Show a picture of the overall space in such a way that it corroborates your objectives.

A photo would help, but in reality, a fence with plants in front of it is your best bet given your limitations of shade from trees and deer. Very few plants will grow densely enough in deep shade to provide real privacy, especially year round and especially if you have deer which will eat many plants if they are hungry enough in winter. This may be compounded by root competition from trees, especially if they are maples or other shallow rooted species.

Bamboo is good, but I would grow them in big containers, they are very invasive and hard to control otherwise

Whoops pics

There are clumping bamboos, but I don't know how well they do in shade. And it's also important for us to know what types of trees you have. Maples are a real problem, oaks, sycamores not so much.

I second installing a fence. I have an area I wanted to screen out that gets a good amount of sun, and it is still taking ages for plants to grow. Now I have all the plants in AND still got the fence. The cost of planting multiple mature plants is comparable to fencing anyway.

As for plants, my neighbor has mock oranges (Philadelphus) that are in the shade between our lots, and the deer dont bother them. I dont know what species exactly but they were blooming in early june.

Clumping bamboo does great in heavy shade - there's a section of American University in DC where the sun never shines, and the clumping bamboo is awesome - but I'd ask around to see if it would actually get anywhere near the height you want. Mine was 30-36" when planted at my house 8 years ago, it *might* be squeaking in at 60" today (we're in zone 7a).

For that kind of height, especially w/ deer pressure, your best bet for real privacy is a fence (as others have mentioned). Pretty much anything is going to thin out over time in the shade.

Here's a picture of the area that needs privacy screening, it is the open area in the center under the trees.

Is the farther away rock wall that is under the trees on your property or your neighbor’s? I guess I am puzzled by the photo because from the photo, my impression is that you would just be hiding tree trunks. So I don’t understand the need for screening. Are you looking at planting behind the tree in the center and in front of the far rock wall? Can you put some stakes where you want the shrubs and perhaps explain more about what you want to screen and where the property line is?

Unless there is something that is not shown from the photo provided, I see no immediate need for additional screening......what is already there seems to be doing a perfectly reasonable job :-)

As to the bamboo, it does make an excellent privacy screen. And clumping bamboos are not at all invasive and do not require containment. They are also quite cold tolerant (some to zone 5) and would prefer at least some shade, especially in the afternoon. Look at any of the Fargesia species and select according to desired height.

some ideas:

To make the photo and the need for screening understandable, the photo should be taken pointing so that the objectionable view to, or view from, is shown. Here, all we see is serenity ... but no eyes (windows) of peering neighbors or ugly cell tower in the background. So it's still a mystery.

I'll explain better.

The property line just before the rock wall, which is on my neighbor's lot, and is not much of a wall. Their backyard lies a little higher than mine, and this wall is maybe a foot-and-a-half high and is part of a landscaping feature in their yard.

As to the need for screening, the need is not so much aesthetic to block out an ugly view as a practical necessity. Simply put, I don't want their kids running into my backyard. I have a hot tub on my deck (which as abovementioned, lies lower than their yard) and they are nosy enough to look into my yard and keep an eye on us. Until very recently the homeowners next door were an elderly couple who very much kept to themselves and I appreciated the privacy of the existing shrubbery and didn't feel a need for more. Now that there is a rambunctious family next door without a healthy appreciation for privacy and boundaries, there needs to be a more comprehensive screen. While part of the property line has plenty of shrubbery (right side of photo) the empty space under the trees is actually quite large and overlooks our deck and a good chunk of our back yard.

Good fences make good neighbors. I don't want to antagonize them by putting up an ugly fence or an ugly fight. I mentioned to her that I would be putting up a living screen and she seemed amenable to that.

Photo below shows where fence/screen should be, behind the foremost trees. The blue line is the approximate property line.

Where are you? (Nearest large city.)

Lower Hudson Valley. Closest large city is NYC, about a half hour drive southward.

Which way does this face, and do you know what the tree in the middle is?

