Suggestions for evergreen hedge?

8 months ago

Husband is suggesting skip laurel and while I’m not totally against that, I do wonder if something a little bit prettier could be had? Maybe a row of some kind of blue juniper? I seem to remember somebody here telling me the blue junipers can be tricky some years back, and after my recent devastating experience with needlecast on my Colorado blue spruce, I don’t want to take any chances without clearing it with the experts here ;-)

Open to any suggestions (that aren’t insanely expensive)… I’m pricing starters of both options I have mentioned above at around $70 apiece and per my measurements, leaving about 6 feet in between, I will need seven. I’m looking to provide a hedge of sorts between our pool and the rest of the world/neighborhood. Nothing that’s going to drop leaves that we have to vacuum out of said pool and nothing we will have to chop down in 10 years because it’s drastically outgrown it’s since. Seasonal trimming is fine.

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Comments (6)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 months ago
big city location ....

sorry if i missed it... ken
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nnmjdklil
Original Author
8 months ago
Oh weird, it used to say my zone right next to my name… I’m just outside of Baltimore, zone 7
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you dont mention how big your property is.. nor what your options are regarding how close you need to plant ... or if you have options of planting further into your property ... when i moved to 5 acres ... the hardest lesson to learn... was that i no longer needed to plant within feet of the property line .. and i actually had to move a dozen green giant arbs 10 feet away from the line.. where they actually got more sun.. and less tree root competition ... and started to thrive... i lost 3 or 4 years of growth ... this is akin to peeps planting right on the foundation .. rather than coming out 3 to 5 feet.. to give plants with more potential to thrive a bit better .. also keep in mind.. a few strategically placed trees .. planted between the problem.. and say.. your deck .. can make the problem disappear in the distance ... another alternative.. is to do both .... so if you fail further away ... you will probably succeed further from the problem ... a pic or two of the area.. might help us.. help you ... ken ps: attempting to get instant gratification.. by planting larger plants... often fails... as compared to smaller plants... as the larger go thru greater stresses in harvesting.. moving.. planting... and take a longer time to re-establish .. and a smaller plant.. might settle in.. and in 5 or 10 years.... might outgrow the the larger ...
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Ontario_Canada5a_USDA4b
8 months ago
I suggest an evergreen species (not a cultivar) that is native to where you are, because a hedge is a monoculture.

For example, if there are Eastern White Cedar forests where you are, then use it for your hedge. Your monoculture hedge will only die if the Eastern White Cedar forests around you die. Anything else carries a higher monoculture risk.

Note that in a hedge, the characteristic appearance of the individual specimens disappears in the overall appearance of the hedge, regardless of whatever evergreen (or any other plant) you use. The beauty of a hedge comes from the uniform mass planting, IMHO of course.

Be patient and good luck!
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 months ago
The risks of monoculture plantings tend to be exaggerated. Rarely will one encounter some sort of pathogen or insect issue that will wipe out multiple adjacent plantings. I can only think of a couple of plants that might apply to and the risks of planting them en masse have been widely publicized. Skip laurels are not fazed by much of anything other than severe drought so a pretty safe (and popular) choice.

As to something "prettier", I guess that depends on what you find "pretty" :-) Nothing wrong with the laurels - fragrant white flowers in spring and glossy dark green leaves - but any other flowering broadleaved evergreen of size popular in your area would work. Personally, I find conifer hedges pretty uninteresting.
Ontario_Canada5a_USDA4b
8 months ago
Well, gardengal48, before I installed a hedge at my previous property, I researched the issue for nearly a year, drove and looked around and I have seen hedges that died, in part or in total, and I still see dying hedges when I drive around, monoculture death is definitely not uncommon.

In contrast, my native arborvitae hedge that I installed several decades ago is still thriving, I know it because it's not far away from where I currently am :-)

As to pretty, you can have a pretty stand alone specimen to your own liking even, but if you mass plant that specimen, then the overall effect will become pretty garish in a garden setting, IMHO. A 'boring' more subdued stand alone specimen is more suitable for mass planting to create a beautiful hedge, that's what I meant in my previous post, and that's again IMHO :-)
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nnmjdklil
Original Author
8 months ago
Fair enough. And I’m not sure what I mean by prettier either lol just I guess that for some reason blue green and yellow green have always struck me stronger in the feels than green green. Having said that, a skip laurel definitely checks all of my boxes as far as ease of maintenance and size requirements, Evergreen leaves etc. plus I honestly didn’t know they had fragrant flowers So I may just pick these up later today. Thanks guys :-)
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Suggestions for evergreen hedge?

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Suggestions for evergreen hedge?

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

nnmjdklilOriginal Author

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