Questions on Escallonia Hedge Variants
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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Comments (13)
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
4 years agoRelated Discussions
How to Prune
Comments (8)this is the really hard part ... so i will yell ... JUST LEAVE IT ALONE.... by allowing.. introducing.. light into the center of the shrub... with no insult to the root system ... it will bud explosively ... but as i said.. it might take a season or two to fill in ... mind you.. my growing season is only 5 months.. whereas your is probably 10.. so i can not hazard any guess.. as to how fast it will recover .. especially with your really cold weather.. lol ... i see some twine or wire in there.. while you were cutting it out.. did you find any evidence of a prior break.. that someone tried to wire the plant back together??? ... frankly.. it looks like someone fell into the bush a while back [like a year or two ago] ... just by the size of the hole ... any speculation???? when pruning or shaping shrubs... the key is to know when they bloom ... and to trim after.. so you can enjoy the bloom.. i see you left the yellowing part ... now at about 9 oclock on the last pic .... dont be surprised if that goes.. in the heat of summer ... ken...See MoreNeed recommendations for low maintenance privacy hedge for PNW
Comments (12)If you want a deeper green than English laurel, Pacific wax myrtle may not be the right plant. Foliage is a bright, grassy green from a distance, as the leaf reverse is a lighter color than the top. Once established, this is a rapidly growing shrub, on par with the growth rate of the laurels. Spread is variable, but if left unpruned could be 8-10', perhaps wider. This shrub is quite amenable to pruning and it can be hedged if necessary although looks infintely better if allowed to assume its natural, somewhat loose habit. It is not overly expensive, although larger sizes initially can jack up the price if you are impatient. Availability can be sketchy - this is a very popular shrub for this area for a variety of reasons and demand typically seems to exceed supply....See MoreHedge ideas - windy location, mild climate and acidic soil...
Comments (48)Kaspar, if you're still looking in....just to give my tuppence worth, or 2 cents for the locals.... ...to be perfectly frank, the appearance of the wall with it's broken fencing and tatty exterior generally in the background, bins and other debris lying around... doesn't warrant anything too exotic in my opinion, even though your climate supports it... unless you have ambitions to upgrade the site... ...I would keep it simple and plant a hedge of Euonymus japonica 'ovatus aureus' along that wall, for a bright variegated effect, if you don't mind that... alternatively the plain dark green version with an occasional variegated plant thrown in... ...you have some useful wire netting fence behind, on which I would grow an easy Clematis viticella 'Etoile Violette'... which would cover that fence by mid summer and contrast with the hedge to startle all passers by... but without being too fussy... it flowers June-Sept and pruning is simple, cut to the ground in February... ....to go a bit further and if you want to startle and amaze, then Clematis 'Bill Mackenzie', another easy pruner, would cover that fence and half way up your tree I should think...but I would use the dark green hedge for this... Alternative hedging suggestions that appeal to me would be Rosemary 'Miss Jessups Upright' or Lavender intermedia 'Grosso'... ...none of these would object to your conditions... ...put some soil into those gaps in the wall and you could grow some attractive Cornish wall plants like Lampranthus, Aubrietia or Alyssum etc... to cascade down... ...at least cover that white pipe to the left there... happy choosing.......See MoreViberum Pragense as privacy screen / hedge
Comments (18)Evergreen plants will also drop spent parts on the neighbor's lawn. And probably also shade it out more effectively than deciduous trees. So now there are two other aspects of the proposed scheme where a tall planting over along the fence may not be the optimum way to achieve the desired level of privacy. In other words if you don't want to affect the neighbor's lawn at all, including merely dropping leaves etc. on it you are simply not going to be able to have a tall hedge or screen along that fence line. It's too bad the wire fence isn't the maximum height allowed by local codes (6 ft.?). Then you could achieve a lot of screening merely by covering it with vines, such as the clematis. This approach would occupy minimal horizontal space and vigorous kinds like that develop rapidly. Even this arrangement would still produce a shadow, generate debris - and in addition would have to be pruned to keep it close to the fence - on both sides of the fence. A big part of the problem is that the neighbor's have done nothing to give themselves privacy from you, on their side of the fence. I have the same situation here. In addition I have had them reach over my similar height wire fence - I am not the one that had it installed, would have gone to the full 6 ft. height allowed if I had - and cut off part of a screening planting I had in place, throw the prunings down on my side of the fence because "it drops leaves on our bark". So I took the planting out. Now they complain about my sensor activated flood lights, which "shine in our bedroom window". Point being is if there is any possibility of similar reactions from your neighbors you again may want to instead focus on doing what you can over near where you are when you think you are too open to view, instead of over by the fence....See Morewestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
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