PIttosporum tenuifolium 'Sliver Sheen' or 'Tasman Ruffles' would be a good choice.

They say it should be in Zone 11, needs protection from harsh afternoon sun and needs pruning every 6-8 weeks.

The other one says the expected size is 5-10 feet in height. 10 feet could work, but if the lower range is also considered normal, I won’t be able to rely on it for privacy.

LOL!! I grow it here in the Seattle area without concern :-) Typically rated to zone 7 but that may be pushing it - zone 8 and above is better. It only needs a light trimming a couple times a year to keep size in check.

(Just an FYI, but YouTube is not a very reputable source for accurate horticultural information)

It might actually do better in Seattle than where i live because i have already had another plant I tried (arborvitae) get sun damage due to severe afternoon sun in the summer.

I need something that can stand up against 2PM sun in inland California.

Pitts are extremely widely grown throughout SoCal. Virtually ALL nurseries sell them!!

You could do Podocarpus as well but that would require a lot more pruning.

I’m sure they can be grown in California, but I am not along the coast in the milder weather areas and they would not be able to be shaded during the hottest portions of the day.

I had junipers (skyrocket) before and really liked them for a couple of years, but they didn’t root deeply enough to be stable. After some heavy wiinds, they all toppled over and were killed.

Not sure if I should try junipers again. I don’t really want to keep them staked for life.

Is there anything that can be done when planting junipers to make sure they root deeply and are wind resistant or is that just the nature of Junipers?

No way does the Pittosporum need z11. My next door neighbour has one.

Maybe Blue Arrow could work, but i just looked up Sky Pencil and it says it grows to 6-8 feet. If it stops growing at 6 feet, it won’t even grow above the fence line Even 8 feet won’t do much for privacy.

I have emerald green arborvitae already in the photo, but a couple of them could not handle the sun exposure when they were planted last summer and look like they will die. The others look like they have more minor recoverable sun damage, but they were also planted a bit too far apart at about 4.5 feet when they would have needed to have been planted closer to 3 feet apart to grow into a privacy hedge.

I’m not sure that even the ones that look salvagable if they were left alone would survive being pulled up and replanted closer together. The roots will be damaged during the transplantation process. Then I would also need to replace the 2 most damaged plants plus add 2 additional plants to fill in the place that would be left after moving them closer together.

So, I may be better off getting rid of all of them and starting over with something else that will not get sun burned and will also reach the height I want at a much faster pace.

Loamy soil with potato sized rocks.

This video says they can provide screening even spaced 5 feet apart. If that’s true, I can leave them spaced the way they are and just replace the most sun damaged ones.

I don’t know what to believe now.

Since these a slow growing, I could waste 5 or 10 years before I realize they will or will not fill in tight enough to provide privacy above the fence line.

The rock mulch doesn’t go up to the trunks. There is a round border around each plant with exposed dirt.

Since this zone 9b with lots of afternoon sun, the summers here may be too much these emerald greens to grow well even if they don’t die. Pulling them up to transplant them closer together may ensure they will die soon or at least take an extra few years to recover from that stress.

So, I think I should replace the 8 emerald greens with something that will be able to better acclimate to Zone 9 summer afternoon sun exposure.

Maybe replace these 8 plants with 10 juniper Blue Arrow or juniper Taylor plants spaced 3 feet apart. These also are not super fast growing, but should at least grow ”less slowly” than the emerald green arborvitae.

I live in California zone 9b and I also recommend pittosporum tenuifolium. We had 5 gallon containers planted several years ago and they reached the height of our 6 foot fence in about two years. The hedge completely obscures our fence (and beyond), affords us tons of privacy, does not scorch in the afternoon sun and doesn’t require a ton of water once established (which is a big consideration due to our extreme drought).

For it to provide privacy, it would need to reliably grow significantly above a 6 ft fence.

If your pittosporum tenuifolium stopped adding height right now, it would still be within the normal size range of that plant.

To block the view of the neighbor’s 2nd story window down into my patio, I think the bare minimum height would need to be around 10 feet. Taller would be better.

Where I have solid patio roof, it needs to just fill in the exposed gap between the top of the fence and the patio cover ceiling.

Where the patio cover roof is more open and latticed, it would need to grow a few feet taller than the patio cover to provide privacy for anyone sitting in that section.

Basically, if their 2nd story window is blocked from my view from where I am sitting or standing in my patio, then they also should not be able to see into my patio from their vantage point.

Pittosporum tenuifolium will easily exceed 10 feet.

Jaxo, unpruned I’ve seen it exceed 16 feet and extend above a second story balcony.

OK, I will seriously consider pittosporum tenuifolium then.

How frequently would I need to prune them to keep them from encroaching into the patio space as shown in the photo I posted above?

What does ”a lot” mean?’

