Tallest, narrowest fastigiate tree suggestions for privacy
Hello, all.
Can anyone with good knowledge of trees recommend the fastest growing, disease resistant, fastigiate columnar tree that's attractive and can serve as privacy? I'd like my new trees to grow at least 30ft. Higher would be better but they can't get too wide. They could be 12-14ft in diameter. My goal is to block our view of these town homes that are being built on what was once a spacious lot for a single family home. See photos. Six town homes are now being crammed into what was once a small home with a huge backyard. I want to block our view of these disgusting boxes as much as humanly or....arboreally possible. :)
This is our backyard, by the way, where I will be planting. We use our backyard as a parking lot for several cars. We don't ever drive too close to the cliff of our retaining wall for obvious reasons. So if I plant something very close to the edge it can extend about 3-5 feet from center in all directions without being in our way and will not touch the new homes being built.
I want to plant something that will offer me the most privacy from top to bottom at the edge of our retaining wall. Oh, and if you were worried about the roots pushing up against our retaining wall causing failure we had a 40ft tall horse chestnut tree that was left to grow at the very edge of the retaining wall which caused no damage. With a width of nearly the same (40ft) I'm guessing and hoping that a much narrower columnar tree would cause no issues for our wall. Our retaining wall consists of boulders that interlock and slightly angle toward our property (the wall is ours). We cut the large tree down because the sap from the blossoms got all over our cars and the neighbors complained of falling spiky horse chestnuts. I had one fall on me once. Those spikes are not pleasant. It was so annoying with suckers growing everywhere in addition to the chestnuts themselves germinating everywhere.
I'm happy to keep it simple by planting a row of the same species. I could live with trees that have somewhat of a bare trunk (and therefore don't offer total blockage/privacy from the ground up). Evergreens are ideal but deciduous can be nice too like the Mountain Sentinel Aspen Tree or the Armstrong Gold Maple. I'm also kinda loving the Liquidambar styraciflua Slender Silhouette SweetGum. The height and width seem perfect for my needs. But it seems impossible to find anywhere locally and even through mail order. I could live with bare branches in the wintertime. I'm even considering the Italian Cypress since it is very narrow. But some articles online I've read about potential diseases that afflict the Italian Cypress kinda concern me. I'd even be wiling to live with a little bit of space between the Italian Cypress as they looks quite stately and regal. Planting them to create a solid wall would take away from their dramatic appearance, in my opinion. In the photos I'm including you'll see the Leyland Cypress in pots. We just bought twelve of them for a great price at Home Depot and were going to try and train them into a living hedge. But since they are going to be so close to a cliff with a 12ft drop I don't want to risk serious injury by falling in the process of manicuring them 2-3x annually. I didn't think it through when we bought them but thankfully I can return them. It's too bad, I think they are so beautiful.
We don't want to plant bamboo; that's not the look we're going for. We also want to plant as close to our house as possible and the neighbors' garage (where the old horse chestnut used to grow) in order to create the longest solid looking row as possible but of course we don't want to cause any foundation issues. I read online that noninvasive species can be planted as close as 4ft to the house. Is this really possible? I'm hoping it is.
I know all my criteria make for a tall order but I'm willing to be flexible. We are also thinking of the Green Giant Thuja arborvitae. But that's such a ubiquitous tree in the Seattle area; I'd like to plant something more interesting if possible.
Sorry to ramble on so long. Just wanted to be as thorough as I possible in describing what I'm looking for. Hope to get some suggestions. Thank you.
