Fetch me a shrubbery?!

September 17, 2009 2:10 PM

I would like to plant a low maintenance shrubbery fence, what plant would be best? Here's what i need it to be....

It'd be great if it:

- grows to about three feet and then stops
- is evergreen
- grows fast like a bugger
- is cheap! the fence is going to be 100 feet long and i don't want to spend more than a couple hundred $, if that.
- flowers nice but optional
- isn't prickly or stinky because people will be passing by

I'm in a northern climate where the winters go to -20 deg F. Summers are hot/humid and average high 70's, low 80s.

posted by storybored to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

I'd check with your local nursery/ag extension/master gardener program for recommendations for your particular area.
posted by torquemaniac at 2:57 PM on September 17, 2009

From a list of native Ontario shrubs:

Eastern white cedar, aka arborvitae is a very common landscaping shrub, you should be able to find it at any nursery. Try to find a dwarf variety, because the standard variety will grow taller than you want if you don't trim it. (But you won't need to trim all that often)

Yew

There are a range of hollies that would work.


Three common plants you're likely to be offered at a nursery, but which have drawbacks:

boxwood - smells like cat pee, can turn yellow in spots.

euonymous - lots of varieties, grows like crazy, but that means it can be invasive and takes a lot of work to trim back, more than once per season.

privet - invasive
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:02 PM on September 17, 2009

What kind of sun do you have? There are miniature rhodendrums which are somewhat pricey, need acid soil and semishade but are evergreen and which I can buy here in a similar climate. They usually need some winter protection. Most things that stay evergreen don't grow that fast. The exception I have is a spreading juniper called something like Golden or Golden Glow which can take full sun. It's much wider at about 8 or 9' and higher at about 4' or so than the specs I had for it. But, it took about 5 years to get that size which is pretty good for an evergreen. For cheap evergreens, there's always Hicks Yew which grows upright, squarish and relatively quickly. Just don't expect them to spread out to fill in gaps. See if the library has a copy of Lois Hole's book on trees and shrubs. She was a prairie gardener, so anything in her books should work for you.
posted by x46 at 3:07 PM on September 17, 2009

Ooh! Ooh! Rosa rugosa!

(I know very little about shrubbery in general, but rosa rugosa is my favorite plant and I know it makes a great shrubbery fence.)
posted by Cygnet at 3:12 PM on September 17, 2009

Growing fast and stopping at three feet are pretty much mutually exclusive when you're talking about woody plants or trees.

My suggestion is the same as torquemaniac: speak to a local expert. They will need to know the exposure (cardinal direction the fence faces) and your soil type for the best recommendation.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:51 PM on September 17, 2009

Nthing a call to a local nursery or extension office. Boxwoods look nice but can get pretty unruly if they're not trimmed reguarly. Also, they're well-nigh indestructible - we cut ours down to dirt level one year and they pretty much grew back completely in a year or so.

Have you considered a vine? Jasmine or something along those lines? There might even be native varieties.
posted by jquinby at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2009

Seconding Rosa rugosa. Also, think about something deer-proof. Yews are not, nor are arborvitae. Rosa comes in many flowering colors. Pleasantly fragrant. It's tough as nails and has a nice ornamental rosehip when not flowering. It can be hacked to the ground only to spring up healthier the next year. Deer won't touch it.
posted by greenskpr at 7:03 PM on September 20, 2009