What gardening zone are you in?

Not sure what is NJ?

Hi laurienj9! There are different gardening zones within the state of New Jersey. Here is a map that shows you the different zones:

I would highly recommend planting roses. They have stunning flowers, would look nice against your neighbor's bushes, and smell lovely too. If you look at the map and tell me your gardening zone, I can recommend specific varieties. I hope this helps!

damask_rose_5 : )

Where are we talking about? In the strip between the pavement and the hedge? The 'Green Giant' - notice the second word in the name - hedge that is already touching the edge of the strip in some places, is going to go on to become multiple times taller and wider than it is now? (Unless he starts shearing it into a formal one).

Roses would look good in front of the conifer foliage in the meantime. Particularly red ones. Just set them far enough back from the drive that they don't start to reach over it, snag or scratch persons or vehicles.

Looks like I am in zone 6b. Roses sound nice (knockout?). My neighbor also suggested azaleas when I was out there taking these pictures

Christopher C Nc - I have roses along my driveway and they look beautiful with very little maintenance. A major pruning is only required once a year and the thorns are very easy to avoid, and there are thorn-less varieties of roses. The flowers that you mentioned would look lovely as well.

laurienj9 - While knockout roses are beautiful, there are many varieties that are even more beautiful and that have a lovely scent too. Would you want a solid color hedge of roses, (and if so, which color?) or would you want to have different colored roses. If you don't want to plant roses, I would also recommend peonies, which bloom in the spring and form a lovely bush until frost, or dinner plate dahlias, which form huge, stunning blooms; they come up in late spring and bloom until frost. Azaleas would be lovely too, but they like light shade, so you could plant them there if your neighbor plans on having their bushes grow bigger without trimming them into a hedge, or you could plant some azaleas that will grow in full sun like one of the Encore varieties. Hydrangeas would probably be my number one choice because they tolerate full sun to shade, so if your neighbor's bushes grow bigger, they will still grow beautifully.

Good luck!

damask_rose_5 : )

Rose hedge

Peony hedge

Dahlias

Hydrangea hedge

Encore azalea hedge

I'm sorry but none of the plants mentioned are going to work well in that location. Those aren't bushes the neighbor planted.....they are flipping great trees!! And they grow fast and wide. Those are Green Giants, not your standard narrow, columnar arborvitae. They will get as much as 50' tall and 15-20 feet wide!! Even if there is room now for something ornamental to be planted on the OP's side, it will soon be engulfed by the GG's and they will suck up all available soil moisture and hog nutrients. Anything planted there will need to be tough and adaptable.

Go with just an evergreen groundcover of your choice......Cotoneaster dammeri, Pachysandra, Vinca minor (if not invasive in your area), etc. Virtually no maintenance and when the trees grow enough to shade the GC out, no big deal.

It always surprises me how often roses get suggested for various planting situations. They are one of the highest maintenance plants one can include in a garden!

Oops...I assumed that they would grow kind of like juniper. I have never seen those types of trees in my area. You could do something small and shade tolerant then, maybe azaleas or pansies/violas, or one of the plants recommended by gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), although I must admit I'm partial to flowers. The myrtle sounds really nice for the area.

Although roses would not be good for that spot, for me personally, I find them to be really low maintenance. They tolerate lots of neglect. I have two roses (All American Magic and Candy Land) that I planted in full shade in soil that's hard like a rock, they get at most an hour of sun in the morning, never been pruned, only fertilized once in the spring, and they bloom beautifully for me every year.

Low groundcover.

You could have a riotous border of dahlias for a couple of years until the trees spread. But it wouldn't be a permanent solution and quite possibly, in your climate, you'd need to lift the tubers and store them over winter.

Unless the arborvitae are kept trimmed as a hedge anything planted there will eventually get smothered and shaded out. The tough flowering perennials I suggested are not so different from a low groundcover which will also get smothered and shaded out in time.

I have used daylily planted by large juniper shrubs with the full expectation that they will get covered over, shaded out and eventually decline. In the meantime I have some nice flowers while the juniper grows to size and claims the whole space. And when the daylilies are gone, no big deal.