tall, fast growing shrubby thing for under trees?

[SquidgeyMidgey]

I can only think of buddleia and conifer (DH says no to conifer), any other ideas please? It's for screening the gap from tree foliage down to the fence. Can't do a trellis/climber combo.

Under trees is usually dry and shady . It depends on the type of tree and how big it is .

Most fast growing shrubby things don't like dry shade . Usually people plants bulbs and ground cover like vinca .

Can you grow climbers up the fence ? Or a shrub in front of the tree outside the canopy of the tree ?

Mahonia does well in the shade and is tall and fastish growing. Mine puts on just over a foot a year.

Sanchar, they look great, thank you.

Kr1stina, it's under mature lime trees but not too dry as the land drains that way. Planning slightly forward might be a good plan, thanks for that.

Pheasant berry ( forgot the proper name!). Seems to grow anywhere. We had it under the canopy of an oak tree. You can cut it down and it pops up again, so controlling the height is easy.

Leycesteria formosa is the Latin name .

That's a great suggestion, it grows like a weed in damp shade for me and it's worth a try in dry shade .

Another ( random ) idea is - could you do something to improve your ugly fence ? Paint it ? Grown climbers up it ? You don't need trellis , just wires. And some plants are self clinging so they just need some soil and gentle encouragement to go up and not out .

I have one of those already in the garden, it's not fast enough though bit is in a sunny spot so thas maybe why?

It's not the fence that's the problem it's that the hedge the other side of it has been cut down so the ugly 80s house on the other side looms large in the gap between the top of the fence and the foliage of the limes. They can see into that part of the garden now, and into my son's bedroom.

We're going to lay some trellis/willow/ something there as a temporary fix but I don't like climbers on trellis and I don't want them there. We're getting a landscaper out next week for something else, might pick his brain when he comes.

I have leycesteria under very tall mature limes, it has done well but took a few years to get established. It looks lovely at the moment.

A few suggestions for you here: www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=430

Leycesteria formosa looks lovely = want some!!!
In the garden centre, would go by the name?

Agree with your DH re conifers - yuk
LAURELS are your answer, evergreen, grow like the clappers in shade and shiny attractive leaves

Footnote: cut the bottom branches off so you get good height for screening very quickly then let them fill out once you have the height you want

Thanks all, I got the fidgets about it and went to talk to the chap who runs a local garden centre (proper plants place, no cafe etc) and I've bought a rack of tall photonias to make almost instant hedge for the bad bit going to need more ideas for general fence hiding though so thanks for all the suggestions, very useful.

Waltons that page is great, thank you!

Would Camelia work?

They might Dogolphin, thanks, but I don't really like them. My MIL has loads and they make me think of old people

I was just going to post what about a big photonia or three. We planted a big one under a tree in our back garden to screen the fence, tree is on other side.

We did get quite a bit of leaf drop the first year, which I understand isn't uncommon with photonias as they can go into shock when moved, but a year on its now thickened up well and looking happy with nice year round colours.

Planted some standard ones at the front last year and only one of the three has lost quite a bit of leaf.

We have a load of Choisya bushes in our garden, they were here when we moved in but one of them is under our huge lime tree and almost up against a fence, I don't think it's ever seen the sun but it is very strong and could do with a prune right now. The cut leaves (and flowers, I think) smell citrusy and it's a lovely bush.