Is there any plant / hedge you know of that could fit the bill please?

[iamloading]

Hello,
I'm fairly new to gardening but LOVE it. 2 years ago we moved house, it's a lovely big sunny garden but horrifically overlooked by over 7 houses. A massive boarder (it's an odd shaped almost hexagon garden. The joy of a new build.

Obviously I could have just shoved up a load of conifers but we will be here for 16 years so I'm willing to take a bit longer for it all to grow and have beautiful screening.
So thus far we have: a mimosa, Chilean lantern tree, pampas, fire thorn, jasmine, red Robin, couple of buddlieas, camellia, rhododendron. Plus maple, acer and couple of palms and some conifers where I ran out of ideas!

I've got one more big gap but I'm out of ideas. So ideally I'd like something evergreen, grows to min 8 feet but taller is fine, would be lovely if it flowered or "did" something, vaguely fast / medium growing. Any suggestions would be very appreciated!

We have beech hedge - nice copper leaves through winter.

We have a fantastic Chinese redbud, it’s beautiful and about the size you want.

*border!! Sorry no editing function!

I love our Portuguese laurel. It’s pretty, quite fast growing and evergreen.

What is your soil/aspect like? How much sun will it get? You said sunny, but with all the other trees there might not be that way for this plant.

Assuming soil is not limy, how about an evergreen magnolia?

Or a rhodedendron, but they don't grow fast and would ideally need at least partial shade.

@CatherinedeBourgh it's part shaded, not sure about the soil type. They are lovely suggestions but I've actually already got both of those thank you!

Thanks for all the other suggestions- off to google!

Bay tree. Surprisingly pretty when covered in tiny yellow flowers, fast growing once established.

You can also liven up what you have with climbers, eg Clematis alpina (not montana, too vigorous) , Tropaeolum tricolor or peregrinum.

It’s sounds a bit of a hodge podge!
Why don’t you grow some more trees? You can put them it pots if you don’t want the roots to take over. I’ve got an oak, a birch ,a cherry tree and a weeping crab apple tree.
They aren’t evergreen but my weeping crab apple has leaves until October and fruit until Christmas and by January it’s in bud again ready for the blossom in March and April

Viburnum tinus. They are evergreen, grow fast and flower in winter when there's not much else around.

Laurel

Pyracantha, evergreen and has lovely white flowers in spring and red, orange or yellow berries in autumn. Just watch out for the thorns!

Fatsia Japonica. Lovely broad glossy leaves. Exotic looking. Easy to look after. grows well, fairly insect resistant

Portuguese Laurel. Shot up here despite poor soil.

I’d suggest Californian Lilac (Ceanothus). it’s evergreen and has very blue flowers which are more compact than deciduous native lilac. It can be bought preached so it doesn’t have to take up too much depth in the garden & will grow to the height you need.

Typo alert! ‘Pleached’🤦🏼‍♀️

I was going to suggest Ceanothus too

We have recently bought cherry laurel which produce flowers and berries. They were tall ones at 175cm tall as we wanted instant impact and we thought they were a bargain at about £80 each. We needed to fill a gap. It grows in any conditions including full shade.

You can get plants over 2m tall, I think the cherry laurel was about £100 a plant at that height.

An olive tree.

We have roses, not sure what type exactly they are, but someone here will

Choisya is a lovely shrub. Lovely bright green leaves, pretty white blossom in the spring (and again in summer if you remember to prune new growth once the first blossom has finished). It also has a lovely citrusy/basil like scent.

What about Forsythia, they are lovely in the springtime and grow quite quickly.

Amelanchier, small tree with white flowers in spring, good autumn colour and berries or dark elder, 'Black Lace' grows quickly.

Katsura tree also has good autumn colour with heart shaped leaves and distinctive scent of burnt sugar.

www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-katsura-tree/

Cornus controversa is variegated and is very structural.

www.gardenersworld.com/plants/cornus-controversa-variegata/

Handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata) is very distinctive with white bracts in spring

www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-and-care-for-handkerchief-tree/

So many amazing suggestions thank you! Googling as I haven't even heard of half of them!

I would plant more of what you already have as having too many different plants is not as nice as repeating some l think. . The recommendation is planting in threes instead of single plants.

That’s a recommendation for perennials. Don’t think it matters for big shrubs, they easily take up the space of three perennials