It is going to be difficult to establish large plants there. So how quickly something is going to grow is important. Mountain laurel would be good, but is slow growing. Our deer love rhododendrons and holly, so I'd ask locally about those. Though since I am about an hour north of you, it is possible for our deer to become your deer, and take their dining preferences with them. Actually, there is very, very little that is evergreen that our deer will not eat, including things that I've been told by people in other areas are completely deer-proof. Currently the list is boxwood and bamboo for things that are consistently above the snowline.

Maybe you could add Hick's Yew to Babs recommendations. I don't know what deer think of it, though.

Yew is the only thing in my yard that gets eaten by deer.

Am I the only one who cares how the deers feel? They have needs, too!

Prickly barberries? A low cedar fence? (Cedar because it will be inconspicuous.)
It sounds like you need the message of a boundary more than something opaque?
I understand your dilemma, wanting to be a good neighbour but still protect your privacy and relaxation time. It sounds like the kids want an invitation to join you in the hot tub...

...sympathy!

Red twig dogwood; I have one in full shade that's about 8 feet tall. Or viburnums; again mine are quite tall and thick.

I like the Viburnum suggestion, though you will have to research varieties and whether there are Viburnum beetles in your area and if so reasearch resistant species. I have several V. plicatum cultivars in varying amounts of shade and they grow and bloom well, but autumn color lacks the intensity of those in more light. I also have a couple species of native Viburnums that grow well in shade, so it would be worth researching which do well in your area in shade.

Not knowing just how much the deer will eat any Mountain Laurel and Native (or hybrid Rhodies) how about some Hemlock trees, it looks like you just may have some Hemlock trees already. There is also the Pieris Japonica. Sarah Berger, I am guessing you are at least zone 6a hardiness, but... if you are 7a (you MAY be 6b, but IF you are 7a, you will have MANY more options) I only can think of Mountain Laurel and Rhodies, and Hemlock, at least as far as shade tolerant (or loving) shade plants for zone 6a. Or the Pieris Japonica. But, I'm sure there are many other plants, well, I do also have a clumping Bamboo in a corner of my yard, and it does well in the shade of my Peach tree, and being on the corner of the NORTH of my yard, I have Hazelnut shrubs to the south of this clumping bamboo, so it is really in just about ALL SHADE, but, if you are in zone 7a, maybe even zone 6b, you may be able to grow a whole other world of shade plants then I ever could, good luck.

I will mention that I am trying to have some small Native Rhodies grow under some trees and with the deers pentiant for eating them, I am trying to put some fencing around them, but, I also have some small oak seedlings I am trying to fence around, but, hey, if deer really want to munch on them, all but, the highest, or toughest fencing will surely fail, so I really want to know, is there something I can apply every couple weeks, or even weekly to protect my small oaks, and these young Rhodies?

And of course this will help the original poster here.

I have a similar issue and am in Westchester County. We planted rhododendrons and 4 ft tall ostrich ferns near our property line. They've only been in a few weeks so I cant report on deer or weather hardiness yet.

Hi amy1234, I just want to say that, I really hadn't had many deer come into my yard until I planted my 2 Chestnut Oak trees, well, about 5-6 years after planting them, the deer just started coming into my yard much further up in the yard, they had crossed over from my yard and the neighbors yard into the field across the road, into a much "wilder" area. Those Chestnut oak trees had started to produce Acorns about 5 years after being planted, they grew so fast, and produced acorns at about 5-6 years after being planted, and then came the deer. It is really nice to see these deer come into the yard, my dad had planted 3 apple trees years ago, and these deer go and eat these apples also. They are too small and blemished for me to mess with them.

One of those apple trees had to be removed, but, the deer come into our yard for the acorns from the Chestnut oak, and recently I have about 4-5 Swamp White oak trees, and they just started producing acorns this year, I'm sure those deer will be eating them as soon as they are ripe. Well, anyway, I want to say that as far as the Rhodedendrons, and any shade plant Azaleas, etc, you will need to make a little shelter, or fence. You will need to protect the sides and the top.

You MAY not think so, but, deer will eat your Rhodies, unless they are close to your house. I learned this the hard way. But, thank goodness those Rhodies that were damaged were small, so there wasn't much foliage to be eaten.