Good evergreen screening shrubs?

[Pannacotta]

Any suggestions please for shrubs which screen well but dont block out too much light (small leaves or not too dense habit)?

We need 3m ish height, ideally nothing too spreading or plants which can be pruned.

We have a few gaps in our border which faces East and gets sun from the West.
Free draining neutral soil.

Think its too exposed for things like Bay, Ceanothus and Escallonia.

Already have Portuguese Laurel, Holly, Privet, Pittosporum, but need some more and am a bit stuck for ideas.

Evergreen climbers also an option, but the Solanum I planted last year lost all its leave in the bad weather.

Thanks!

I have just planted some pyracanthus which looks good at the mo. Think you can now get it 'thornless' as well. Very attractive berries.

Thanks, hadnt thought of Pyracantha as didnt want thorns but will have a look for thornless varieties.

Actually I'm looking for exactly the same thing to hide the rather ugly fence our otherwise lovely neighbours have put up.

Pann - of the ones you have planted are there any that are particularly fast growing ?

Norris all are fast growing except the Holly which is painfully slow. The Pittosporum have done very well here in our light soil.

I am thinking about Elaeagnus ebbingei which is supposed to be fast growing, tough and has scented flowers. Not the prettiest but perhaps good background shrub and good for giving some privacy (I hope!).
Escallonia also fast I think.

The following I believe are all fairly fast growing- Philadelphus, clematis montana, honeysuckle? Viburnum plicatum is pretty. Mexican orange blossom?

Thanks glitter for the suggestions.
I love Viburnum plicatum, but its not evergreen, not is Clematis montana or Philadelpus.
I may get an evergreen honeysuckle or two.
Choisya are great but a bit too wide and not tall enough, for what I need anyway...

hmm yes, will read properly next time... griselina? hornbeam- not evergreen but keeps leaves- if you dont mind dead leaf effect? euonymus? Pity too its exposed for oleander... bamboo if you planted with root protection (to stop spread)?

hmm yes, will read properly next time... griselina? hornbeam- not evergreen but keeps leaves- if you dont mind dead leaf effect? euonymus? Pity too its exposed for oleander... bamboo if you planted with root protection (to stop spread)?

As for evergreen climbers, clematis armandii is gorgeous, and i found really fast growing. Or Akebia perhaps?

Thanks glitter, sorry if I was a bit rude before.

I'm not keen on the brown winter leaves on Hornbeam, but Griselinia and Bamboo would work, like the black stem bamboo especially.

Re climbers I agree about Clem armandii and Akebia, I have both, but prob just need to plant more of the same.
The Akebia has been a bit slow and has lost all its leaves in the cold, but the clematis has done really well, so will just buy some more of these I think.
The boundary is about 28m long so we need lots of screening!

28m is hard - maybe you can do a repeating pattern of shrubs you like just for screening, and add nicer stuff in front to liven it up- or grow hop or something through the more boring shrubs. Or theres always thunja plicata- you can at least prune that and its actually quite nice to touch/smell.

Am looking to cover two 120ft lengths myself so I feel your pain! Luckily this is my 2nd garden so have a better idea of what to do (i.e. not cram in 100 million plants and then be suprised when they grow).

You're right glitter, we need to do some repeat groupings, just need to work out what works first then I can work out how to repeat it.
I do have a Golden Hop to give some instant cover - its great in summer but hopeless in autumn/winter as gives no cover at all.

WHat have you used in your borders?

Not sure how big your border is or if you're more into 'wild' stuff, but wondered if you'd considered hawthorn or blackthorn at all? They can be pruned up to a point I think

Sorry, just logging in by posting - can't seem to do it otherwise

No ideas on shrubs apart from what you've already got, BUT I'd think first about what you're going to plant in front of them and pick shrubs that will act as a good backdrop. The previous owner of our house did not do this, and so we have a white-stemmed silver birch not against a dark shrub so you can see it, but in front of a (very attractive) variegated green and white eleaegnus. With the result that both are pretty much invisible.

We have covering up a fence some random conifers, the eleaegnus, a mahonia, a pittosporum, a holly, and a whole row of Portuguese laurel. It looks pretty bad, to be honest. I've added ivy 'trefoil' to try to fill it out a bit in the short term - it's an ivy with unusual leaves that stand out from the stem quite a way, and I hope it will give the appearance of being a shrub rather than a climber.

Good point GrendelsMum, as always! I'm really looking for dark green shrubs precisely to act as backdrop planting.
We already have the trees in front, which include Chinese Birch (pinky cream trunks), crab apple, rowan, pear, variegated cornus (the tiered one) which all look better against a dark background, esp the birch.

WHy does your collection not work? Is it too much of a mish mash? COuld you swap things around?

Oh, sounds absolutely lovely, Pannacotta.

I went out and looked at them yesterday to try to decide why it didn't work. The main problem is that the shrubs were planted too close to a north-facing fence, so they've almost all grown long and stringy where they've grown at all. I've been prunin to try to get them to thicken up, but I don't know how much success I'll have, given the poor situation. Some things are wrong for the soil as well - needing acid, when that part of the garden is alkaline - so you can imagine how good that looks.

And the next problem is that they are too much of a mishmash anyway - a bit of a feeling that she went round picking one of everything she liked in the garden centre, rather than really coherent long-term planning.

Longer term, radical solutions may be needed!

Hello again GrendelsMum, how about a photo?
Am very curious to see your garden.

Do you know what you have, in terms of srub planting? There are plenty of shrubs which do well in a shady spot, perhaps not what was chosen though?

Here you are - see what I mean!

bit.ly/adBPuO

That's the elaeagnus to the edge of the left, a variegated holly, a thing who's name I forget, a sad looking laurel that you can't see it's so sad, and a mahonia.

In summer it's not so obviously grim, as the trees and grass distract:

bit.ly/9b4zsS

If you've got any ideas about better shrubs, please do suggest them! I've been given £55 of garden vouchers for my birthday and am ready to spend...

I think they look ok, from what I can see the planting backbone is a bit bare, can you add to it?
What direction does the fence border face, what is your soil like?

You coudl add some wall shrubs to pull the planting together, subject to aspect, things like Ceanothus, Garrya, Itea, Azara, Viburnum burkwoodi, Carpenteria, Abelia, non varigated Holly, Pittosporum, Port Laurel etc.

Some more trees would also helo break up the line of your fence, maybe more Birch, some Crab apple, Rowan etc?

Camellias?

Camellias would be good but the border faces East which is the one direction they shouldnt be planted in.

Thanks for the suggestions, Pannacotta!

I've been thinking it over, and I'm now wondering about going to the opposite extreme and going for a yew hedge instead.

I really need to decide how I want that second bit of the garden to look, and then decide on a backdrop that will suit it, whether formal or more naturalistic.

Yew Hedge would be lovely, its the best background hedging, but it would take a while to get to a decent size (presuming you'd buy small)...

I think Yew looks as good as a backdrop to naturalstic styles as it does to formal, like here

www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/small_gardens/nature.shtml

Yes, I think you're right. It would certainly show the few birches off better. I visited our Botanic Gardens yesterday and they have some stunning yew hedges in the winter garden. It would take a long time to get large, but what's there now isn't great.

Also, new idea for you - an evergreen daphne as part of the hedge? or is it now risking being too bitty? Definitely part of the problem with ours is bittyness.