Using tall plants to create shielding is one of the best methods to give your garden distinction and privacy. Fast-growing screening species provide height to your garden, can be grown alongside an established fence to deter intruders, and, of course, provide much-needed seclusion, which is perhaps the most likely motive for growing screening plants.
You won’t need a fence to keep your solitude when you can use plants to keep your curious next-door neighbour from peeping into your yard. There’s a wide range of trees, bushes, and vines that can help transform your land into a private retreat—and they’re often much less expensive than putting up a fence or other privacy construction.
We’ve compiled a selection of the top screening plants to use as living privacy screens, along with thorough information about each one that will help you make an informed decision. These can easily be acquired through reputable online resources and are a great source of aesthetics and safety in one package!
Table of Contents
What are Privacy Plants used for?
Privacy plants, also known as screening plants, act as a live privacy barrier, separating you from your neighbours and the street. They operate as a sound barrier and a windbreak, reducing noise and protecting against strong winds.
A solitary plant can be used to obscure distant items such as a gas meter or trash cans belonging to a neighbour. Plants that provide privacy reduce fence lines and give colour to your environment. Decide how tall you want your screen to be, as there are plants to fit any size. Calculate the amount of space you have accessible as well. Consider building a dual or triple row if your space is large enough. The use of many rows of rising heights will improve sight and sound privacy.
Screening plants can also be used to provide privacy in an overlooked area. Another advantage is that they may construct interconnected areas, which adds interest to a compact property. You could use a line of grasses to separate a basic square or rectangular area.
It becomes a low-cost feature when a vine fence is placed halfway across the yard and covered with roses or clematis. This half-screening offers a tempting peek into the region beyond, giving the impression that the yard is bigger than it is.
Because evergreen plants do not shed their leaves in the cold, they are the most popular choice for privacy screens. Deciduous plants drop their leaves in the wintertime, but they usually produce blooms, which provide colour to the landscape. The greatest privacy screen combines evergreen and blooming deciduous plants to give year-round privacy and beauty in the environment.
Best tall plants for screening
This magnolia type is regarded as one of the hardiest, especially in harsh winter conditions. It is a tree that may grow up to 25 meters tall with a spread of 10 to 15 meters, but it also thrives in large pots.
These can provide screening throughout bigger estates, especially along the border, and they look fantastic in bloom. It thrives in full sun or light shade and requires moderate maintenance. The tree is renowned for its aromatic and spectacular flowers, which blossom in white from May to June.
This tree has beautiful dark green foliage and huge white flowers that blossom in the Spring and persist throughout the summer. The blossoms will likely create fruiting bunches in early Fall. This Magnolia is perennial, unlike most other Magnolias, making this even superior for screening because it provides support all year.
Pros:
- These can provide screening throughout bigger estates
- Requires moderate maintenance
- The tree is renowned for its flowers
Cons:
- Thrives in full sun only
Cherry Laurel is a large, sprawling shrub with long, green leaves that can reach up to 15cm in length. The blooms produced have a magnificent array of colours and a rich plum aroma. The flowers appear in panicles in the middle of the summer and finally, give way to crimson fruits that turn purple black in Autumn. While these are not berries you can eat, they will undoubtedly attract wildlife to your garden.
This shrub grows quickly and is an excellent choice for privacy screens or another filtering in your garden. It is widely used as hedges and marketed as laurel hedge. It will grow between 4 and 12 meters broad, spread outwardly than upwards, between 3 and 10 meters tall when fully mature.
Even in the severe shade, this shrub is disturbingly fragrant and free flowering. Glands distinguish cherry laurels on the bottom leaf blade, and glands near the midrib differentiate this species from P. Carolina. Alkaline soils, arid and poor soils, pollutants, and heavy trimming are all tolerated by this plant. Salt tolerance is moderate; however, it is intolerant of high fertilization.
The plant prefers full sun or dappled shade, as well as well-drained soils. After the flowers have bloomed, you can clip it, but other than that, it requires very little attention. This makes a great screen, and if left uncatered, it shines.
Pros:
- This shrub is disturbingly fragrant and free flowering
- It will grow between 4 and 12 meters broad
- Growth requires very little attention
Cons:
- The plant prefers full sun or dappled shade, as well as well-drained soils
Dogwood is a tree and a shrub well-known for its magnificent petals of white or pink flowers and ease of maintenance, but it is also well-known for its brilliant stems in the winter, as shown above. Dogwood comes in various forms, from single-trunked trees to tiny shrubs, and you may use it to screen your landscape. Flowering dogwoods, Pagoda dogwoods, and Cornelian cherry dogwoods are the most frequent. All these plants enjoy the partial shade, but they will grow in full sun if properly watered.
