I want to plant a row of either shrubs or preferrably trees along one of my property borders. The yard is a typical 1/3 acre subdivision. Leyland cypress looks nice, but I think I would have to plant way inside my property line due to their spread. I was thinking poplar. Flowering cherry, dogwood, or redbud were other thoughts. What are some good ideas for a property defining plant?
Dogwood is an “understory” plant, which means it does best in dappled light – next to other, taller, trees – rather than in full sun. I love the flowering trees (isn’t driving to work gorgeous this time of year?), but some might work better than others.
Tree’s what? Trunk? Roots? Branches?
We just ordered the Green Giant Cedars from here:
http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/
They sound like they grow faster than arborvitae, but are more disease resistant than leyland cypress. I can’t wait to see how they turn out.
Yeah, I always accidently make plurals possesive. A problem particularly when printing out return address labels.
I recommend that you consider the possibility of a mixed planting, instead of a single species, and plant in a staggered irregular pattern, rather than a straight line along your lot boundary. I especially recommend combining evergreens and deciduous, and considering flowering, berries, bark, and fall color for 4-season interest.
For example, along one side of our back yard we have 3 arborvitae, 2 cornelian cherry, a witch-hazel, and 5 or so viburnum. To give some idea how they are arranged:
A CC V-V-V-V
CC WH A V
A
Damn - that didn’t work.
Let’s try again:
----------A—Cc ----------------------V-v-v-v
----Cc---------------Wh—A---V
A
If you’re going to mix trees and shrubs, I’d like to recommend the oakleaf hydrangea, which looks great all four seasons of the year, with big white flowers in the summer, bronze foliage in the fall, and twisted stems with peely bark in the winter.
One of my favorite plants. Numerous other hydrangeas as well. Mix up the viburnums, include a pagoda dogwood or 2. Maybe a holly or chokecherry or 2. Possibilities are near endless.
What zone you in, Dauerbach?
I’m partial to bamboo because it looks nice just about everywhere I see people using it to define borders. Just make sure you use a rhizome barrier if you plant a running bamboo or you’ll end up with a jungle.
I like arborvitae.. They have such an attractive, neat shape with little or no maintenence. You can keep them whatever size you wish, but if you let them grow, after a few years, they’ll be tall and lush. They’re nature’s privacy fence. They also stay green and pretty year-round.
I’m not a fan: The problem with them is that people plant them in a row as a fence – when one (or more) dies, as one (or more) inevitably will, it can really screw up the tidiness of the look.
Think twice about bamboo – it can be horribly invasive.
Another possibility would be to plant something like blueberries – nice bushes, pretty flowers in the spring, and yummy fruit in the summer. Just make sure you plant more than one variety so they can cross pollinate.
dauerbach, you said you were thinking poplar. What kind? The lombardy poplar is fast growing, and it doesn’t get very wide. However, it doesn’t get very old either. Lombardys will die off in 15 years, 20 at the most.
The tulip poplar is a different matter. They’re lovely, tall trees that have big, cream-colored flowers in the spring. There is something about the song of the wind in a tulip poplar’s leaves that sounds very good to me.
Whatever you plant, visualize the size of the full-grown tree when you are deciding where to plant each tree. It’s hard on a tree to constantly rub against another tree.
dauerbach,
Can you let us know where you live? We don’t know from your post which state, or even which country. It’s important to know that in order to give accurate plant suggestions.
It might help if you filled in some details. Are you looking for a side yard border (typically less room to work with) or a rear border? If side yard, how many feet between houses? And how wide is the planting bed? And will you need to drive next to the plants? Where is the sun in relation to your border? Are you merely defining a border, or do you want to provide a visual barrier? If a visual barrier, do you want privacy for yourself, or are you trying to screen the view of your neighbor’s house or yard? Do you want to provide a physical barrier?
Count me in as another who doesn’t care for arborvitae in the way most folks use them. Personal pet peeve, but there it is. They are frequently planted at the edge of a lawn as a living fence. As an evergreen, they prefer acidic soils and they start to yellow when lime is applied over their root systems. On the other hand, I think they can be quite striking when they are clumped together as part of a larger landscape grouping.
We have 3 arborvitae in the border I described above. Will have to check the species. But they look like something out of Dr. Seuss. Very fast growers, tall and essentially pyramidal, but in a droopy, uneven kind of way - attributed partly to growth pattern and partly to pruning. Unlike the common “penis-tree” appearance…
We want to do the same thing in Connecticut. Our new house is on a corner, and we want some privacy along the side street. Our lot is larger than that of the OP, at just under an acre.
We were thinking of a line of arborvitae, possibly with a mix of trees interspersed.
Any thoughts for our area of the country?
Don’t plant leylandi - they’re horrible. I’m thinking of a privet hedge at the botto of my garden.
Lilacs?