Carpinus betula 'fastigiata' (pyramidal columnar form)
Carpinus betula 'Franz Fontaine' (Oval columnar form)
These european hornbeams form a dense screen, very narrow and deciduous.

Apollo Sugar maple is another favorite of mine.

i cant tell if there is a window on the side that faces the neighbor ...

think about Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire'... link below to google images

i have seen them going on 8 feet.. barely 1.5 feet wide .... might be able to squeeze some down along the garage .... the far side.. whatever it is ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Vine maple is too sparse for that.
Deciduous trees are only good part of the season, not good privacy.
Zone 8 would allow for some fast broad leaved evergreens- laurels and magnolia. Lots of conifers as well.

How tall a plant are you looking for? I have one of the "Little Girl" series of deciduous magnolias, which I THINK is 'Jackie' - I thought it was 'Jane', but the flowers are much darker (a dark, almost purple outside, strong show in spring and sporadic flowers in the summer) than the 'Jane' photos I have seen (which are pink). It is, after 6-7 years in 8-10" of fairly good soil on top of construction clay, and from a 1-gal. plant, about 12-14' tall, and 5-6' in diameter. While it isn't evergreen, it is reasonably thick, and could give privacy in the winter. The max. height is SUPPOSED to be about 15', but at the rate mine is growing, I think 20' may be a more correct estimation.

Sweet Bay Magnolia (M. virginiana?) is another possibility, mostly evergreen, but may be too open in its growth to give good privacy. 'Little Gem' Southern magnolia can be pushed for semi-rapid growth - max. height is supposed to be 30-35' - and it grows fairly tightly after it settles in - in the first few years, all the magnolias I have seen look very thin.

Another possibility, for evergreens, are several of the hollies - some are not as slow-growing as others, esp. with watering and judicious fertilizing. You WOULD need a male somewhere in the vicinity for berries, but........

I am not, in general, a fan of limbing up hollies and magnolias, but in this case, it seems to be required, and both of them can take it. If you or your children like to be barefoot in the yard, then forget the holly idea - the prickles are the last part of the leaf to break down - they persist, painfully!

Looking at the second and third photos, it seems as though the neighbors have a tree/large shrub planted somewhat between the houses, on their side of the fence. If this is true, do you know what it is? Planting a tree where you want to may well have an impact on that plant as yours grows. Yet another thing to think about.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. I'm going to look them up.

Dibbit - the tree you can see in the neighbour's yard is a Japanese maple. I am mindful of the tree, and am juggling my own privacy needs with respect for my neighbours, who I very much like. :-)

My preference would be for maximum height (because of the 2nd storey they're adding) with minimum spread.

I don't mind deciduous at all because I'm not out in the yard as much in winter, and when I am, I'm usually doing chores, rather than lounging. So an audience makes me feel extra virtuous. (j/k)

I'm also not expecting complete privacy given the parameters I'm working with. Just trying to screen my view of their back porch a little. A visual break so to speak so my eye doesn't go directly there.

I know it's O/T, but I'd also welcome any non-vegetative suggestion you might have. :-)

I agree the sugar maple is an interesting looking tree. I'm off to investigate the beeches, the thuja and the magnolias.
I'm not a fan of hollies, alas, they're a little TOO dense for my liking.

Thanks for your time in making these suggestions. :-)

Kailleanm, I would also look for listings of fastigate trees - a fancy way of saying columnar, or taller-than-wide trees - which come in a wide array of heights and widths, and speed of growth. There are a number of selections of a variety of trees - I would avoid any with Norway or Silver maple in their ancestry, as the tendency to easily break off branches may be inherited. Most of them are grafted forms, and some are seedling forms - the latter is likely to be cheaper, of course, but not guaranteed to be exactly the same shape as the parent(s).

Thanks Dibbit.

Does anyone have personal experience with Heptacodium Miconioides (seven son flower)?

I have a Heptacodium and love it, and I'm helping a friend establish two in a very narrow area--15 feet long but only 6 feet wide before a sharp drop off--to provide shade for a western facing deck. They need some good pruning and shaping when young but quickly establish and have a very small footprint, but are multistemmed and bush out as they reach their 20 foot height. Interesting bark, fragrant late summer bloom followed by a long show of red calyxes. Great small tree.

I was going to recommend heptacodium, that might be a good solution if a max of 20' is enough - that depends on the height of the windows in the neighbor's planned extension.

Another good choice might be Ginkgo biloba 'Fastigiata' which will reach 30' tall (evenutally, maybe more) and 10-15' wide. Wonderful foliage, you'd just need to be sure you get a male.

I'll second QQ's recommendation for a columnar European hornbeam. These make excellent screening trees, having a very dense and upright branching structure that will provide comsiderable privacy even when the tree is out of leaf. And these are pretty much trouple free choices, not bothered by pest or disease problems and adaptable to a wide variety of conditions. Nice golden fall color and a moderately fast rate of growth. 'Franz Fontaine' tends to be slightly shorter than 'Fastigiata', but remains quite a bit narrower - 'Fastigiata' will develop quite a wide, bulbous base as it matures but the branching of either selection will be high enough to allow easy access and for folks to walk by unimpaired.

My experience with Heptacodium is that it will eventually get a bit too wide for this situation, making access to the stairs/patio difficult. Great shrub though, if you have another location.

Thanks again for your feedback you guys. I really appreciate your suggestions.

Gardengirl - how wide do you find the Heptacodiums get? I don't mind if it bushes out, as long as I could limb it up to walk under -- but maybe that's not appropriate with this tree?

I'm going to go look again at the hornbeam.

I don't want to get bogged down in semantics, but Heptacodium is generally considered to be a multi-stemmed shrub and not very tree-like in form. Dirr describes it as "the habit multistemmed and upright-spreading with a cloud-like canopy". I've seen mature forms that have quite a high canopy that is easy to walk underneath, but they also have a multitude of stems creating quite a wide base. It seems from the photos that this is a rather tight situation given the stairs and patio and something that will produce that large a basal stem structure may be a little overwhelming.

There is a very narrow form of cedrus that would look nice there. I also second the ginkgo. As for the Purple Fountain beech, it will likely get to wide over time. It spreads more than is often reported.

David