The leaves of dogwoods are basic and untoothed, with veins that curve sharply as they reach the leaf margins. Most dogwood species have opposed leaves, although a handful has alternate leaves. There are four parts to a dogwood bloom.
Many species have flowers that are borne individually in open clusters. In contrast, others have densely grouped flowers, lack conspicuous petals, and are encircled by four to six enormous, generally white petal-like sepals.
Dogwoods grow at a rapid rate, reaching a height of 30cm or more per year. As a result, a single tree can attain fully mature in less than a decade. The petal-like sepals of flowers come in various colours, including pale pink, hot pink, white, and pale red, depending on the kind.
The dogwood provides gorgeous colour throughout the year, with the leaves changing colour to a red-purple tint in the Autumn before falling. These shrubs should be cut back and let to grow in the springtime to maintain the stems looking stunning in the winter when the old leaves turn brown and lose their vibrant colours.
Pros:
- Dogwoods grow at a rapid rate; can growth 30cm or more per year
- Petal-like sepals of flowers come in various colours,
- Enjoys partial shade
Cons:
- Growth is usually in the springtime
Cypress trees are fast-growing indigenous of North America that ought to be conspicuous in the landscape. Many gardeners overlook cypress because they think it only grows in moist, bog-like conditions. While their original environment is always damp, once planted, cypress trees grow well enough on dry terrain and can even tolerate the odd drought.
Cypress trees come in a wide range of kinds, over 130 to be precise, so there’s bound to be something suitable for your garden. The leaves are silvery-green to dark green. They develop in spirals or slightly curved patterns and can handle almost any soil type. Most people associate cypress trees with tall, thin trees, but several types, such as Thuja Plicata, are much wider and create great screens when spread and trimmed twice a year.
A pair of magnificent Italian cypress trees provide the ideal backdrop for gates, gateways, and porches. They are pencil-thin conifers that are extensively utilized in Mediterranean gardens but are very easy to propagate. They are tough and robust in the UK, growing up to 15-25cm each year in large pots or directly in the garden.
Pros:
- Fast-growing
- Trees provide the ideal backdrop for gates, gateways, and porches
- Aan handle almost any soil type
Cons:
- They have pencil-thin conifers
Buying Guide for the Best Tall Plants for Screening
Some of the recommended screening plants can grow quickly. Still, they can also become aggressive, so verify the final height and spread to ensure it is appropriate for your allotment when choosing which species are suited for you.
It would be best if you also considered how much of the area you want to block. Do you want a new fence that runs the entire length of your yard? Or is only one orientation allowed, the one in which you presently have the least privacy? A full-yard living privacy fence, for example, would be best achieved with dense shrubbery, whereas partial privacy might only require one larger tree.
If your goal is to produce better privacy fence concepts and you’re planting along a neighbour’s property line, stay away from particularly huge plants that could generate invasive root issues. These can clog drains and soak ways, so it’s worth it to try to make sure your plants don’t cause a dispute with your neighbours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fastest-growing screening plant?
There are numerous advantages to employing screening plants as a physical barrier for seclusion and noise reduction. They give privacy by providing shade and a softer visual wall. Choose from a variety of fast-growing, tried-and-true screening plants. The clustering Bamboo ‘Gracilis’ is a hardy, fast-growing screening bamboo ideal for small homes and gardens. ‘Goldstripe’ is one of the most slender and erect screening bamboos, making it perfect for screening in tight spaces.
Which plants are best for privacy screening?
Bamboo plants, Photinia Red Robin as trees and shrubs, Laurels such as Prunus Laurocerasus or Prunus Lusitanica for hedge, Ligustrum Trees and Shrubs, Leylandii for diversification, and Evergreen Oak as Trees or Shrubs are among the most preferred screening trees and shrubs for seclusion.
How do you plant a privacy screen?
When it comes to establishing your privacy screen, there have been no rules. For a more formal appearance, you might plant screens in a single direction. They can be put in a double row, with one row in the rear and the other row in front, with each plant from the front line put in between the branches in the back row.
Final Verdict
Gardens provide a respite from our hectic lives, and we don’t want our neighbours to be capable of seeing right through the fence when we eventually get into our backyards! Various dense, regularly utilized backyard plants can act as an excellent barrier between you and your neighbours.
Note that you may easily chop and change any of these to create casual hedging. If you have a bit more room, you can put one type along your perimeter wall, right up against whichever fence you have, one around an existing building, or a border around a sitting room in your garden.
Choose plants that you appreciate and that demand just the right amount of care. When it comes to shrubs and trees for screening, most don’t need any pruning, so make sure that they’re regularly watered for the first twelve months.
The screening plants on this list are incredibly quick in growing, so you’ll have your desired landscape element in no time. Nevertheless, once they are completely matured, they will necessitate more attention.
