Ezzirah,

There's all kinds of shrubs that might work but in order to suggest one, I need to know how tall you want it to be. I don't want to suggest something that will get 12' or 15' tall if what you have in mind is something that gets 5' tall without severe pruning needed to maintain it at that height.

Dawn

And just how much privacy are you looking for? Do you want a solid evergreen hedge or would you like a mix of evergreens with blooming deciduous shrubs for spring color?

Well, I really don't want it to get more than 5' tall, that is for sure, not a lot of pruning, pretty easy maintain. And It doesn't have to make a solid "wall" like an evergreen would, but thick enough to give some privacy. I realize I am being very vague, but I really don't know anything about brushes...

It would have to be farely heat tolerant, as you know.

My mom loves bridal wreath spirea for that purpose. Personally, it's not for me. Granted, it has pretty blooms for a brief time in the spring. It is deciduous in the winter. No pruning. She has lengthened her hedge by snipping off pieces and sticking them in the ground. Easy enough.

At only 5ft tall you won't have much privacy though. I can look over a 5 ft tall fence flatfooted and a tall man could even easier. And that is going to limit your choices. A 6-7 ft tall hedge would allow for the spirea that seedmama mentioned. You could also add in some forsythia, kerria, mockorange, quince, lilac for spring color. Most of them get 6-7ft. Dawn will know more about evergreens, but some of the hollies and euonymous would work, I would think. There are varieties that stay around 6-7ft or even shorter wthout trimming. English boxwood grows slowly and stays mounded which is pretty.

I got to thinking of it, and I do want some spring color, most of my yard will be a vegetable garden, if that matters any...

There are some new Weigelas that would be great for early spring blooms. Also Abelias are care free blooming shrubs that will attract the beneficials for your veggie garden, as well as butterflies and hummingbirds. I know Lowe's carried them last year.

I'm in the same spot as you, Ezzirah. I've been planning a hedge along a chain link fence (running along the street side of my property) for years now and haven't been able to settle. I finally had all the small trees cut down from the fence, and now I've got this ugly wreck of a chain link fence that is damaged and, well, an ugly wreck that's about 300 feet long.

I could save up and put in a picket fence, but that would cost about $4,000. I've looked at privet, which is traditional, but the privet hedges at a few older houses in my neighborhood look kinda sad. I think you have to really work at a privet to make it look wonderful. Plus, it must be sheared or it will get out of control.

Red-tipped photinia grows quicklyif you consider 4-5 years quickÂbut it can just as quickly get leaf spot disease and dieÂor every other one does. Despite photina not being a recommended hedge anymore, the golf course down the street from me planted a huge, long string of them next to a cyclone several years ago. They are starting to fill in. My folks have a few photinia and I've noticed that once they are mature (about 5-10 years old) they grow about 2 feet per year and need shearing. They do look great, though, once sheared and shaped.

I've planted euonymous as a foundation hedge, and I've noticed that those that get full sun are not as healthy as those that are shaded from the high-noon sun and late evening sun. I'm cautious about these plants....plus, they are very expensive and don't grow all that quickly (like photinia, they require maybe 5 or more years).

I went so far as to buy a huge amount of pampas grass seed before nixing that idea. Pampas can be a fire hazard and invasive. The sharp leaves are a great deterrent, but cutting them down every few years with a cyclone fence in the middle of them would be a catastrophe, I think. I've decided to do the environment (and my neighbors) a favor and withhold planting the pampas grass.

Grape vines work great and grow quickly and their gnarly vine trunks have great winter interest, but on my grave vines I've had to deal with some sort of caterpillar that will strip them of their leaves in no time. I think it may be the "Western Grapeleaf Skeletonizer" aka Harrisina brillans. In any case the vines are going to need to be sprayed this year. So that isn't the perfect solution for a cyclone fence, either. Other vines to consider are moonvine, morning glory, and purple hyacinth beans or scarlet runner beans. That's only an annual solution, though. Oh, then there's clematis, but I don't think it will do well in the full fury of an Oklahoma June, July, and AugustÂit needs to keep its feet cool.

