A wispy, lovely hedge

Hello out there!

I just began working on my FIRST garden! How exciting! An area of about 6 ft by 44 ft in LA, CA.
My hands are splintered and back is killing: I have cleared, tilled and amended my clay-y soil.

Now, what to plant?
I am in need of a (1) narrow (2) easy to maintain (3) grow to about 15 - 20 ft tall privacy hedge for the back. It CAN be wispy! I live on a slope (I'm the highground) and I am looking to lightly hide my back-neighbor's roofline. and make my garden look a little more cosy.

And then I'd love to plants a butterfly and flowering garden in front of the little hedge. And all my culinary herbs in a corner - I've got seedlings sprouting inside the house already!

For the hedge:
I was thinking about boxwood - until I read here that it smells like pee? (oh, no!)
Prunus Carolinas (carolina cherry) seems OK
I am intrigued by the Pittosporum (silver sheen and others) that I have seen on this site....any thoughts about it?
Or I could go with Oleander I suppose, although all the freeways here are lined with them and they are a bit ubiquitous.
Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations are HEARTILTY welcomed.

Thank you!
Monika

are you wanting the hedge and the flowers etc all planted in that six foot width? some bushes will easily be that wide at the bottom , to get to 15 or so feet high.

yes.....but is there anything that i can trim, so that it will be about 3 or so feet in diameter, but grow tall. I am looking to cover the neighbor's roofline. Wispy is fine. Would oleander be a good bet? Thanks so much for any advice!

I don't think oleander will work well for you--unless you get one of the dwarf ones (which won't have the height you want) it'll be hard to keep it to 3' diameter. They tend to be rather round shaped, about as wide as they are tall, and they grow rather vigorously so to keep them narrow like you want will be a challenge I think, plus even if you succeed I'm not sure how good they'd look when they're pruned so drastically from how they would be naturally. I've seen people use Pittosporums this way so those might work, unfortunately I don't know what species/cultivar it is that I've seen used. You might consider something like Thuja or Italian Cypress, these both stay rather skinny without having to put a lot of effort into keeping them pruned. I'm not sure if Thuja gets to 15' tall though and Italian cypresses can get to I think 30-40 ft so the heights may not be what you're looking for.

Is it possible to use something structural to train a vine type plant?? There are so many beautiful flowering vines. This would give you the height without the width. Bouganvilla, Mandavilla or passion flower maybe? I live in Canada, so I don"t know that many varieties of tropical plants.

Some kinds of eucalyptus trees are excellent for hedging, as they grow very quickly - "snow gum" - we planted some at about 3' tall 2 1/2 years ago that are now easily 10 feet, and they are fairly slim in depth. Also, butterfly bushes - Buddlia - grows quickly, takes trimming well, and is a nice hedge.

15 - 20 feet tall is a really tall shrub or small tree. If it's tree like, it will be narrow atthe base and wider above your head. would that work? on the east coast we might see crape myrtle in a spot like that.
Wispy makes me think spirea, but don't know if any get tall enough. Butterfly bush is not likely to get that tall.

I just had a "thunk". What about bamboo. I know that it would go where it wants, but what if you put something in the ground (like sheet metal or something that won't rust) to control where you want it to grow. I imagine it would have to be about 1 foot into the ground so the roots wouldn't go under it. Does anyone know, does bamboo spread by rhizome or stolons.(above or below soil level.) Is this too far fetched??

Spreading bamboo definitely spreads underground, but I think it can jump over barriers as well if you don't keep an eye on it--saw that on some gardening show on TV recently. You might consider a clumping bamboo instead of a running one, they can be equally beautiful but much easier to control.

clumping bamboo for sure- the spreading ability of regular bamboo is legendary~~

ecrane and sally
do you think this would fit the bill for a wispy hedge?

I don't think wispy is the right word to describe bamboo, but you could use it to make a hedge, and you'll be able to see through it to some extent so from a functional standpoint it could work for this situation. But it's really up to Monika to decide whether she likes the look of bamboo for her yard or not, depending on the design of the rest of the landscape bamboo may or may not fit in well.

"Wispy" and "Hedge" as uses for the same plant might be a problem, especially for the ht. you want them to get and still stay narrow in diameter. 20 feet tall is not going to be easy to trim.

"Tiny Towers" Italian Cypress are very manageable...they don't get HUGE like the common one, and they don't get as wide, either.

It sounds like you need something that will stay "flat" yet still grow tall enough to provide you with screening out qualities, and still give you room at the base to plant other things. 6' wide doesn't lend itself to a wide variety of choices.

Grewia caffra, (Lavender Star Flower) will grow tall and stay flat(ish) but you'd need to provide some guy wires to attach it to for that tall of a ht. It grows fast in our climate, and it's evergreen.

I screened out an ugly apt. bldg. in my yard with Pyracantha....but I keep it at 10 ft. tall. and it's planted in a 12" wide planter area along a fence. It DOES require regular pruning to keep it flat, but the berries and the flowers are attractive.

44 ft. in length of the same type of plant might get boring. Can you take a pic. and post it on here?
A variety of different things may be a better and more aesthetic idea, like some small narrow trees mixed with hedge type plants etc.

Whatever you decide, STAY AWAY from "Eugenia"....and Ficus.

Do you know what zone you're in? This might work for you, Rhamnus frangula 'Ron Williams' aka Buckthorn FineLine®. This supposedly sterile cultivar will ultimately reach 6 feet tall but only 2 feet wide. At least try three or so to give some vertical height and definition to your hedge. Happy gardening! ;)

Whoops, forgot the link!

http://www.waysidegardens.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10151&langId=-1&mainPage=LGprodview&ItemId=49635&PrevMainPage=gatepage&scChannel=Gate%20ColorChoice&OfferCode=T3H


This message was edited Apr 16, 2007 9:22 AM

What about trumpet vine?