Seconding Arborvitae for your area (I'm in northern Illinois, about an hour from you). Proper name: northern white-cedar --- Cupressaceae Thuja occidentalis L Cultivars: 'Aurea' - A golden globe that needs little shearing. 'Boisbraind' - A plant 10 feet tall with dark green, burn resistant foliage. 'Brabant' - This cultivar tends to form one central leader thus minimizing stem damage from winter snows. 'Brandon' - A fast-growing, cone-shaped plant about 15 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Reported as suitable for use on harsh sites. 'Chalet' - A narrow plant with a rounded top and lime- green foliage. It will be 10 to 15 feet tall. 'Compact American' - A compact, pyramidal form reaching a height of 25 feet and a spread of 8 feet. 'Danica' - A slow-growing, compact globe with dark green foliage. 'Degroot's Spire' - A narrow, columnar form. 'Douglasii Pyramidalis' - A dense, columnar form with twisted dark green foliage. 'Elegantissima' - A slow-growing, dense plant with yellow branch tips. 'Filiformis' - A pendulous plant with long, thread-like branchlets and bright green new growth. 'George Peabody' - A broad, upright plant with yellow foliage. The foliage becomes more orange in winter. 'Gold Cargo' - A cultivar with gold foliage that is reported to resist winterburn. The plant can be 25 feet tall and 6 feet wide. 'Golden' - A broad, upright form with bright yellow new growth. 'Golden Globe' - A uniform oval with foliage a soft yellow. 'Hetz Midget' - A slow-growing, compact plant. 'Hetz Wintergreen' - A narrow, upright form reaching a height of 60 feet. 'Holmstrup' - Dark green foliage that holds its color in winter. Broadly pyramidal. 'Little Gem' - A globe-shaped plant reaching a height of about 3 feet. 'Little Giant' - A slow-growing, globe-shaped plant with bright green foliage all year. 'Masonic' - Pyramidal form about 25 feet tall and 5 feet wide. 'Niagara Compact' - A globe-shaped plant more compact than 'Woodwardii'. 'Nigra' - A symmetrical form with good dark green foliage color. 'Pendula' - An open, weeping form with dark green foliage. 'Pygmy Globe' - A dwarf, globe-shaped plant with bright green foliage. Needs little shearing. 'Pyramidalis' - A narrow, columnar plant often used for screens. 'Rheingold' - Yellow foliage that becomes orange yellow in winter. 'Sherman' - A pyramidal form reaching a height of 30 feet and a spread of 12 feet. 'Sherwood Moss' - A dwarf plant 4 to 6 feet tall. 'Smaragd' ('Emerald') - Narrow habit with glossy green summer color. Reported as resistant to spider mites. Plants will be about 15 feet tall and 4 feet wide. 'Sudworthii' - Upright, broad plant with yellow foliage. 'Sunkist' - A compact, broad plant with orange-yellow foliage. 'Techny' ('Mission') - A fast-growing plant with dark green foliage. Usually about 15 feet tall. 'Tiny Tim' - A compact, upright mounding plant. 'Umbraculifera' - A rounded, irregular plant, nearly 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide. 'Unicorn' - A narrowly compact plant with dark green foliage. 'Wareana' - A slow-growing, broadly upright plant. 'Wintergreen' - A pyramidal form reaching a height of 30 feet that retains good green color in winter. 'Woodwardii' - A rounded form that retains its shape without shearing. 'Yellow Ribbon' - A narrow, upright habit is combined with yellow foliage all year.

We grow hops as an effective screen. Its deciduous however, so it doesn't provide a screening throughout the year, and it needs good support (something to twine onto as it grows). I wonder if you could somehow tie a high, taught rope across the area you want to screen, and hang twine down from that high, horizontal support. The vines will grow up string, but the system of support will need to be stout, as the vines weigh a ton (vigorous plants are loaded with water). Hops are a perennial vine. They will die back to the ground each fall. I cut the old vines down each fall or spring before any new growth starts coming onto the trellis I grow them up. They seem to grow about 6 inches a day during their most vigorous period of spring growth. Lovely leaves. Our plants often get aphids which can be remedied with some timely applications of sprayed on insecticidal soap. Hops is such a strong grower that it can be invasive - spreading to take over garden beds and chocking out other plants. Keep an eye on it and make sure you keep it in bounds (maybe even destroying it if you are moving out/away from your current domicile). We use it to screen our back patio. We don't use the patio until summer (for evening meals and such). Before then it is pretty much too cold to sit outside in the early evenings. By the time the weather has heated up and we are sitting there the hops have grown up and created our summer screen. Works great. We enjoy the look of the hops (fruit of the plant) that grows and ripens in the fall. We don't use them to brew beer, but just enjoy how they look, and when they are dry they can be crushed between your fingers to give off a lovely fragrance. I bet they would be a nice addition to a potpourri.

I think you'll be really happy with the Green Giants :) I have a couple along the outside of our fence, in a grouping of fast-growing evergreens. They have doubled in size in a year. Yikes! I am starting to be a little afraid of the trees I planted. LOL I also used a Leyland Cypress (I know, but hey, it's fast), but my favorite is the Japanese Cryptomeria (Yoshino). Oh my gosh. What a GORGEOUS tree! It has not put on at quite the rate of the Leylands or the Green Giant, but it did grow at least a foot or maybe more in a year. I had bamboo at the other house, and the great thing about it is FAST, and you can use it in a very narrow space where you'd never be able to use a tree with any kind of footprint at all. We had neighbors whose deck overlooked our backyard (much like a viewing platform at a zoo...). There was only about ten or fifteen feet between our houses. The solution was to put in a stand of bamboo, contained in about four feet of space. We had a great screen between us by the second year. BUT, a word of caution: We went to the trouble (and expense) of having someone come out and help us dig out the area and put down a barrier so the bamboo wouldn't escape. This barrier, if I remember, was about 18" deep. Well, guess what? It is reported to have jumped the barrier and is running into the yard. Yipes. But I still think bamboo is just about unbeatable for fast screening. Hopefully the barrier will at least slow it down. ;) If you have the space and are willing to manage new shoots, I say go for it. I love how it looks.

I am not that far from you. We use Magnolia grandifloras here. You need to plant cultivars resistant to wet, snow loads. (More important than cold temp minimums.) My favorites are Magnolia grandiflora..., 'Victoria'..., 'Edith Bogue' and 'Majestic Beauty'. We also have Teddy Bears, but they don't tolerate wet snow as well as the others (in my experience). Brackens Brown, I do not have, but they are supposedly very tolerate to both cold and wet snow. If you want pics..., I can post. Deer love to rut ALL species of Mags (Northern/Southern...) , but we let ours grow to the ground..., deer cannot get near the trunks. Cryptomeria will work well too and I love 'em too. I wish I had room for a Cryptomeria. Good luck and Happy Holidays! P.S., I live among HERDS of deer..., if you know what to plant, and you can still have a LUSH garden.