Just bumping this as I was hoping to gather some opinions before I head to the nursery today.

Any thoughts on the willow hybrid also known as the austree? Found this listed as a privacy tree on fastgrowingtrees.com

Whoa NHBabs that looks amazing! Thanks for the detailed information. Makes sense about the willow hybrid I'll stay away from it. I'm ok with diversity in terms of conifers. The larger the better in terms of height but width max limits me with the neighbors nearby.

I do prefer all year round privacy.

Oh yeah, Babs. Very nicely done.

tj

SVT,

I agree with the aus trees- you will not be happy in time. One willow we've used here and does quite well is Salix alba 'Britzensis'. If you have some clay in your soil it will grow incredibly fast and the winter effect is outstanding. If they get too large you can always cut them back however far you would like and they will send new vigorous shoots out. I had to take ours out several years ago to make room for nursery stock. It was around 15 years old and probably 40 feet tall by 15 feet wide.

If going for a mixed border and wanting to start with decent sized material that is somewhat unique, try and find a retailer that orders from Beaver Creek Nursery in Poplar Grove Illinois. They have an incredible amount of unique plant material in really good starting sizes (about any size you would want).

If going for a mixed border here are some great varieties for the Midwest:

Shrubs:

Bottlebrush Buckeye, Sugar Shack Buttonbush, Cardinal or Isanti Dogwood, American Hazelnut, Mount Airy Fothergilla, Vernal Witch Hazel, Limelight/Quickfire/Firelight/Vanilla Strawberry Panicle Hydrangea, Prairie Flame/Tiger Eyes Sumac, Amber Jubilee/Lady in Red/Lemon Candy Ninebark, Miss Kim Lilac, Blackhaw/Judd/Mohican/Ironclad/Arrowwood Viburnum

Grasses:

Northwind Switch Grass, Gracillimus/Morning Light Maiden Grass

Small Trees:

Three-Flower Maple, Paperbark Maple, Northwind Maple, Corneliancherry Dogwood, Crabapples, Paw-Paw, American Hornbeam (Native Flame is very nice), Pagoda Dogwood, Magnolias, China Snow Lilac, Regal Prince or other Columnar Oaks, Dakota Pinnacle Birch,

Evergreens:

Royal Splendor or Cupressina Norway Spruce, Bush's Lace or Fritsche Engelmann Spruce, The Limey/Weeping/North Star White Spruce, Silberblue Serbian Spruce, Bonnie Blue or Iseli Fastigiate Blue Spruce, Swiss Stone Pine (any cultivar), Tannenbaum Mugo Pine, Japanese White Pine (many varieties)

If going for the mixed border effect take some time to design it and really think about the plants you want in the space. You could also simplify by doing blocks of plants that will (in combination) provide coverage but would make the planting scheme easier to layout/plan. Good luck!

Bruce

One other deciduous shrub I forgot to mention is Spicebush, Lindera benzoin, which grows fine in Cleveland as well as NH so I imagine will do well in Chicago.

A great resource for you is the Chicago Botanic Garden. Besides visiting to see what various plants look like now and once they have leaves, they have some online plant evaluations that may be useful in evaluating a few types of plants. The Missouri Botanical Garden has a plant finder that will offer plant suggestions when you add desired qualities, and then you can go to more detailed descriptions of each plant which usually give any problems that they have observed in St. Louis. Visiting a lot of local nurseries can give you an idea of what is available and how much you will need to spend.

Since you want year round privacy, consider some of the more densely twiggy shrubs and small trees such as full-sized forsythia or ninebark, which IME provide good screening even when there aren't any leaves on them. With the width you have between your home and your neighbor's you can fit more than one layer of plants, and if staggered, they can provide a fairly solid screen. Think about using some trees for height, and consider using some fastigate or columnar types which will be less wide. Sometimes they are quite dense as well. You may end up with only conifers, but you may decide that you want some deciduous plants for variety.

To design mine, I visited a lot of nurseries to see what evergreens were available since I knew I wanted them larger than mail order size. (All other plants were quite small when planted.) I had a height limit of ~15' due to the solar panels to their north. I knew that I wanted several different colors to provide winter interest, and I wanted both conifers and broadleafed evergreens such as rhododendrons and Kalmia (mountain laurels). I wanted the rhythm of repeating them along the length of the bed rather than a random one of this and one of that so I needs multiples of most of them. Once I found what I wanted I arranged the bed in real life, moving pots around on my prepared bed and looking at it from various angles and keeping in mind the plants' ultimate width (usually given at 10 years so unless you want to replace this, keep in mind the long term width.) When I was happy with it I got out the shovel. For the first few years I had more tall perennials in the middle of the bed to fill spaces between the shrubs, but most of those are gone now (shaded out or moved elsewhere) as the woodies have achieved more size.

I do have another bed that is all one kind of conifer planted in a row, spaced so they have grown together, but I have a bed of smaller deciduous blooming shrubs and perennials that runs across the front of it, and this might be another option for you if you don't like the green wall of one conifer species. I have the green wall in winter, and it provides the backdrop to a flower garden in summer.

