how close are they now.. it would be a waste of effort.. to place this rather LARGE tree.. too close to a driveway .... and dont forget.. you need 3 to 4 feet of grass.. at the drive.. to throw open a car door and exit the vehicle ... IMHO ... if they are 10 to 15 feet from the drive.. that would be about perfect ... any closer.. and you will be ruining them thru pruning in just a few years .. ken

Fairly close to you. BOTANY SHOP GARDEN CENTER : Green Giants : Green Giant Gallery : Butterfly Bush : Red Maples : Endless Summer Hydrangea : : Knockout Roses : American Elm : More Trees & Shrubs : About Us : Links : WE SHIP AND PLANT ALL SUMMER-JUST ADD WATER Click here for planting instructions THUJA "GREEN GIANT" CONIFER click picture for more pictures A Fast Growing Tree BUY HERE Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment Thuja Green Giant is becoming more and more popular among landscapers, growers, and homeowners alike. This hardy, fast growing, conifer makes a perfect privacy screen in just a few short years. Green Giant will grow from 3 to 5 feet per year and will eventually grow to 50 feet or more with a fairly narrow spread. The color is a deep lustrous green and is pleasantly fragrant. Green Giant will grow in a wide range of soils in zones 5 to 8 and prefers a deep well drained fertile soil although it adapts well to frequently saturated clay soils. This is a tough tree and will not easily suffer damage from high wind or heavy ice and snow loads. Green Giant is drought tolerant after it is well established, exhibits no significant pest or disease problems, is deer and bagworm resistant and is hardy to -25F. This new USDA US National Arboretum release as Green Giant has been evaluated since 1967 and will become the outstanding alternative screening-evergreen to the disease prone Leyland Cypress in the south and to the Hemlocks that are dying throughout New England. Click here for more information. Plant 5 to 6 feet apart for a really fast privacy screen, otherwise 10-12 feet apart. Green Giant can be trimmed to any height and width. Click here for comparison and here for links to other articles on Green Giant. Click here to view plants. Click here for planting dates and instructions and click here for shipping dates and zones. We comply with stringent phyto-sanitation rules and can ship Green Giants to the 48 contiguous states all year. Click here to view the National Arboretum Fact Sheet. We ship a lot of Green Giants to Mid-Florida and southern California, zone 9, where they do well Rate Botany Shop Garden Center at the: Rate Botany Shop Garden Center at the Garden Watchdog Gift certificates for those special occasions - $25.00 TO $300.00 click here To buy gift certificates for the exact amount , including shipping costs, for any of our plants call our toll free number Please note: There is a $8.00 minimum shipping charge on all orders. Questions or comments? mailto: Info@botanyshop.com Three purchase options: * Choose secure on-line ordering * Call toll free--1-888-855-3300 * Print our 2 page order form and mail it in. click to enlarge 8 to 11 inch Thuja "Green Giant" in a Jiffy-7 Peat-Pot Summer & Fall Special @ $2.50ea. Plus S&H @ $0.50ea. Minimum shipping charge $8.00 We prefer to winter ship & plant this size to zone 7 and south through southern Florida and most of California, Washington and Oregon Click this link for your zone: USDA HARDINESS ZONE MAP Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity click to enlarge 18 to 24 inch Thuja "Green Giant" in quart container.--- Summer & Fall Special --- @ $6.00ea. Plus S&H @ $2.50ea Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Next available shipping date is June 18 2007 click to enlarge 24 to 30 inch Thuja "Green Giant" in 1 gallon container --- Summer and Fall --- 1-10 @ $14.00ea.---11+ @ $12.00ea. Plus S&H @ $5.00ea Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Larger plants subject to oversize shipping charges WE SHIP AND PLANT ALL SUMMER but check our recommended planting dates for your area, or call us at 1-888-855-3300 Click here for planting instructions click to enlarge 3 1/2 - 4 foot Thuja "Green Giant" in 3 gallon container Summer & Fall Special $40.00 each (reg. $45.00ea.) Plus S&H @ $30.00ea Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Will be available for shipping in mid-July 2007 click to enlarge Buy Two 3 1/2 - 4 foot Thuja "Green Giants" in 3 gallon containers Summer & Fall Special $80.00 Plus S&H @ $40.00. Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Will be available for shipping in mid-July 2007 click to enlarge 4 1/2 to 5 foot Thuja "Green Giant" in 5 gallon containers Summer & Fall Special $55.00 ea. Plus S&H @ $40.00 ea. Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Will be available for shipping in mid-July 2007 click to enlarge Buy Two 4 1/2 to 5 foot Thuja "Green Giants" in 5 gallon containers Summer & Fall Special $110.00 Plus S&H @ $50.00 Purchase in multiples of 2 and save $40.00 on shipping costs. We can ship 2 plants in each box. Order and pay now for Guaranteed shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Will be available for shipping in mid-July 2007 Click to enlarge 8 to 9 foot Thuja "Green Giants" in 20 gallon containers $180.00 ea. Picked-up at Joplin, MO or call for shipping arrangements Summer & Fall Special Order and pay now for Guaranteed Spring shipment A Fast Growing Tree Quantity Rustic Red Cedar Creations WE SHIP AND PLANT ALL year but check our recommended planting dates for your area, or call us at 1-888-855-3300 Click here for planting instructions In addition to Green Giant, we offer for sale: Order and pay now for Guaranteed Summer and Fall shipment * Knock Out Rose AARS® Winner Rosa 'Radrazz' PP#11836 ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF THIS PATENTED PLANT WITHOUT LICENSE IS PROHIBITED Knock Out Rose is a compact, tidy shrub rose and resistant to black-spot. Blooms are fire engine red in cool weather and cherry red in the summer months. The foliage is a dark purplish green and turns to burgundy in the fall. Tough foliage and blooms resist Japanese beetles. Knockout is drought tolerant and requires only 3 to 4 hours of sunlight per day maturing to a 3 foot x 3 foot winter hardy shrub. * Blushing Knock Out Rose Rosa 'Radyod' PPAF Blushing Knock Out Rose is a tough and hardy shrub type rose with outstanding disease resistance. Blooms are light pink gradually changing to shell pink as the bloom ages. Leaves are a mossy green with blue hues. Blushing Knock Out will bloom early in the Spring and continue blooming until the first hard frost in the Fall. Blushing Knock Out is drought tolerant, Blackspot resistant, mildew tolerant and self-cleaning. An excellent choice for a trouble free rose garden. Great plant for hedge, border or foundation planting. * Pink Knock Out Rose Rosa 'Radcon' PPAF Pink Knock Out Rose is a tough and hardy shrub type rose (3x4) with outstanding disease resistance. Blooms are a powerful pink. Leaves are a mossy green with blue hues. Plant anywhere that gets 5 or more hours of direct sunlight each day. Thrives in humid climates. Pink Knock Out will bloom early in the Spring and continue blooming until the first hard frost in the Fall. Pink Knock Out is drought tolerant, Blackspot resistant, mildew tolerant and self-cleaning. An excellent choice for a trouble free rose garden. Great plant for hedge, border or foundation planting. * * Valley Forge - New Harmony - Princeton The new American elms, Valley Forge and New Harmony, recently released by the U S National Arboretum, and Princeton released by a grower in Princeton NJ in 1922 have all proved to be highly tolerant to Dutch Elm Disease and now present a new opportunity to plant an old American favorite, * Alee - New lacebark elm variety- exfoliating bark creates a mosaic of orange, tan and grey. Alee will ship in the Spring of 2007 - * Frontier - New Asian hybrid elm tree variety developed by Dr. Denny Townsend. One of the best, with red new-growth and long lasting reddish-purple to burgundy Fall color. Disease tolerant. * Dawn Redwood - Metasequoia glyptostroboides. This beautiful and unique tree will grow to 40 to 50' in 20 yrs. Matures at 70 to 100' with a spread of 25'. Hardy in zones 5 to 8. * Red maples Autumn Blaze, Brandywine, Somerset and Sun Valley. All are superior red maple trees. They all display brilliant fall color, and * Butterfly bush (buddleia) in 11 outstanding varieties. Click here to view our gallery of Butterfly Bush photos * Canada Red Choke Cherry - Canada Red Choke Cherry is a small tree, maturing at about 20-25 feet in height with a rounded spread of 20 feet. Foliage is a medium green turning yellow-orange in the fall. Has white flowers in late April. Very attractive to wildlife. Tissue cultured. Now available. Persian Ironwood Parrotia - Persian Ironwood Parrotia is comparatively small tree reaching heights of 20-40 feet with moderate growth. It has grayish exfoliating bark and a mottled fall color. It will tolerate full sun and drought conditions. Golden Glory Dogwood - Golden Glory Dogwood is an excellent, small, deciduous tree with exfoliating bark and produces 1" cherry-red oblong fruit that attracts birds. It will produce vivid yellow flowers from mid-February through March. Golden Glory matures at 25 feet in height with a 20 foot spread in full or part