Pierce, just be aware that you will need a male holly for every 5-7 female plants to get berries. Because you will be planting tightly, you might be able to stretch it to one per 10 females. Most of the male forms I know of are shorter growing than the females, in general. You could get around this by using 1-gallon males and planting in the same hole as the females/'Nellie R.Stevens' as you space them out - they can grow up and be available, but are 'hidden' among the mass of the females. I know 15 gal. 'Nellie R. Stevens' are available, but can't speak as to price. While the 'Nellie R. Stevens' are a good hedge plant, if you wanted to mix in another type of tree, the Thuja 'Emerald Green' (a.k.a. 'Emerald Beauty' or 'Smaragd') is another good hedging plant, growing fairly fast to 12-15', and about 3-5' wide. You can fairly easily find 5 gallon plants, at about 4-6' tall - and pay more for them than 1 gal. - so they might be good where you want immediate height. While running bamboos will provide a solid screen once they are established, they will also RUN!! I have pulled out runners that are up to 8' long, and about 6" deep, in the spring. As long as you mow faithfully, you can keep them in check. However, even asphalt won't stop them from coming up - cement MIGHT! You can buy barriers, but you need to make a 3' deep trench for the barrier to be effective, and even then, you will probably have to watch for escapees over the top. Clumping bamboos are much better behaved, and will expand, but stay where you plant them.

Here's some more info: It will be approximately 180 feet long and approximately five feet tall. We need a very traditional formally pruned hedge to act as a fence. An evergreen ground cover will be planted on the outer side of the hedge to spill over the small slope which runs in front of the entire length of the hedge. Everything will be regularly pruned. It will have an iron gate at the entrance which opens to a long brick or stone path. The soil for the whole thing is rock-hard solid red clay. I live in a historic 160-year-old Greek Revival/Italianate home. Traditional Boxwood is our first choice if it wasn't such a slow grower. Many thanks in advance!

I have been reading about lacebugs and it is a big concern here. Apparently the "hairier" leafed varieties (Impeditum??) are less susceptible. I was talking to a woman last week and she said that she has managed to keep them at bay by keeping a close watch on the leaves and washing the undersides of the leaves if she sees evidence of their presence. A rhododendron garden in Portland is using some type of sprinkler system to spray upward from underneath the leaves.

Hi Robyn. Could I suggest that an important consideration is to plant species which have the best chances of survival. For this reason, I'd be very much inclined to go for local species which, naturally, have evolved with the local soil & climatic conditions. To get an idea of which species are local you could visit your nearest patch of relatively undisturbed bushland & take notes. Take along someone with plant identification skills if you don't have these skills yourself. You might also want to talk with the environment office at the Toowoomba Regional Council about the local species which would meet your criteria & might be best suited for your property, especially for the boggy area. I note that Forest Red Gum Eucalyptus tereticornis seems to be local to you. Did you plant that one or is it a remnant of the forest which once covered your property? This species would seem to be one that would be suitable for you as it is fast growing. Silky Oak Grevillea robusta is now rather rare in its natural range which is close to Toowoomba. They naturally grow along creek lines so might grow fastest in your seasonally boggy parts. But they do well in dry conditions. I have a couple of healthy but slow growing ones where I live with an average rainfall of only 475 mm. I believe they're used as a street tree in Alice Springs & there are several very tall specimens in Murray Bridge SA with an average rainfall of about 400mm. Are yours in boggy or dry parts? Or both?