Pleached hedging

[mamaduckbone]

Last year we had some very old and unruly conifers cut down at the end of our garden. It's much better without them as it's the part of the garden that gets the evening sun.

We're not really overlooked (we back onto the garage and end of the neighbour's garden) but I would like to plant some screening as we want to create a seating area, and the fence isn't very attractive or quite high enough. I was thinking of either pleached Ligustrum Japonica (Japanese privet) or Photiniq red robin / pink marble.

Does anyone have any experience of either of these, or have any other suggestions? Will it work for what we want? Also, would they survive in large pots or need to go in the ground? We might have an issue with roots from the conifers - we've had the stumps ground out but they were pretty massive.

Or bamboo in containers? The rest of the garden is quite traditional though so this might look odd?

I'm a bit clueless so was hoping for the gardening experts of mumsnet to offer their words of wisdom!!

I think they're very expensive. So would be much better in the ground. Black and golden Bamboo made a brilliant screen for us at our old house and didn't cause any problem. It's evergreen.

Yes, have just started pricing up and we're looking at a lot of money so I wouldn't want to risk losing them.

Bamboo in planters is a more affordable option but just not sure if it will go with the rest of the garden.

Photinia is pretty resilient and the red colour of red robin does best in a sunny spot. It would probably be cheaper to add soil conditioner to improve the soil where the conifers were than to pay for multiple large pots. That said, pleached red robins are pretty expensive whereas bamboo is a lot cheaper and grows like the clappers so maybe the price difference wouldn't be so huge. I have bamboo in pots and it's great (and makes a lovely sound in the breeze) but I have it stood in pots on the patio and it's so vigorous I wouldn't risk standing it on pots on soil. I've heard stories of it rooting into the soil through the drainage holes of pots before which wouldn't surprise me in the slightest as it's a brute.

I hadn't thought about it escaping through the drainage holes, but we're planning on covering the whole area in a weed suppressant membrane and something (not sure what yet, maybe gravel) so hopefully that would be ok.

Maybe I need to post a pic...it's pouring with rain at present so I can't just now.

I would hire a digger and driver for half a day to take the roots out and make a trench to plant into and do it properly. A hedge in pots isn't ideal.