I know you want to get going on this, but IME planning well and doing good bed prep is important. I usually do the soil prep (in my case loosening compacted soil and adding a massive amount of organic matter on the surface for the worms to start incorporating) over the summer while I am planning and scouting out plants, and then do my actual buying and planting in the fall. The advantages of fall planting for me are that it's easier on the plants and on my pocketbook. Plants go on sale in the fall, often 30-50% off around here, and the soil is warm while the air is cooler, so the plant is less stressed. I haven't lost a single fall planted woody. After planting, I always add mulch to help keep moisture even and temperatures warmer through the first fall to encourage root growth. I edge to bed to prevent grass from growing in. Once the plants have grown for several years, they provide enough shade so that new mulch isn't usually needed for weed prevention IME.

Thanks for all of the detailed information Bruce and NHBabs. I'll have some time to plan as I need to remove the entire fence. Layout and planning is key. I'll start with the larger confiers and will work trees and shrubs around it. Tons of research to do! Thanks again.

I'll add some conifers that will fit very nicely between your house and your neighbor's house for height w/o being too wide:

Abies concolor 'Fastigiata'

Pinus cembra 'Stricta' (slow growing however) aka 'Fastigiata' (same plant)

Juniperus virginiana 'Taylor'

Picea abies 'Hillside Upright'

Pinus strobus 'Stowe Pillar'

Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Strict Weeper' (Cupressus nootkatensis is correct but nursery tags will never change.)

Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns'

Dax

Good stuff Dax!

Good. Of course mentioned above:

Picea glauca 'Pendula'

Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace'

Dax

I picked up 4 Thuja "green giants" today which are about 3 feet tall. They were purchased from Menards a big box store but they look excellent and were small so figured I'd give it a shot.

I had time to visit one nursery today and they had the following in stock which they thought would be a good start to building a living fence.

1. autumn jazz viburnum (any feedback on this plant??) This seemed quite interesting in terms of building a hedge fence while adding conifer's in conjunction with it.

2. mountbatten juniper

3. Thuja "green giants" 8 foot(although after doing some research on here I should avoid B&B plants) They also had a good amount of brown leaves.

4. Paul's select Norway Spruce

I still have to pay a visit to Rich's Foxwillow Pines and possibly a couple of other nurseries. The research and planning continues.

Just a few comments on the Autumn Jazz viburnum:

It is a selection of V. dentatum, and AKA 'Ralph Senior' - Autumn Jazz is a marketing name, so you may see it listed as either or both together.

If you want berries you will need another selection or a wild type of V. dentatum or one of the viburnums that is closely related enough to pollinate it. On the shrub forum somewhere in the range of 5-10 years ago there were a bunch of threads on what Viburnums are able to pollinate which others.

In my area there is an imported pest, the viburnum leaf beetle, Pyrrhalta viburni, which really loves V. dentatum more than some of the other viburnums. I eventually removed mine at about this time of year and burned the remains to kill off the eggs since the leaves always looked like Swiss cheese. You should check if this pest is an issue in your area. Not all viburnums are quite as popular with the beetles - I have 4 other species on my property that only get a few nibbles.

Thanks again NHBabs! Pests is something I didn't even consider. I'll start looking into it.

If while up at Rich's Foxwillow Pines you might visit Lake County Pines. As far as I know they do not have a website but their contact info. is easily accessible on Google.

One last comment: both of these places sell larger specimens and you'd need quite a lot of hauling room. Rich's will have smaller specimens too in 1-gallon, 2-gallon, 3, & 5's but they aren't the majority. You should call ahead before you consider going to either of these two places to get an idea of pricing and tree/shrub sizes.

Dax

Thanks Dax...nothing like knocking out two birds with one stone. I'll call in advance to see what they might have in stock that will fit in my minivan.

Is 'Paul's Select' Norway spruce a grafted cultivar-anybody know? Interesting plant, and not well-known it seems.

From what I know of it, yes it is grafted. It is bluish but definitely not approaching the blue of a pungens. I'm curious to know if it is actually a true P. abies rather than a hybrid. Color is quite different from straight P. abies.

Sure is. As you may know, a blue-phase Picea abies is kind of a holy grail kind of thing here for a few of us weirdos. Not to say the dark green "normal" coloration is lacking in anything. I like that just fine! But say there was in fact a NS-like tree but in the blue phase.......well as I always say, that would be something! Dax is working with some Picea obovata which are said to be very close to NS in many respects. The cultivar 'Arctos' is the specific item. Now because I'm less interested than many here in what can be accomplished through grafting, although it is impressive, I'd most like for there to be a land race or "seed strain" of Picea obovata with the glaucous thing going on. But in the mean time.....interest in that cultivar is high. This 'Paul's Select' is yet another variation on that theme.

Sounds like something to look forward to in the future.

According to Google it looks like Lake County Pines is closed permanently. Anyone know if that's correct?

I stopped by richs earlier this week....amazing place! Yes I saw that lake county pines was closed as well.