How many feet of privacy do you need?

The way I see it, you can plant a hedge of lil gems or you can plant 2 or 3 full size southern magnolia varieties. They are slow growers. If you need this privacy within the next few years you're going to need to start out with large budget-busting b&b sizes.

Magnolias are also very messy. You might look for wax myrtle, eastern or southern redcedar or leyland cypress which grow faster and generally much less expensive.

If you determine that a small Southern Magnolia will work for your application, I'd consider other cultivars besides 'Little Gem'. I haven't noticed ANY few leaves dropping from 'Little Gem' than from other smaller magnolias, and think maybe it even tends to drop more around here.

'Little Gem' used to be considered pretty special, mainly because of it's smaller growth habit, but I think some of the newer cultivars blow it completely out of the water. 'Little Gem' has a relatively lanky, almost bare look (especially when mature) compared to 'Southern Charm' (trade named Teddy Bear) or 'Kay Parris'.

If you look around you can probably find the others at comparable prices. I saw Teddy Bears along side 'Little Gem's at Lowes the other day for the exact same price. The 'Little Gem's look pitiful next to the much more full and better colored Teddy Bears.

One reason I had been looking at the Little Gem was because it doesn't get too tall. We don't want to completely block off the rest of the world, and, more importantly, don't want to shade the pool, as it would never get warm. I'm certainly open to suggestions, if you have any. Are any of the ones mentioned above fairly clean/evergreen, and less than ~25 feet at maturity? Would any of them not stick out more than 5-10 feet into the yard?

I forgot to mention previously that I'm in the Memphis, TN area and am looking for about 60 linear feet of coverage.

Bobert,

By "any of the ones mentioned above", are you talking about the non-magnolia options Gardningrandma gave or the other magnolia cultivars?

This is a red flag to me: > could they be planted just a foot or two from the fence, growing only out away from it?

If this is a solid fence, like stockade or board, there's a significant "rain shadow" effect that you'll need to consider. IMHO, it's almost impossible to grow anything within 2 or 3 feet of a solid fence, unless you're willing and able to provide most of the moisture yourself - and that's a lot of water.

I have such a fence, and wasted a lot of cash (3 times) trying to establish rows of holly, cedar, and, finally, magnolia (M. virginiana, in my case).

When I finally gave up on crowding the plants against the fence, acknowledged that this privacy screen was a very important aspect of my yard, and set aside enough space for it to do it properly, I succeeded on the 4th try, by planting everything centered at least 5' from the fence. I still had to irrigate and mulch, but it was a much more reasonable amount of water.

Last, I'd be very careful placing any hollies anywhere near a pool, except ones with smooth leaves. You've only got to step on a dry leaf with bare feet once to remember it for a very long time.

'Little Gem' has a history of cold injury, foliage mildew and breaking under the weight of snow. Many specimens in my area are gaunt, due to the mildew. A scattering of completely dead twigs is a recurring feature here. The original seedling grew as a nearly columnar tree, not as a rounded bush. Propagules here can be seen to develop a narrower shape in time. The 20' height given for it is what might be expected after 20 years of growth. Like other trees, it does not grow to a specific height and then "top out". A tree of any kind that is not growing at least a little taller every year is declining or dead.

"For the trees, estimate $79-$119 for the Lowes containers of teddy bear."

Don't know if they would be the same in other places (or even available in other places), but the ones I saw (probably about 7 gallon pots) were $57.00 each.
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"'Little Gem' has a history of cold injury, foliage mildew and breaking under the weight of snow."

I haven't experienced any of those problems. Since the OP is in zone 7/8 (I'm in 6/7), cold injury and snow load should not be a concern at all. The biggest downfall I see for 'Little Gem' is it's lanky, half-bare look.

Retraction:
I wrote $79-119

Correction:
$57-119

The 'Teddy Bear' looks nowhere near as nice at the 'Little Gem' The TB has lighter foliage and not as deep rust colour underside to the leaf. It's the contrast between the lustrous dark green and brown which gives a timeless look. Also describing it as 'leggy' is not the word....perhaps more 'airy' which in my opinion is a more beautiful form...

don't really have frost or severe low temperature problems here in southern England so the Little Gem will hold up fine....

I have both Teddy Bear (not a cultivar name) and 'Little Gem' growing here. Maybe leggy isn't the word, but neither is airy....maybe sparsely leaved. Seriously, this is a very common complaint about 'Little Gem', particularly with a little age. My 'Little Gem' is completely healthy, but if you put is side-by-side with some of the other cultivars, one might describe it as more sickly looking because of its sparseness. By itself (without comparing it to the Teddy Bear, for instance) it looks alright I guess.