native tree selection to create visual barrier

14 years ago

Behind our home we have a fairly small piece of forest conservation land. With the county's permission, we were able to have invasives -- multiflora rose, poison ivy/oak, japanese honeysuckle, etc -- removed. I've been trying to fill in with native plants. There is now a proposed new community to be built behind us. (Of course, in the current economy, this could be way in the future...) We want to plant a grouping of native trees and shrubs that will grow fairly rapidly and provide a visual barrier between our property and the new development. We have lots of maples on the property, lots of native viburnam, one Eastern hemlock that I love, but fear it would be too expensive to try planting a lot of those.

Our property extends back to just before the dense brush beyond the dirt strip in the far back -- just beyond the nest box (that's the sort of triangular shaped wooden piece mounted on a black pole. It has aluminum foil on the top to deter invasive bird species from trying to nest.) All of that brush as well as the trees in the background are likely to disappear with the development so we want to plant a dense border of trees and shrubs back there. Ideas? I'm in Maryland, zone 7. And anything I plant has to be native. Thanks!

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Comments (8)

iforgotitsonevermind
14 years ago
Poison ivy isn't an exotic invasive so you might not want to let the authorities know you're planning on replacing that. âº

If you start very small with mail order seedlings or seedlings from a forest service you can probably get it all done this year with a tight budget.
Are things like American Holly, Virginia and shortleaf pines native there? Then how about american beech?
The nice thing about the holly and the beech is that they tolerate sun for now and shade for later.
The beech isn't evergreen but holds it's leaves through the winter season and could provide a little bit of a barrier.
That reminds me. Hornbeams?
Iris GW
14 years ago
Wax myrtle is good for both birds and screening and it's native. Another idea is Carolina Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana)- the 'Compacta' cultivar is more dense, but not any shorter than the species.
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Was taking some pics and figured I'd update this post with my progress. I can pretty much say I'm officially maxed out with trees at this point. A view of the backyard. Trees planted in past 3 yrs: Dogwood (cherokee brave), quaking aspen, white oak, black birch, serviceberry, sweetbay magnolia (that's been to hell and back), atlantic white cedar. From L: black birch, serviceberry, small buttonbush, atlantic white cedar, sweetbay magnolia, and a bunch of stone that I have to play around with now that I decided on building a vernal pool instead of a pond with a liner. The aspen planted last fall (with ghetto staking that I haven't gotten around to replacing yet) in front of planting bed with native perennials and shrubs. As a side note, I made this perennial bed out of an old stump, along with a viburnum and a couple of chokeberries. The stump has to go soon since the neighbor just discovered it's loaded with termites. Finally, a pic of the yard when we bought the house in 2008: Wildflower meadow I planted in the front yard is doing fantastic, as are the white oak, sourwood, weeping cypress, eastern wahoo, and serviceberry I planted. The two main take-homes for me, as far as trees are concerned, are: 1. don't panic during the first year after transplanting as every tree so far has really thrived in the second year, and 2. resist temptation to go large b&b with everything as the potted ones seem to catch up rather quickly.
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I think I have settled on a nursery, thanks for the suggestions. Woodlanders.net has almost all of the plants I'm interested in. That is, thanks to those of you who were helpful rather than quoting me in an attempt to appear witty. I worked at one of the best nurseries in the state for natives and I have a biology degree, however I'm not interested in the spitting contest some here want to engage in. I found that the search terms and page ranking on google made finding a nursery difficult. I'm not sure what is considered a safe question to ask if 'looking for suggestions for sources of native trees' is taken as an opening for sarcasm. I merely wanted a way to find all four species at one nursery. @Esh_ga, I'm in central NC.
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I have not seen any mention of Blackgums! Beautiful, large trees with truly blood colored foliage in the fall (They also provide little blue berries for the birds!). They grow fairly quickly and are pretty tolerant of drought conditions. Something we put in last year was a Princeton American Elm. Unbelievably fast grower and was bred to have resistance to Dutch Elm disease. There really is a reason they were so widely planted as street trees and would provide high shade for your front yard relatively quickly. They are also reputed to be very tolerant of city pollution. No mention of Red Cedar, either. Grows quickly, immune to virtually everything and has a nice grayish color which contrasts nicely with the dark greens of other trees. I have mixed them into our overstory oaks/maples etc. with podocarps, firs and deodars for a nice tapestry of color and texture. They give good cover for camellias from winter burn. Any kind of magnolia does well! We have planted virtually every kind we could find and they have distinguished themselves into overstory and understory nicely over the years. The Sweet bays smell particularly wonderful and are a good open, midsized tree without too much spread. They tend to get very thin in winter, however. The Little Gems have the advantage of blooming until frost without getting overly large. American Hollies are magnificent, but are difficult to get started for some reason. Once one is happy, however, they will take off. Mary Nells or Oakleafs might be a good compromise. River Birch, of course, is incredibly fast growing and would do well in your seasonally wet areas. They have beautiful yellow leaves in Fall, nice open shade in summer and gorgeous exfoliating bark. Finally, esh had a good suggestion in bald cypresses. We have one that is always commented upon by those who come over, especially in the Fall when the needles turn golden and carpets the ground around it. A truly beautiful tree and a fast grower. As he mentioned they do well in both dry sites and wet. The only difference to my eye is speed of growth and density of needles/boughs.
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Ha! TYerrene, you have just stated the very thing that happened to me in a large stream restoration project in one of our ravines here in town. So, a native restoration company was hired for this largish project. The dirt work went okay...not great, but okay. Then it was plant time. Whoo boy, I guarantee you we won't be calling those folks back. Sugar maples were on the plant list. They brought up Norway maples! It gets worse: The lead on this project, a woman who shall remain nameless, had the gall to argue with me as to the "true" identity of the maples they brought up. I calmly snapped a petiole, showed them the milky white sap, and as far as I was concerned, it was case closed. Ah ah, not by a long shot. They "consulted" with the supplier of the bunk stock, who said the reason I was confused (yes, it was alleged that I was confused) was because this was a cultivar! Oh....that explains it! In another fun moment, in fact three different times, M*rcy was listing the plants they would be bringing next. Three different times, she said chokeberry. Each time, I said, 'now M*rcy, chokeberry is a nice shrub and it is native to our area. But the plant list says choke cherry, not chokeberry. Well, I'm sure you know what comes next....a trailer full of hundreds of chokeberries! Luckily for all concerned, the DNR guy who had the ultimate say on this was okay with that substitution. And they were nice shrubs. So 400 and some chokeberries went in instead of the plant listed on the work order! But that Norway maple thing was the corker. So, the lead engineer on the job, not knowing my history all that well, brought in a certified arborist to make the final determination. Imagine how it felt to have verification provided by a person who had-in honest truth-learned most of what they knew from me! More hilarity ensued! +oM
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cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
14 years ago
Try checking out the Maryland natives site:

http://www.nps.gov/plants/pubs/nativesMD/pdf/MD-Piedmont.pdf

If you aren't in the piedmont, they have a mountain zone or coastal zone list as well. We are zone 7 in northern VA and have many of the same natives. I have currants, Kalmia latifolia (Mountain Laurel-evergreen), Magnolia virginiana (Sweetbay Magnolia-evergreen), Ilex opaca (American Holly-evergreen), Amelanchier canadensis (serviceberry-deciduous), Virburnum dentatum (southern arrowood-decid.), Decumaria barbara (native climbing hydrangea), vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry-need two different to cross-pollinate-I have Jersey and Hannah's Choice), native azaleas (deciduous), and pysocarpus opulfolius (common ninebark). I tried pines, but found them to be poor barriers/screeners, although mixed with other plants they are pretty and feathery. I decided that the screening was most needed for only three seasons, so I have a variety of trees (oaks, river birch,redbud, and native dogwood) and shrubs which offer depth and great screening when I need it. Lots of food and habitat for the birds, also. Hope this helps some. And do check out the website-lots of good information there!

Cynthia
orchid_ladycats
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you all for this wonderful collection of suggestions! I'd love to have lots of evergreens with a mix of deciduous and shrubs, as you all suggest.

To iforgotitsonevermind -- I did tell the people in the County I live in that I got rid of the poison ivy and oak, and they were happy about it. You are right -- they are not exotic invasives, but they are sure native, noxious ones! According to one publication, any of the following can be gotten rid of: poison ivy (Rhus radicans or Toxicodendron radicans),poison oak (Rhus toxicodendron or Toxicodendron quercifolium ), poison sumac (Rhus vernix or Toxicodendron vernix), ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) or similar vegetation.

thanks again for all the ideas.
Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
14 years ago
Of course anything deciduous will be leafless for potentially 6 months of the year, which means you'll see your neighbors.

I'd go for broadleaf evergreens, things like -- American holly, Southern Magnolia, Sweetbay magnolia 'australis', Carolina Cherry laurel. I could never limit myself to 'local natives', not even variety!
orchid_ladycats
Original Author
14 years ago
dave -- are all the ones you mention natives? I'm legally bound to only plant natives...and actually would prefer to do that. I've got the rest of the yard for all those "foreigners!" Thanks
Iris GW
14 years ago
Yes, dave's list is all natives. Sweetbay magnolia is Magnolia virginiana. American holly is Ilex opaca - 'Savannah' is a good cultivar, it is a hybrid with Ilex cassine, another native.
sam_md
14 years ago
orchid_ladycats,
your post is very timely, you're in Baltimore County right? Be sure not to miss the native plant seminar & plant sale on Saturday the 29th. It's our 18th year.
Get there early before everything gets picked over.
Sam

Here is a link that might be useful: Irvine Nature Ctr, Seminar & Plant Sale

native tree selection to create visual barrier

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native tree selection to create visual barrier

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cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

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