Personally, I think I've settled on a very traditional rambling rose solution. As you probably know, "rambling" roses bloom only once in a year, but they are quick, quick growers. Upon someone's recommendation in the Rose forum I've selected roses from the Wichurana family--Alberic Barbier, Aviateur Bleriot, Francois Juranville, Leontine Gervais. I've personally had success with the Mme Alfred Carrière rose, which is a climber (blooms repeatedly). So, I'm going to bite the bullet and plant these and spray for black spot.

I may also plant Rosa filipes "Kiftsgate", also a rambling rose. The largest one in existence is in England. It is 80 feet x 90 feet by 50 feet high. Clearly, you would want to trim this one every now and then to keep it in balance...Personally, though, I doubt it would grow that large here in Oklahoma. Too hot, too cold, too many bugs, too little moisture....

So, in sum, there are lots of bad choices. Photinias get leaf spot, privet gets ugly, pampas and other grasses are a fire hazard, grape vines get caterpillars, and roses get black spot. Oh, well....there is always bamboo, but you don't want to go there or do that....

I was looking around on line yesterday and some burning bush variety looks lovely and I love the color! I was thinking of alternating them with something that grows white in the spring and summer. I was looking at the lilac, very pretty. I am concerned the lilac would attract a lot of bees, of which my hubby is very allergic. So I am leary of anything flowering.

I did think of bamboo..but man, I hear it goes crazy!!

Ezzirah,

The type of shrub I have found to grow best and have the best disease resistance as well as tolerance to drought, once established, and also the ability to hold a heavy snow load without breaking is the holly. There are many types of hollies. Some are evergreen and some are deciduous. My favorite one is Dwarf Burford, which is dwarf ONLY in comparison to regular burford holly, which is tree-sized.

The Dwarf Burford hollies we planted about 8 or 10 years ago are now about 10' tall and 4' wide. (Don't believe the plant labels that say Dwarf Burford gets 5' tall and 3' wide because that simply is not true.) We spaced them very widely to begin with (and far enough away from the house that they wouldn't be crowded) so they've been able to grow to their natural pyramidal shape and are quite lovely. Because they are very dense, they provide a thick privacy screen and lots of birds nest in them in the winter, so they're helpful to wildlife. Sometimes in the spring and summer, hummers build nests in them, which I consider a 'bonus'. They bloom for a brief period in spring and the flowers are tiny and quite inconspicuous, but you would have bees around for a couple of weeks a year. Most hollies produce lovely berries, providing you have a pollinator around. So, a holly of some sort would get my vote for a privacy hedge, and there are dozens to choose from. Among them are regular Burford holly, which is said to get 10' tall and 10' wide, but which actually seems to get 15-20' tall; Possumhaw Holly, a deciduous native holly that has very showy orange, yellow or red berries, and Yaupon holly, available in tall and dwarf versions. I've linked a website below that features many, many plants that are great for Oklahoma and you could look through their listings for shrub ideas.

Other than hollies, there are many possibilities.

We have Southern Wax Myrtle and really like it, but it does sometimes develop freeze damage on the foliage when temps drop below about 15 degrees and is a bit more prone to limb breakage in heavy snowfall or high wind.

Glossy Abelia (Abelia grandiflora) is a lovely semi-evergreen shrub with a mounding shape. The commonly found ones grow into a huge mound shape that is about 5' tall and 5' wide. The foliage is green and turns purplish in winter. If you can find it, the cultivar 'Edward Goucher" has showy but small pink flowers and stays a little smaller, maybe 4' tall and 2' to 4' wide.

There are many kinds of Junipers that come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Some are more upright and some are more mounding. Some are so short they're really more a ground cover than a shrub.

Crape Myrtles are available in a wide range of sizes and flower colors. They are deciduous and go in and out of bloom all summer long. Their trunks are particularly lovely with their exfoliating bark.

