurected this old thread anyway. Plant some short needle pines on that rock and prune 'em like they were some apartment complex Crape Myrtle!!!

Solid rock-no gaps at all. We are essentially on top of a small stone mountain with .5-1 ft of dirt on top.

I thought the same thing, vroomp! This was my first post ever...