Salt spray may be an issue and if it is arborvitae may be your best bet. What is the posted speed of the road?

tj

Dirt road - no salt spray. Speed limit 45. Will be planted about 10-15' off the road, kinda behind a loose grove of deciduous trees/shrubs. Road (and other trees) are to the north of where the conifer would go -- will get direct sun from the east and south for part of the day.

i know you own a camera.. and know how to take pix.. how about one or two ..

plant no blue spruce with needlecast around... thats picea pungens ...

conifers are trees.. and a vast majority of them grow in excess of a foot or tow per year... unless you spend hundred on minis and dwarfs ... and as trees. they do NOT stop growing at some magical height..

once established.. they will have a very predictable annual growth rate .. measured in feet ... for the most part ...

and arb.. since it was mentioned.. will not grow feet per year.. and ergo.. will take 20 years to get to ten feet ... or 10 taller than purchased ... and keep in mind.. large tree transplants can take 3 to 5 years.. to get growing to specs.. often you are better off going smaller.. so less stresses.. and faster to establishment .. and faster to larger growth rate.. its usually said.. a in a given 5 years.. a smaller... not tiny.. transplant will outgrow the huge transplant.. and cost 1/3 or less the larger one ...

and for peeps who chime in.. keep in mind we are in ground freeze MI.. not z9 england or the pnw ... our growing season is significantly shorter than such ...

you know i had hundreds of conifers.. without seeing the spot.. im not sure what to recommend ...

ken

ps: fast growing to 10 feet is fast growing to 50 feet.. and to infinity and beyond.. most are not going to stop being fast growing in your lifetime... btw.. are there power lines down there????

I'd avoid junipers with the serviceberry in the area, since it's an alternate rust host.

What do you mean you "had" hundreds of conifers -- did you take them out? The thing can get as tall as it wants down there -- minimum is 12-15'. Old defunct telephone lines coming off a pole but no power lines, those are up by the house -- you must not remember my story of the high-voltage transmission line snapping during the vicious storm we had last August that thankfully didn't land on the house and burn it down...

Good to know about the blue spruce and junipers. Are other spruce ok? What about fir? Pine?

Ken…..”conifers are trees”……unless they are groundcovers or shrubs.

”conifers are trees”

Let's not go there again. ;-)

I agree in the case of filling a visual hole in the existing view, one should buy a larger tree, one that may even take care of the problem before it grows any, if possible.

Soil type, amount of sun, rainfall and other variables will make a difference in growth rate and fulness of the tree or shrub.

If you're not worried about the overall height after 10-15 years or so, Pines grow the fastest, but my choice would be one the stays fairly full by retaining lower branches.

Spruce would be another good choice and should be no problem in z5.

Just for some examples, here's some Red pine (p. resinosa) I planted from 2 yo seedlings about 7-8 years ago. Really blocks the view especially from a distance.

And a white spruce (p. glauca) after 10 years in my front yard (~10ft). Would block a hole easily.

I'm on sandy ground with shorter seasons so yours would do better I'm sure.

:-)

We’ve planted several Norway Spruce on our property and have been very pleased with the amount of growth they’ve achieved each year. This guy was planted in 2016/17 as an 8 footer and is around 25 ft right now; it is sited in full sun near our creek where the soil is excellent.

Alternative conifers for Michigan landscapes - Landscaping (msu.edu)

Green Giant arborvitaes grow pretty fast for me. 18 yr olds are up to 40 ft now.

Quote OP: " Will be planted about 10-15' off the road, "

This is too close to the road. Even the smallest of trees quickly have a 5' radius near the bottom. With in 10 years they may b in the road needing trimmed.

Right now the road is gravel. What about 5 years from now, 10 years from now. At some point in the future the road will be improved, and the tree will interfere, and have to be removed.

There were a bunch of nice new house erected about 10 to 15 years ago. Several of the house were about 150 feet from the two lane country road. Because of the growth in the area, a four lane road was constructed, and now the right of way for the road is about 20' from their decks with no back yard and all of the traffic noise..

"At some point in the future the road will be improved..."

Not necessarily. Although, I did tell DH if they do ever pave the road we're moving...and no I'm not joking. So I really don't care -- there are trees and shrubs that are only just a few feet off the road, on my property and all up down these roads, this new one will be in front of those misc woodies.

Depending on what the 'gap' looks like, something 'columnar' may fill the bill better than pyramidal. You have way more choices in you zone than I have. :^)

We planted these green giant arborvitae in fall 2019 when they were around 8-9 feet. Now I would guess they are 16-18 feet in 2023. I consider them to be pretty vigorous growers.