Hedge advice in Sacramento?

[chickenwhisperer]

Hi everybody, been a nice short and easy winter here in the middle of Ca, looking more and more like spring each day, even if we got rain forecasted this week...
Time to start thinking about some projects that need doing.

I know nothing about hedges other than the fact that I need one that makes a good dense privacy screen about 7-8 feet tall and 2ish feet in depth and can be trimmed to a nice square boxy shape along a house and fence line,.

Id like a nice quick growing bush that keeps its leaves all year so theres less mess.
I have about 30 feet of property line to cover

I want a nice long, tall, narrowish dense privacy screen, and as i look on the web all i see are people using scientific names and trying to find a good picture to match is proving difficult.

I mean I can look all over my neighborhood and see the hedges that would work, but none of my (renter)neighbors seem to know what the plants are called...

I know you guys can help!

 

[Carol Dee]

Try a Yew, it can be trimmed into most any shape. And is evergreen.

 

[Carol Dee]

https://www.google.com/search?q=yew...QWe-4CgBA&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=641

Here are some photos showing differant looks for a yew shrub. Loose or formal, right up to topiaries!

 

[897tgigvib]

Privet is a common one and good too.

You may want to go multilayer and have Juniper also.

Cotoneaster is a nice one, but most take some work lining it up.

Blackberry would be a delicious hedge! probably not easy to make boxy though.

I've seen arborvitae made boxy but some of the plants were dead in the one i saw. That was while driving somewhere around Chico. Pretty sure it was arborvitae.

 

[lesa]

My favorite hedge that I saw in Southern California- was a jade plant! The plants that we grow as houseplants in NY, grow like weeds in California. They made quite a show. Not sure if your weather is the same, or how long they take to mature. Maybe you could stop in at a local greenhouse, and ask for ideas- or check out your cooperative extension. Let us know what you decide...

 

[897tgigvib]

Lesa, did those Jade plants you saw in southern california have smaller and tighter leaves? My guess is you saw a relative of Jade Plant called PORTULACARIA.

i don't think they'd make it in Sacramento, oh maybe in some very protected southern exposed spot there. Portulacaria can take a touch of short lasting frost, but no more than that.

We grew it in Roxi's greenhouse in Montana. One of my final projects there was propagating it from cuttings. They do grow a nice loose shrub form with tight small succulent leaves.

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh, I'm mistaken. I thought it was related to Jade plant, but wikipedia says it's in a different family, portulariaceae, Jade is in crassulaceae.

 

[Nyboy]

If you are willing to give up square boxy shape I would look into bamboo. It grows very fast so make sure of variety, some can be well behaved and some can be invasive.

 

[897tgigvib]

Yes, bamboo is apparently such a good hedge that in the phone book are bamboo hedge planting companies that must make a huge fortune planting them judging by the cost per foot. Do it yourself if you go that route. If you pay one of these companies I'm pretty sure you'll be funding someone's purchase of a new yacht.

Sorry. It was shocking to see bamboo hedge companies' prices per linear foot! Had to catch my breath!

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Thanks everybody, privet is the one i was looking for!