Nandina is an often overlooked shrub. The common form, Nandina Domestica, gets about 5' tall and about 3' wide or maybe a little wider. There are shorter versions available, so if you choose nandina, be sure to get the taller one. The foliage ranges in color from greens to yellowish-greens to reds to reddish-purples.

Viburnum is another shrub that's not planted as often. Here at our house we have Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum, a native that can attain tree size, although it takes it a while to get tall. A compact evergreen form of Virburnum is Viburnum tinus 'Spring Bouquet'. This shrub is an evergreen with dark green leaves on reddish-green stems and flowers thatoccur in white, fragrant clusters in springtime, followed by blue berries in late summer. It will get about 5' tall and about 4' wide, is drought tolerant and has few pest or disease issues.

You'll find many, many kinds of shrubs available in nurseries and garden centers. Some of them require a lot of water and others need lots of pruning or have to be babied through our summer heat, so research carefully before you buy.

The plants on the website below are well-adapted to most of the state and I love using this website as a resource when trying to find a specific plant for a specific place or purpose. I don't often see Sooner Plant Farms products in nurseries or garden centers down here in southcentral OK, but you're likely to find them in stores in central and northestern OK.

Dawn

Thanks for the link Dawn, it really is fantastic site.

I walked out this morning in the backyard and discovered my neighbor on her side of the fence is also planting something. I don't know what, but she is infamous for sneaking on to other people's property and taking cuttings of their plants without their permission. (as well as pouring round up on the neighbors on the other side...as she admitting to me, she did it because the bush was creeping into her property!!! I was astonished she admitted it to me!) I realize this is impossible to answer not know what she is planting, but I am concerned it will just choke off the roots to whatever I am planting. How could I keep that from happening?

Last year spademilllane wrote, "Friends don't let friends plant bamboo." I love that line.

Ezzirah,

Unless she plants it right up against the fence, the roots shouldn't wander too far.

With a neighbor like that, maybe you should put up a hedge of prickley pear cactus (Opuntia) or Trifoliate Orange (the thorniest trees on earth) or Pyrancantha (also very thorny). No, I'm just kidding about that. I think.

The only way to prevent root encroachment if it bothers you is to dig down 18-24" and put in (ironically enough) a material sold as a bamboo barrier to contain bamboo roots. I'll link a photo of one to show you. I wouldn't go to all that trouble though, because her plants will only send out roots so far and they'd have to be really, really aggressive to choke out the roots of whatever you plant.

Dawn

Dawn, funny you should mention Trifoliate Orange. I used to have two of them. I removed the first one with one week's worth of work and a dictionary of sailor's swear words.


I have another one out by the barn/guest house that sits there--out of sight, out of mind--where it slowly grows larger and more deadly. There are hundreds of tiny Trifoliates underneath the mother tree. The guinea hens like to build their nests among the thorns of the small plants.


Here are two pictures of it:


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This one shows more of the thorns:

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I hear the fruit makes a wonderful British-style (i.e. very bitter) marmalade.

Dawn - yes, she plants right smack up against the fence, as a matter of fact, I am about going to have to "shave" some of what she planted almost in half (the half that hangs over on my side of the fence) to get my plants in. I spoke to someone who was a local building inspector he told me if it is on my side of the fence "whack it", but only what hangs over on my side of the fence. Some of them are of considerable size...

Robert,

Oh, I cannot believe you have one. You have EVERYTHING there!

I saw a photo once of a trifoliate orange fence. They planted those killer trees about two feet from one another, and every year, using chain saws and, I assume, wearing suits of armor, they cut them back almost to bare trunks....you know, I think the term would be that the trees were pollarded. It made an incredibly dense fence that absolutely nothing could penetrate. Personally, I wouldn't plant that kind of fence, but if I had a neighbor like Ezzirah's, I might be tempted to do so.

