Ken's advice is the best here so far. Or the best in some kind of Zen way...LOL. As we've discussed elsewhere in GW, there really is no perfect screener plant. The fast growing ones grow too fast and get too big or get diseased. (Leylandii) The slow growing ones are slow but, are likely to be better plants in the long run. I thank my lucky stars I have a couple mature American hollies to protect myself from some neighbors I'd rather not see. They don't form a full screen so I'm filling in the gaps with desirable plants like Fargesia 'Green Screen' and other, rarer hollies. If you are in NJ you can't be too far from Rarefind. I'm not associated with them but they are one of the best resources for horticulture in your state. Satyr Hill is a fast growing one if you want to go the native route: http://www.rarefindnursery.com/index.cfm/action/productdetail/product_id/1622.htm If you plan to be in your house > 15 years, go with the holly. If you don't plan to be, go with the Green Giants (or Leylands if you must, I think they are unlikely to have serious problems in zn 7 NJ) and let someone else deal with their issues when they get too big.

Thanks everybody! Zeck, yes that is an Astroloba, good eye. Careful, mesembs will force everything else out of your greenhouse;) Rina, Thanks, I just organized before sowing seeds because I was running out of space. Yes the greenhouse is covered in shadecloth but with a plastic roof to protect from rain. Cold isn't a problem here so I go for maximum airflow. Mara, phalanxes, good word. Yes, the troops are all lined up. I have a feeling that carbuncled Echy will pup for me this year if you're interested. Howard, it looks like you guys are well on your way to IDing the Echy. I bought that one in a 4" pot when it was much smaller, pretty happy with its growth. Noto, glad you enjoyed it, now put your eyes back in your skull. Kathy, don't worry, all messes can be cleaned up. I had to organize or I wouldn't have had room for newbies. Now there's really no space left. Colleen, yeah it's really great to be able to get the Haws wet again. I lost a few this summer (no biggie). My experience with starting large-leafed Echeveria from leaves has been negative. They'll form roots but that's about it. I have 3 trays of various leaf-starts that are constantly producing for me so I have a pretty good base of comparison. It never feels right to remove a leaf that size from the plant anyway.

Ladyvixen, we were in our 30's in 1985 when we bought our 1898 house. Looking back, we were very young. Neither my husband nor I had any skills or knowledge at all about how to work on houses. All we knew was that our house was nearly intact, was very inexpensive, and that we loved it. I had always wanted an old house, and had been buying things such as light fixtures, hardware, etc., for years before we bought the house. We bought the house "as is". Fortunately we were both employed and had no children. We had to hire almost everything done, and it needed a lot of work. We did not take a vacation for years. Then came a time of around a year or two that my husband was either unemployed or underemployed. During that time, the house just didn't get worked on. We didn't care that we lived in an unfinished house; in fact, I thought it was beautiful from day one. We have a corner in the dining room where all the little balls the cats play with end up, but you don't notice the slope otherwise. It has taken us over 25 years, and we are almost finished, but still have some work to do. We should have it finished by now, but are in our 60's now and do like to take a vacation now and then. Also we sometimes didn't have work done even when we had the money, because we were tired of the mess of having things torn up. We lived with a practically non-existent kitchen until about 2004. I said all along that this house was my dream house. People would look at me funny, but it was and still is my dream house. Don't let others talk you out of your dream. Make the decision based on what you want and what you think you can handle. If you think you can live with an unfinished house for years, go for it. If you have to have everything finished and perfect, you shouldn't buy an old house. I have the ablility to not even see the unfinished stuff until we get ready to do something about it. I meant this to be an encouragement to you, but reading back on it, maybe this will scare you because it has taken us so long. Don't let that scare you--you can do it faster than we did! I will try to attach some pictures if I can.

Heathers are hardier IME (zone 4) and I haven't had any winter damage with them. I can only grow a few Heaths without winter damage. At my last house I had both a bunch of heathers and one heath, Erica carnea 'Vivellii' which was supposed to be hardier than most heaths and had dark green foliage and rich pink flowers. IIRC, the Erica usually bloomed when there was still some snow on the ground, often in April, though it varied depending on the season and when snow melted. It was in a rocky ledge area that faced SW, so the snow melted fairly quickly compared to less open areas, and the flowers opened as soon as the branches emerged from snow. There was one winter that it had damage when we had a lot of particularly frigid weather without snow, but most winters it pulled through well. My inlaws, who live locally, have a couple of the common heaths seen at grocery and big box stores, Erica x darleyensis 'Mediterranean Pink' and 'Mediterranean White'. They usually have more cold damage, but do survive and recover after trimming. In your slightly warmer zone, I think they would be fine since they are hardy to zone 6 or zone 5 with shelter. They bloom around the time of Scilla, so after snow melt, but before the perennials are more than just beginning to show expanding buds right at soil level. IMO heathers are lovely, one of those plants that looks good regardless of season. In my previous garden I relied on them to provide color and texture at this time of year when only evergreen plants look good. All the ones I've grown are summer bloomers and some have foliage with color that intensifies with cold. I have just five heather plants here and none of them looks great, though all are growing well, just too crowded. I will order more when I have somewhere to put them that shows them well. I don't much like putting them in a regular mixed perennial bed since they tend to get overwhelmed by more exuberant, spreading or sprawling plants. There used to be a wonderful heather nursery on Cape Cod, but when the nursery was sold, they stopped raising heaths and heathers, so the only place I know of now with a really large set of choices is on the west coast, http://www.heathsandheathers.com All the ones I have now I just happened to run across at local nurseries, but there wasn't ever a lot of choice. I would love to hear if others in New England grow heaths or heathers.