Planting for Privacy

[KeaauRich]

We're putting a pool in our backyard, and once the work is done, I'd like to do some planting along the lot line to give us added privacy. Here's my wish list of qualities:

1) Something that grows fast, but doesn't go wandering too far
2) Something that will grow to be about 15' tall
3) Something that preferaby looks tropical, but definately grows to fullness
4) Something that won't require more maintenance than either myself or the pool
5) Something cheap to buy and easy to plant

I'm open to all suggestions, and would also appreciate ideas about the best places to acquire my privacy plants. There may be a pool party in it for the person with the best response

[AlohaSteven]

You are in Keaau? Micro-climate seems to have a great deal to do with how well specific types of plants do at the different elevations and rainfall levels around the island. Maybe use some relatively short clumping (not running) bamboo varieties together with some Japanese yew (Podocarpus macrophylla)? The yew can go way over 15' if not kept trimmed back annually, but grow fast and make a good dense privacy hedge, hardy and not overly vulnerable to pests. If well watered and fertilized some types of bamboo shoot up faster than about anything else.


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Nirvana vs Rick Astley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0e9J6Kc6QQ&feature=fvw

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[Carey]

A good mix of colors & forms of Ti, Croton, bushy palms like Finger Palms, Clumping (non-invasive) Bamboo, Hibiscus, Snow-on-the-Mount, Malabar Chestnut (must be controlled) Draceana.

If you have your fence, you can plant vines, include edible & non;

For a more non-inviting, rose & bouganvilla

You can probably get much of this as cuttings (we are constantly trimming back our yard & have a small lot.... Have also ben able to get some really nice ti & croton cuttings after events that use the ti & crotons as decor

[Kelena]

I have areca palms along mine (there are also some triangle palms, but those can't compete with the arecas). They are classic, low maintance, fill in very well and don't shed. They were there when I bought the place. I might go with bamboo if I were starting from scratch. Gaia Nursery (google gaia yoga puna) has a really good page on bamboo. The proprietor has (or had) a stall at the Maku'u Market.

[Radiopeg]

I think the podocarpus looks good, too. The house we tried to buy had podocarpus in the back to mark the end of "cultivated" yard. It was very bushy and the owner says it grows like crazy. This was in Fern Acres. I never met a bamboo I could trust. Ha Ha

quote:

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Originally posted by AlohaSteven

Y Maybe use some relatively short clumping (not running) bamboo varieties together with some Japanese yew (Podocarpus macrophylla)? The yew can go way over 15' if not kept trimmed back annually, but grow fast and make a good dense privacy hedge, hardy and not overly vulnerable to pests. If well watered and fertilized some types of bamboo shoot up faster than about anything else.


)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

Nirvana vs Rick Astley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0e9J6Kc6QQ&feature=fvw

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

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[Royall]

About 2-3 years ago my neighbor planted a row of podocarpus along our property line. It does grow fast and looks nice. He planted them about 5' apart and they are now about 12-20' tall! They also filled in quite nicely. He bought the 18" starts for 5 bucks apiece at the HPP swap meet from one of the regular plant sellers.

Royall

[missydog1]

radiopeg, if you can't trust a bamboo it's because you haven't studied the difference between running and clumping and you only know running. Clumping bamboo is genetically unable to invade. It only sends up new culms in a small radius from the original.

www.bamboonursery.com from Quindembo has excellent catalog as well as information. Peter and Susan are really neat people. I've known them seven years and bought a lot of bamboo from them.
Podocarpus works. I feel blah about it, but it works. Bamboo is spiritual stuff. Arecas make a great privacy hedge and require little trimming. It will take a while if you start with the cheap sizes though.
Crotons make an excellent colorful hedge but it takes a long time to get big crotons from cuttings, in my experience.
Hibiscus makes a good hedge but needs to be trimmed and fertilized or it will get leggy and ugly.
Bougainvillea works but it has to be trimmed and it will take some flesh from anyone who deals with it regularly.

A good bamboo that can stand up to not being watered much is the Otatea acuminatem aztecorum or Mexican weeping bamboo with fine leaves.
Photo:
http://www.bamboonursery.com/photos.asp?type=52
it would be good for lower HPP, for example.

Bambusa glaucophylla or Malay Dwarf is a good low-growing bushy bamboo for hedges.
Photo: http://www.bamboonursery.com/photos.asp?type=69

Bambusa multiplex silverstripe is another hedge bamboo
http://www.bamboonursery.com/photos.asp?type=12

These are bamboos that stay at about 15' tall. There are many gorgeous bamboos that get to 30-80 feet.

Another nice looking screen is a combination of dracaena and ti.

Draecena "Song of India" or Pleomele combined with red ti and tricolor is very pretty. The red ti is leggy and the pleomele stays bushy at the bottom, whereas an all ti hedge gets bare at the bottom. The Song of India is not that fast growing but in a few years you'll have something substantial.

The bamboo can do the job in one year from buying smallish plants. Arecas I have bought $150-$250 specimens to really get to size quickly. Podocarpus grows fast.

As Carey mentioned, if you have a chainlink fence then vines will do the job very fast. A lilikoi is a great fence cover and you can mix the fruiting type with a flowering hybrid for variety. A good fence cover is clerodendrum thomsonieae or tropical bleeding heart.

http://lvgira.narod.ru/im/clerodendrum_thomsoniae.jpg
It is fast and tough and pretty and flowers year round.
It looks pretty combined with blue thunbergia / sky flower
http://zoneten.com/_borders/Thunbergia%2...iflora.JPG
and also Allamanda cathartica - Cherry Jubilee Allamanda makes a nice large-flowered accent interspersed with a vine of small flowers and more dense leaves.
http://www.zoneten.com/_borders/Allamand...e%2016.JPG
Petrea volubilis - Purple Queen's Wreath or Sandpaper vine is another pretty accent:
http://www.zoneten.com/_borders/Petrea%20at%20FTG1.JPG

I like to mix vines ...
Certain vines like huapala (pyrostegia venusta) and ipomoea (morning glory) can hardly be controlled and I would avoid them. Thunbergia is rampant but you can get it to stay on a fence.

On the dry side, a lot of people use oleander and be still. I don't care much for oleander and both are poisonous, but they do make one tough fast-growing hedge if you are in a dry area.

[Carey]

If you would like cutting from many of the plants mentioned & esp. if you would like to de-entrench some green Rhapis (finger) palms, I have many of the species that are mentioned, all that usually need trimming & the palms need to go! (along with a chenille, but that is not a plant that I would want near a pool, as the chenille things shed.)
forgot a link for Rhaphis palms:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2065/

Plus I can almost guarantee you go near our place every time you are in HIlo!

[Ed Smay]

Can anyone suggest a nursery or supplier where I can get
arecas for a resonable price? Ken Lee's on Railroad quoted
me $55 a piece for 5-6' Palms.

"From knowledge comes understanding"

[Blakeyboy1]

Kathy great info as always. Mahalo! We were walking around Kaanapali resorts last week and were fascinated how they screened things like dumpsters and maintenance areas with bamboo and it was beautiful. We are hoping to use some ourselves.

-Blake
http://www.theboysgreatescape.blogspot.com/