sun. It has good resistance to pests and to deer, is drought tolerant and adapts well to different types of soil. Hardy zones 4-7. Hydrangea Macrophylla - We specialize in cold hardy, (remontant) re-blooming pink or blue mophead hydrangea Macrophylla varieties Endless Summer, Penny Mac, David Ramsey, Oak Hill, and Decator Blue hydrangea that continue to bloom through the summer and fall every year. They will produce magnificent pink to grape to blue blooms depending on the Ph of your soil and availability of Al via Aluminum Sulfate. Avondale Chinese Redbud - Avondale Chinese Redbud is an attractive small tree or shrub. Spring flowers are a vivid magenta-ping in great profusion. Multi-stemmed, upright-rounded to oval-rounded shape. Leaves are a lustrous dark green, typically hart shaped and 5 - 6" long x 5 - 6 inches wide. Grows 6 - 10' high and wide, occasionally to 15 feet. Zones 6 to 8 (9) Missouri residents add 7.825% state sales tax. We guarantee all plants for 30 days and certify them to be healthy and disease free and to be true to variety. If you prefer..... Call toll free 1-888-855-3300 or click here to print our order form and submit it along with your personal check or money-order. We ship UPS only on Monday of each week. Orders submitted Monday thru Friday will be shipped the following Monday. You will almost always receive your order by Thursday or Friday of the same week. Allow 2 weeks for delivery on all orders submitted by mail. Fax 1-888-844-8198. 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Your initial post didn't indicate that you had purchased the trees, so there was no way of knowing that. Also, since, as it turns out, you hadn't yet planted them, there was time to reconsider 1) using them at all, and 2) their location. By at least moving them out a little, you may have made things a little better (or at least bought yourself a little time). You also didn't give us details about your property in your initial post. In a great many (most?) circumstances, planting that close to a fence would not be a requirement. However, I guess there are some yards were space is so limited that you just couldn't plant at a more reasonable distance. In even an "average size" yard, planting 2' away from a fence would be a "wrong place", while moving out at least say 10' or so would be a much better location. If it were me and I was planning on living at the location for the long-term, I would at least consider (not necessarily decide on) doing away with them, at least at their current location, and just consider it a cost of learning. One of my biggest considerations would be the possibility that the trees would infringe on the neighbor's property. You will indeed be an unusual neighbor if, in 10 years, you are still keeping these trees in check. And, over time, this task will become more and more difficult as the trees become larger and larger. I don't know your particular situation, but it sounds like this potential problem might exist there. One of the most common complaints I see here on GardenWeb is related to neighbors planting stuff that infringes on other's property. It's happened to me, personally, both here at my house and at my arboretum. In both instances, the neighbors seem to have forgotten that their tiny little trees would one day get much larger. When I plant things, I always consider how they will impact neighboring properties. I wouldn't even normally plant large-growing trees at a client's location where they might significantly infringe on neighboring properties (even though I probably would be around when they got big).

you are correct that the issue was terminology .. you can shear arbs.. any arbs.. into boxes that look like walls... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sheared+arborvitea&t=ffab&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images its beyond me.. why you would choose one of the fastest growing trees and then try to shear it into submission ... tell us this wasnt your decision ... my gut tells me.. just get rid of it.. and plant something more appropriate to the space ... but on the other hand.. you can learn a lot about pruning and shearing.. and when you screw it up in 5 or 10 years.. you can cut it flush to the ground then ... this will probably be.. when you will be forced to rent of buy a cherry picker or a 20 foot ladder to do the job ... ken ps: i would NEVER limb up an arb ...and a skirt on a conifer.. is the part that grows down to the ground.. and then stays on the ground.. like a long skirt ... the conifer society lists all this plants as having skirts.. i dont have time to look at them for you .. have fun: https://conifersociety.org/search/?q=skirt