Ezzirah,

A neighbor like that would drive me insane. Actually, we had a neighbor like that in Fort Worth, except the trees weren't actually anything they planted....they were hackberry trees that had grown up near the fence line in their yard many years earlier when it was her mother's house. It was an older neighborhood (the neighborhood in which I had grown up) and the trees were very tall and had grown right through the chain link fence so the fence was embedded inside the trees. First we put up a wooden privacy fence, so we didn't have to look at the tree trunks with the fence right in the middle of them. Then, whenever the trees came over the privacy fence, I pruned the limbs back, and I pruned them up as high as I could reach with a pole pruner to give us more sun. Did she like it? No, but she didn't like anyone or anything, so it was just one more thing to make her unhappy. Some people are determined to be 'difficult' and it sounds like you may have that kind of neighbor, which is just so unfortunate.

I feel like we're pretty lucky. We're in our early 50s now, and that really was the only truly unpleasant neighbor we've ever had. All the neighbors we have here in our little rural community are WONDERFUL and I am so thankful that we have kind, gracious, friendly, loving neighbors. It makes life so much more pleasant. Remember the old saying "Good fences make good neighbors."

Good luck with the neighbor/fence/tree issue. I suspect it may cause you some frustration.

Dawn

FWIW, I just planted a 20' row of arborvitae for privacy and i'm quite happy with the way it turned out. Ours was planted to give us some privacy along our deck from our nosy retired neighbor. My partner mentioned something about finally being able to sunbathe nude :)... But it will most likely be about 3 years before they grow in enough for that. Too bad for me...

I also planted a hedge of Golden Euonymus that i'm really happy with. Those bright yellow leaves really brighten up the landscape.

Someone mentioned burning bush a few posts back. I wanted to plant some but haven't been able to find any in the local nurseries. Maybe it's still too early. Has anyone else seen any in the OKC area?

-Matt

I am thinking I am going to have to order the burning bush plant. The abortvitae maybe too big for my property, but it is a good idea.

I am also trying to decide what to plant along a chain link fence. Our neighbors are not bad, but I think there are times we would both like a little privacy. And they have the brightest lights for their driveway and back door. So bright we call it "the prison yard". I have decided to focus on edible plants. They won't be right up next to the fence, because I want to be able to maintain all sides of the plants. This year blackberries and raspberries are going in (ok- late, but this is the year finally). I am considering put in some fruit trees and using the Dave Wilson method to keep them shorter to fit in my yard- but tall enough for some privacy. I will probably mix in some ornamentals like butterfly bush, and ? That is a project for the next few years, and "privacy" is the key word for negotiating more space for planting in the yard with DH. Of course you may not want edibles if your neighbor is going to poison them with you don't know what.

Andria

I did think of edibles, simply because if she can pick something off it and get benefit from it, she may not be as apt to poison it. But I understand Blackberries tend to get out of hand and grow all over the place, is that true? I hear raspberries cannot grow here....is that true?

Ezzirah, I would imagine that blackberries might have the potential to spread somewhat vigorously in great soil, but I have heavy, dense red clay so even in well-amended clay where they produce very well, they haven't gotten out of hand.

Raspberries are incredibly iffy here because in general they don't produce well in very hot climates. Some people in northeastern OK have had what I'll call moderate success with them, but most people I know who've tried them get nowhere near the production from them that they do from blackberries. I consider both blackberries and dewberries to be the easiest fruit to grow in Oklahoma. Figs are pretty easy too in zone 7, but maybe not so reliable in zone 6.

Dawn

By george I think we got a plan...the bushes would give her something to mooch off of the side of the fence that faces her, and it would give privacy, and grow a berry I love. My hubby hates them...So a couple carefully placed, may get the job done....

brilliant!

I've also heard raspberries can be difficult, because of the heat here. But the same neighbors I would like privacy from have grown them- and the gardener is my neighbors Dad who comes over intermittently. So if THEY can do it, so can I. A berry grower at the farmer's market told me that full sun was not required for blackberries or raspberries. He suggested as little as 5-6 hours would be enough. I'm planting on the east side of a shed, so we'll see in a few years. I do know that the raspberry I got last Aug from next door was the most heavenly fruit I have ever tasted. hmmm.....