Featured Plants : privacy

Commones Boxwood Is A Versatile Tall Shrub or Small Tree

patti-nhn — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:08:00 GMT

The Commones Boxwood, also known as the Common Boxwood, gives you lots of options in your landscape. They grow from 15 to 20 feet tall and spread from 15 to 20 feet wide giving them a rounded shape. This boxwood is a great choice for a formal dense hedge that will give you privacy. It can also be sheared back to a smaller height and width for a border hedge. These can also be pruned into a topiary. One of the attributes that make it so popular is that it's branches are dense with small, smooth edged leaves. The leaves are dark green and shiny and being an evergreen will stay that way all year round.

Commones Boxwood needs full sun to partial shade and well-drained soil, alkaline soil is also helpful. You will want to mulch to keep the ground cool and moist. It is a slow growing shrub and is well worth the wait, it looks great as it grows to its large size. This hardy hedge can be grown from zone 5 to zone 8 so can grow well in many areas. You will want to keep this evergreen in an area protected from drying winds in the winter. The fact that you can prune it to any size and shape make it a great choice for year round interest.

Theves Poplar A Fast Growing Privacy/Windbreak Tree

patti-nhn — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:14:00 GMT

If you are looking for a fast growing windbreak or privacy tree, the Theves Poplar Populus nigra 'Afghanica'' is a perfect specimen. It will grow from 40 to 50 feet tall and 8 to 10 feet wide, therefore making a wonderful windbreak or screen. Their upright form looks somewhat like tall columns. These remind me of soldiers standing guard over your home. They grow much faster than most trees to approximately 2-4 feet a year in optimum conditions. It is very hardy from zones 2 to 9.

The Theves Poplar has a nice green foliage that will turn to a pretty yellow in the fall. They are deciduous so they will lose their leaves but that exposes the very interesting bark which when they are older is almost white. They are a narrow tree so would be good for small areas. They do have some tolerance to salt and alkali so you could put them close to sidewalks and streets but you will want to be careful that these areas don't have a lot of activity where there would be lots of salt.

Dawn Redwood A Decorative Fast Growing Tree

patti-nhn — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:28:00 GMT

If you are looking for a beautiful fast growing tree, the Dawn Redwood is the one for you. It makes an awesome windbreak as well and would grow and fill in more quickly than the slower growing varieties of trees. As you can see by the pictures above, it also has a very interesting trunk. It would be quite a conversation piece in your landscape. Oftentimes, you will see them planted in medians on the highway.

The Dawn Redwood is considered a deciduous (meaning it will lose it's soft needle like leaves in the fall) conifer. They do have the look of evergreens but the leaves will turn an orange/reddish color in the fall. The trunk is one of it's most outstanding and interesting features. It is extremely useful as a hedge, especially since it grows very rapidly. It is also said to be air pollution tolerant. It grows up to 50-90 feet and will spread out between 15-25 feet. It is widely adaptable and does require full sun. It is hardy to zone 4-8.

The Dawn Redwood would be a great anchor tree by itself or by planting two or more would be very attractive on an acreage or along your driveway as stately "soldiers" watching over your home.

Colorado Blue Spruce - Not Just For Colorado

patti-nhn — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:54:00 GMT

The Colorado Blue Spruce 'Picea Pungens' is native to the inter-mountain states of the west but grows from zones 3-7 which covers a good portion of the United States. These trees are awesome specimens and are very stately trees used often as Christmas trees and also in and around office buildings as well as a great center point in yard landscaping. They work hard as windbreaks or screens for all manner of locations. They are a fairly fast grower in the first few years and then will slow down at a more steady rate of growth. Mature growth tends to be about 30-50 feet tall and spreads it branches out horizontally to 10-20 feet wide.

I love the color of the tree. Blue is my favorite color so with that in mind, this would be one of my favorite spruce trees. The needles are a blue gray color or some consider a blue silver color. The needles start as soft clumps but as they age, they will become stiff and needle sharp. The tree's shape is considered pyramidal. I have seen these used most beautifully as Christmas trees either inside or out. The Colorado Blue Spruce has a moderate salt tolerance and prefers well drained soil. It can grow in full sun to partial sun. Birds love it too, it is a good nesting tree and the cones that it grows are decorative as well as good for crafting and for potpourri.

Cold Hardy Forsythia - Northern Sun

patti-nhn — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:40:00 GMT

The Forsythia - Northern Sun is a new forsythia that is especially hardy to northern climates. This is a very adaptable shrub and grows fairly quickly for planting on an embankment, for a border or for privacy. It puts on a stunning show of yellow flowers in spring and it's leaves will grow after the flowering which comes from lots of full sun. It will flower before most other flowering shrubs. The fall foliage is usually chartreuse but is sometimes a mixture including yellow, red-wine, and purple.

The shrub is upright and arching and should be pruned occasionally. You will want to prune with the shape of the arching branches. If you try to shear them into formal hedges, you will lose some of the flower producing branches and it won't be able to flower as well. You will also lose the beauty of the plant with it's arching shape. This is a good sized shrub so you'll want to make sure you plant it in an area where it can spread itself out and not too close together. This would be a great shrub for some very welcome spring color at a time that you may still have snow on the ground.

Ornamental & fruit bearing Fuyu Jiro Persimmon

patti-nhn — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:18:00 GMT

The Fuyu Jiro Persimmon tree is not only a beautiful ornamental tree but also bears a fruit that has a very sweet flavor and is used in many ways. Fuyu Jiro fruits are flattened with a light orange, firm and crunchy flesh. It can even be peeled and eaten like an apple. The fruit is seedless unless planted with another variety of persimmon.

Persimmons do best in areas that have moderate winters and relatively mild summers. Their branches and leaves droop giving it a tropical appearance. The flowers can be cream-colored or a pink-tinged color. The leaves are slightly yellow-green and will turn to a dark green as they age. Their leaves can put on a show of yellow, orange and red in the fall. As they age, they can be pruned as a hedge, a screen or to control their size. The Fuyu Jiro is relatively problem free and would be a great addition to your landscape with it's many uses.

Ash Leaf Spirea

patti-nhn — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:29:00 GMT

Ash Leaf Spirea (Sorbaria sorbifolia) also known as Ural False Spirea is a very decorative shrub. It is fast growing and exhibits large clusters of creamy white blossoms that have a soft, feathery look. You will want to prune the shrub in early spring before growth starts as the flowers occur on new wood. Their leaves are green and fern-like. The young leaves are a reddish color when they first appear and then turn green. Their fall color is yellow and green.

They grow 6-8' tall and about 5-10' wide so they make great border or privacy shrubs. They are deciduous so they will lose their leaves in the winter but they are still an attractive addition to your landscape without their leaves and flowers. Ash Leaf Spirea are also considered low maintenance and they don't require much pruning. It is resistant to disease, insects and is salt tolerant. It does require full to partial sun and moist well drained soil.