Hi Judy! We need dense screening from a golf field on the other side of our wooded area. Actually, not even so much the golf course but the golf balls that seem to fly our way. We get hundreds and hundreds of them a year. It's become dangerous to stand in that part of the yard if there are golfers around. We had a meeting with the golf course management and their response was to put a full time official "guard" on duty on their side of this part of our wooded area to "protect people". So now when we go back there and if there are golfers, he tells us to please stand back or not stand there because a golf ball may come our way. Although I appreciate the golf course's neighborly efforts, perhaps they should have hired someone to train their golfers to play better instead! Lol! They can't put up a fence either and and it's quite an expense to hire someone. I would rather plant something, anything really, as a privacy and protection barrier. That's why I need them to be at least 6' tall and as dense as possible. No screening in the winter would be ok because there are no golfers around then anyway. The advantage to evergreen screening is early Spring protection but we could live without it. We only need to screen about a 12' wide area, this is where they seem to come in mostly. We used to have good screening from all the noxious weeds and weed trees we had back there but we've removed them because they were constantly spreading into our flower beds and grass from the billions of seeds. We'd like to replace them with something else. Although it's an excellent idea, we can't do a fence as fences are not allowed by our city. We also have a hungry deer problem and arborviates don't work here. We've tried them. So now you see our dilemma and why we are desperately in need of help!

I should have been more clear, the hedge isn't mine, I just bought some bare root "sticks" from a near by county. I found that photo while searching for pics of rugosa hedges when considering doing it here. I'm waiting for mine to start breaking their buds and get to growing! Of course, being right next to the lake, it's not as warm here as inland, I don't think it's been warmer than MAYBE 60, but probably in the 50's still. Ha, I hear you regarding Toronto traffic. The QEW makes my hair stand on end. We got a wild hair last year to drive around the lake (Ontario) one day, don't ask me why...but the traffic in that particular area certainly contributed to making for a LONG day. Won't be doing THAT again! Rugosa are pretty tough from my understanding as far as growing conditions, they're also called Beach Roses because they'll grow in sand. They don't like being sprayed or fussed at from what I've heard so they aren't what you're thinking of as a "typical" rose. I have some well established Damask here that are the same way-I know for at least 10 years no one watered, trimmed, mulched, sprayed or even weeded around them. They wouldn't make a good hedge I don't think though. I tried finding Rugosa at nurseries around us, and only one, about an hour away had them. We were int he area so I stopped in-they couldn't even tell me if they were species or a hybrid, and they wanted $25 per plant. Since there are pretty variable heights and bloom times, I opted to wait. Luckily I found out the one county has a sale every spring with various bare root shrubs and trees, so I picked them up from them (10 for $10). I'm not sure all of them will end up viable or not, but it was less for 10 tries knowing they were the species than 1 unknown plant. If not for the winds, I'd try a BUNCH of Queen O The Lakes (just because I love that name) or other easier roses (I have a Queen O the Lakes and it was fine with no spraying, etc last year-I just planted Peace, hopefully it will be like my Peace at my old house and also not need much fussing)-or some other way easier to find rose variety. Hopefully my rugosa fill in and look like that hedge though! This post was edited by eclecticcottage on Thu, May 2, 13 at 16:47

First, laceyvail's statement needs emphasis :-) Nothing will provide immediate privacy screening to that height so you must be prepared to be somewhat patient and tolerate the obtrusiveness of the apartment complex for a few more seasons. Fern pine, Podocarpus gracillor, is an excellent plant choice for this situation, as is Pittosporum tenuifolium. Both grow quite rapidly, are moderately drought tolerant once established, evergreen and can be pruned to the height and width desired. The quote you received is ridiculous - 65 plants for an expanse of 80' is way too many. The closest these plants should be spaced for a dense hedge is 3' apart, which reduces the 65 plants down to about 26!! And if you go with the podo, you can extend that spacing a bit more, as its mature width is 10-15' compared to the pitt's 6-8'. Given that you need quite a bit fewer of these than you were quoted, perhaps you can opt for a larger size initially? Another alternative is bamboo, which has an ability to achieve your height requirements faster than the previous two shrubs. But bamboo tends to be pricier to begin with, requires a containment system if you opt for a running type (tends to establish and fill in faster than the clumpers) and is not as drought tolerant as the shrubs.

Sorry, somehow missed your last post. I have a really difficult time identifying oak trees, so I can't tell you if those are laurels. Regarding their care: I've read/heard that native trees don't need any care, which is probably true, but they'll look better if you do take care. My trees and plants look far better now than when I moved in, just because I've cleaned out the invasives, pulled out the suffocating vines, trimmed the trees and provide a bit of fertilizer every spring. There may be a tutorial online about tree trimming. I took a class at Mounts one year. This is what I remember and what I do: trim off broken limbs (at the joint - sawing under the branch a bit first so it doesn't split off when it's nearly cut through); trim off branches that come off the main leader that when they get larger, look as if they would split off easily in a heavy storm. I also trim branches that hit me in the head when I walk underneath (so mowing and cleaning out weeds and emerging invasives is easier). Every spring I throw around a bit of all purpose fertilizer (local gardening center has a formulation developed for Florida landscapes). I just read an article about trees failing during hurricanes. It mentioned laurel oaks, but also mentioned that the laurels that fell during one of the hurricanes the article noted were mostly the older ones (40 years - which isn't much less than the expected life span of that tree). So I guess I'll plant some little trees around that in 30 -40 years will replace the laurel oaks when they fall!