Here are the best and worst plants for privacy screens in North Texas landscapes

I’ve been up this “privacy” thing one side and back down the other. City lots are a fraction of what they once were. Houses, frequently two stories, are shoved together and apartments are pushed in behind them. We feel like our lives are on public display, and we count on our landscapes to give us much needed separation. That’s when I start fielding the questions.

Let’s list reasons we use plants at our boundaries. Privacy screening is certainly one of those goals. That requires us to plant dense evergreens that will attain the height it takes to block off the views both onto our property and out to surrounding grounds. I’ll come back to that topic, the most common use of screens, in a moment.

Plants also deaden sounds. Go to a hotel, park or shopping area that’s nestled up against a busy thoroughfare. Go at peak traffic time and step back behind their landscape plants. You’ll observe a significant decrease in decibels due totally to the foliage. It really does work!

Rows of shrubs stop wind bursts across patios. You wouldn’t want to do that where it would cause a hot spot for late afternoons in summer, but if you could block morning breezes on the east side of your house or north winds in the winter, you might be able to add significant use time to those outdoor “rooms” that allow you to entertain in your gardens.

All of which is to say that there are some grand cases to be made for planting screening shrubs and small trees in your landscape. Here are some guidelines that might help you succeed.

Choose the best-adapted species for your locale. Here in the Metroplex with our alkaline black clay gumbo soils, that list would include the following types (tallest to shorter).

▪ Eastern redcedar juniper (to 35 feet tall and 30 feet wide). This is the native cedar you see growing on our hillsides all over North Central Texas. That means that it has proven its adaptability to our soils and our climate (unlike the disease-ridden Leyland cypress and Arizona cypress and poorly adapted East Texas pines). Plant eastern redcedars in full sun 18 to 22 feet apart. If you want a natural look to your planting, arrange them in zig-zag clusters and groupings. Given weekly waterings for their first several years they will grow quickly. Tip: This plant does not dig and transplant very well, so smaller transplants may be more successful and much less expensive.

▪ Little Gem southern magnolia (to 30 to 35 feet tall and 25 feet wide). This is a compact form of the long-popular native southern evergreen with glossy, dark green leaves and showy white, late spring blooms. Everything about it is about half the size of its parent. Still, it will need a large urban landscape to have room to spread. Plant them 18 or 20 feet apart. Since it grows slowly, start with larger plants.

▪ Nellie R. Stevens holly (to 15 to 18 feet tall and 12 to 15 feet wide). Now we’re talking about the best shrub for a screening hedge. Unlike junipers and magnolias, it thrives in both sun and shade. It produces large red berries that give it nice color all winter into mid-spring. It’s available in container sizes from 5 to 200 gal. so there’s something for every budget. Space the plants 8 or 10 ft. apart and as much as possible avoid formal shearing.

▪ Willowleaf holly (also known as “Needlepoint” holly). Closely resembling Nellie R. Stevens, this one stays shorter (to 10 to 12 feet tall and eight or 10 feet wide). It also bears large red berries all winter.

▪ Oakland holly has become a darling of landscape architects who like its pyramidal growth form and compact habit. It grows to 10 to 12 feet tall and six or seven feet wide. It’s excellent where you need a more vertical screen for special impact.

▪ Mary Nell holly is actually the matriarch of Oakland and several other cultivar hybrids. Mary Nell had just started to catch on in the nursery trade when I first saw the “Red Hollies,” seedlings of Mary Nell, at a huge nursery trade show. That was probably 25 years ago. The whole crowd, including Mary Nell, has stuck around to become landscaping standards across America. My original Mary Nells are now 18 feet tall and 12 feet wide. They’re handsome plants.

Plants you don’t want to use

In our quests to seek privacy, we believe just about any claim that’s made for plants put before us. Let me warn you about several that should never be used here in North Central Texas, at least in this guy’s opinion.

▪ Golden bamboo. No plant you could choose could be any more invasive. It is horrible, and you’ll spend years trying to get rid of it. So will your neighbors. Just trust me on this one. Root barriers won’t work.

▪ Redtip photinias. They are ultimately susceptible to a fatal, unpreventable, and incurable fungal disease called Entomosporium. Read that again and let it soak in. It’s not “if” they will die. It’s “when.”

▪ Japanese privets (Japanese ligustrum). This is the one with the moderately glossy leaves the size of the palms of your hands on plants 18 or 20 feet tall, as opposed to the one with the very waxy, much smaller leaves on plants that grow to 8 or 10 feet tall. Both types freeze in our area, but that’s not the real curse of the taller one. It is horrifically invasive. It produces large clusters of purple berries that birds devour and deposit all over the neighborhood. They germinate, and they have offspring. You’ll never get rid of them.

▪ Wax myrtle. Branches start dying the day you plant them. Every year another branch or two will die until you’re left with gnarly, unattractive plants with no form. Bypass them from the outset and go some other direction.