Comments (13)
PROYardvaark
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Land scaping suggestion for improving privacy
Comments (25)Green Giants get huge... unless you are truely dedicated to sheering them regularly, I wouldn't recommend them. Also, how will you sheer the fence side? They are awesome trees, but they really want to get big. If you do plant them, they should be at least 3ft of the fence. I don't have any personal experience with Italian Cypress, as it cannot grow here, but it seems like a good choice for your situation. Because they are narrow, you could plant them pretty close together or create a double staggered row. I think 3ft spacing between them it correct for a hedge. If Green Giant grows in your area, you could also consider using Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire'. They are a really nice, narrow evergreen Arborvitae. You could even mix and match, with a backrow of the more shade tolerant 'Degroot's Spire' and a front row of Italian cypress.. Staggered Row: x x x x x x x x x x For more ideas, head over to the conifer forum. Those guys are very active, experts, and eager to help. I know there are plenty of people who live in your zone that can add more ideas than I can, and with first hand experience....See MoreNeed tree ideas for deck privacy screen
Comments (6)Not sure how much height you really need, how fast. One thing to consider is that when you plant to the south, you may not get as much shade as you expect during the actual hot months, when the sun is to the north; and you may get more than you want in early spring and late fall, when the sun is to the south and you want your patio to warm up. Trees to the west-northwest are probably best for shading a patio in most of New England. Take a look at heptacodium - it's quite narrow and in fact is adaptable as far as the number of main trunks. A lovely and unusual tree, and because it flowers late, and has long-lasting, colorful calyxes, it looks good for a long time after the flowers fall. The exfoliating bark is interesting, and a well-grown specimen can look good even when the leaves are gone. It can be found relatively inexpensively because it's not especially hard to propagate and grows fairly fast when it's young. If you don't want messy flower fall, I'd stay away from cherry. Of all the cherries, I'd maybe recommend prunus mume, but it's not reliably hardy in your zone as far as I know. Stewartia is a lovely smaller tree, but prefers some shade. In your zone, it might be fine in sun - I have some in full sun that do well, but it's cooler here on the cape in summer, so you might want to check with your arborist or a local nursery. It can be quite pricey for larger specimens, in my opinion, but it's a great tree. S. pseudocamellia is the most common (and, most people think, the most beautiful) but some other varieties are narrower and might be better in your situation. There are some smaller varieties of katsura (cercidiphyllum) - one of the trees on my "must have" list. One, Heronswood Globe, only reaches 15' - not sure if that's tall enough for you. That's one of the most beautiful trees - no flowers, but really great foliage, lovely color and shape....See Moreneed privacy hedges/trees for area shaded by pine trees
Comments (6)Immediate full coverage is going to be difficult to achieve......sorry. The landscaper was correct - few conifers will establish in heavy shade and with that much root competition, especially ones with any size on them to begin with. Aucuba japonica, Japanese laurel, is a very shade tolerant broadleaf evergreen shrub. It will grow in almost total shade and is relatively drought tolerant. But it is probable that the largest you could find to plant will only be about 3-4' to begin with and you will have to be patient while they grow. Getting them enough water to begin with will help establishment and encourage more rapid growth. But it will be a few years until they reach a height to provide much screening. They can get 10-12' eventually. Another option is bamboo. Don't freak out! I am referring to a cold hardy clumping bamboo, like one of the Fargesia species. Clumping bamboos are very well behaved - they do not spread aggressively like a running bamboo, but remain in a controlled clump like a very large ornamental grass. Fargesia is very shade tolerant and will take temps down to 0F. Again, you will need to provide adequate water while it is establishing, perhaps for the first couple of growing seasons. The advantage of a bamboo is that it will already have some serious height to it - you will likely find plants available that are already 6-8' tall - and it puts on height rapidly. Once established, new canes emerging will grow rapidly to the full mature height. Depending on the species, Fargesia will grow 8-20' tall....See MoreIdeas for trees/shrubs for privacy along sides of yard...PICS include
Comments (5)That picture brings me a sense of instant happiness, haha! Thank you for taking the time to throw that together! What types of plants are those? And is the pic at least relatively to scale...as in I could fit those in that area? Fence to driveway is ~13 feet width. I guess we could stop the line of trees a little short of the street and at least see a little bit of our fence poking through......See More
Embothrium
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agoEmbothrium
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoabc1971
4 years ago
blakrab Centex
4 years agoabc1971
4 years agokitasei
4 years agoabc1971
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
maackia
4 years agoabc1971
4 years agoabc1971
4 years agoAlso wanted to provide a couple of photos of my trees that I planted. I'm going to start another thread to see if I can get some input about them. On two of the trees the central stem or branch at the top bent and I have no other option but to cut them off. I'm concerned that this will now somehow stunt or negatively affect the growth pattern of these trees. If anyone with knowledge on this type of tree or that can point me in the right direction to let me know if I'm worrying over nothing - I'd appreciate it greatly if you could chime in.
Before buying the trees I saw that some of the tops weren't growing straight up. They were curving quite a bit. I wondered if the tree branches were "etiolating" because they were sitting in pots under a massive tree where they were sitting in heavy shade. So I am under the impression that their recent growth was a bit weak. The combination of this plus transplant shock and planting them where they now receive at least seven hours of sun made the top central branch collapse. See photos.
I'm hoping that the best case scenario is that there won't be any major problems in the long run. They will pick up and sprout new nodes and continue to grow tall. And maybe I can even try to propagate the tops that have bent off. They're approximately 14" which is probably a whole year's worth of growth.
I staked them using 8ft tall cedar 2x2 using cotton cloth fabric (from old t-shirts). From what I earned online you should give them ten gallons of water per inch of tree caliper. They are approximately 1.5" in diameter or caliper now. So I'm to give them fifteen gallons of water a week? That seems like a lot. What I'm doing now for an easy cheap solution is placing a two gallon bucket that has a 1/8" drilled hole at the bottom directly on the soil right above the roots. This allows me to quickly fill the bucket with water from the hose while the water slowly seeps into the ground without washing away. I do this with my rosebushes, other shrubs and Mediterranean palm tree and they're quite happy.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)