If it’s too much, I need to choose something else.

Why dwarf Italian Cypress over Blue Arrow or Taylor junipers?

Maybe a mix of two or all three?

Apparently, emerald green arborvitae ”prefer” to be planted in zone 7 or below. So, my zone 9 afternoon sun may be a bit much for them.

Also, they were planted at the worst possible time last summer and got sun damage after being transplanted. 6 of the 8 seem like they can survive nonetheless, but they may be planted too far apart (4.5 feet apart center to center) to ever provide a privacy hedge.

So, I may need to cut my losses and replace them with something else that will be happier in zone 9 afternoon sun and plant the new plants close enough that they will definately grow into a hedge this time.

I would prefer not to have to prune at all, but annual or biannual pruning would be OK if that gives me more choices.

They clearly have sun burn damage on the side that faces the western sun.

I found out after they were planted that they should not have been planted durng summer.

If they were planted during a diffetent season, they woukd have more time to acclimate to the sun exposure change.

They may have had more filtered sunlight where they were living at the nursery.

The photo may no be showing the angle clearly.

The back side facing the fence is OK. It got burned from direct sun exposure from the afternoon sun that comes in from that side, not from the heat of a redwood fence.

Other plants were in the same location before these Thuja and none of them had this issue.

The plants that were there before only had an issues after the water was tuned off temporarily and I forgot to turn it back on because I didn’t use that patio for several weeks. By the time it was noticed, it was too late to save them. Then I decided to try the emerald green Thujas, but mid summer was the wrong time to plant them.

It’s a redwood fence. There is black nettng hanging over it that was used to attempt to shade the plants for the rest of the summer afternoons last year, but at least two of them have too much sun damage to be saved.

Yes, I agree with that. So, I’m looking for a replacement that’s rated for zone 9 with full sun.

Dwarf Italian Cypress is rated up to zone 10 and seems like it should stay narrow enough to fit that 30 inch depth designated space no matter how tall it gets. I might even be able to plant them in containers along the fence which should limit their maxiumum growth.

Then the other options are the Taylor and Blue Arrow junipers.

This time I want to make sure they get spaced close enough together that they 100% will grow into a privacy hedge. Every plant I have had there always ended up being spaced too far apart to ever accomplish the goal of blocking the view above the fence into that patio.

I know now is the wrong time to plant new evergreens in this area based on the experience with the getting Thujas last summer. So, when is the ideal time? October or wait until next March?

OK, I would still like to choose the most ideal/optimal time rather than a time that could work, but with a struggle and unnecessary stress on the plant.

So, early fall is better than early spring? In early fall, it will get 9 months of coolish weather instead of only 3 months before the hot and dry weather starts.

It also won’t necessarily be the Italian Cypress unless there are reasons the IC is better for this location than the Taylor or Blue Arrow junipers.

Cypress don’t really grow together enough to get the “privacy hedge” that you are looking for. If you want a true privacy hedge, you will need to prune it several times a year in SoCal where it won’t ever go dormant. Jupiter’s

Junipers will give you height but not very quickly.

What is the expected initial growth rate for dwarf Italian Cypress? (How many years will I save waiting for them to fill in to a privacy hedge by buying 15 gallon sizes that are around 5 ft tall vs very young plants that may ony be 2 ft tall?)

Ikloes, if the Italian Cypress can’t be planted close enough together to make a hedge, what else do you recommend? Why can’t they be planted with 2.5 or 3 foot spacing?

What about the Blue Arrow and Taylor junipers spaced to their mature width so they eventually grow into a hedge?

Do what you’d like. I recommended pittosporum which are pretty and fast -growing because it sounds like you want instant privacy. With junipers, not so much.

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/landscape-italian-cypress-43140.html

Plant Italian cypress trees instead of installing a privacy fence. The plants can be planted as close as 2 to 3 feet apart to form a privacy barrier. They don’t take up much more space than a wooden fence and make a much more attractive natural barrier.

You asked for advice and you are arguing with the suggestions you receive. Italian cypress form columns and not a solid privacy screen and grow verrrry slowly. Do what you’d like and good luck!

I’m looking at the pittosporum also, but apparently it needs ”a lot” of maintenance.

I still don’t know what that means. How many times would it need to be pruned per year to keep it contained in that area?

Several. Gardening is hard work!

Curtains.

I am not set on getting Italian Cypress, I’m looking at all the options.

Not seeing many opinions of the Blue Arrow and Taylor junipers.

”Several?” Does that mean every month? More often? Less often?

Several times per year. Your yard is small. It’s more about containing the depth vs the height.

I would use shades/curtains for a temporary solution while waiting however many years for the plants to fill in, but I want a natural barrier as the long term solution.

Enjoy the journey!

Are these Italian Cypress or dwarf IC?

Looks like a hedge.