I need to plant 100 feet of hedging front of my house. I have installed a wrought iron gate so need something to reach about 6-8 feet tall. I realize i will have to prune but don't want to have to prune more than twice a year hopefully. I would like something quick growing and am hoping for something other that Leyland spruce or cedar. something with flowers or berries? I did have Ceanothus there when i moved in but the hard winter a few years back wreaked havoc and i had to pull it all out. This area gets full sun and has good drainage. I have a large culvert in front of where the hedge will go so am not too worried about deer but obviously don't want something they love. I do live in Deer Park!!
Use a species of Pyracantha. Good berry colour (select for good consistent colour among the plants when purchasing), flowers in spring, good barrier plant to keep deer away if they do venture close, medium growth.
I love my yellow berried pyracantha, but they do require a fair bit of work to keep them looking nice & fruiting well. They are also susceptible to a kind of black spot which can seriously reduce the berry crop. I only have one large, espalied plant (about 7 feet) and it requires which requires serious pruning at least twice a year. I certainly wouldn't want to prune 100 feet of it. I prune mine by hand with loppers and secateurs and am not sure if pyracantha can really be pruned attractively with power clippers or ? One of the unpleasant parts is dealing with the viciously thorny prunings, once you are done. They don't pack together or lay flat and even with gloves I get lots of punctures and snags. With 100 feet you'd have a huge mound of clippings. What about Photinia? Lovely red new growth, grows fast, but is fairly easy to prune, flowers if you let it get big.
Here in Vancouver they still seem to be generally pretty healthy; at least the ones I've seen. I don't grow them because my yard is too shady. Photinia are also listed as being something deer don't generally eat; though that can vary from place to place and deer to deer.
I have to fill in a bermed area behind our townhouse about 15 feet long, maybe, with hedging, the earth berm is an old one that holds some trees such as fir and pine at one end, in a suburban setting. The berm and its plantings [now thick and tall] are to protect the back of our townhouses from a busy street and from wandering children. We took a leaning fir down, and a companion tree caught up in it, it was way over at an angle and the landscaper took them out. There is a mature cedar hedge about 10 or 12 feet high nearby which could be continued to serve the purpose and fill in the gap, it remains green and healthy, but I am afraid of newer cedars dying in the dry season... we can provide irrigation, that is close by, but even so I've seen new hedging cedars in our neighbourhood die back in a year or two. It is extremely dry in Victoria in the summers. I am wondering what gardeners and landscapers reading this forum would suggest. It does not have to be highly groomed, although we would have to shear a cedar hedge to match the existing one nearby. I have found pyracantha very persistent here, and rather drought-tolerant, I would want them to fountain rather than prune them into a box, but perhaps to be trimmed to keep the row shapely. The bird life around the berries would be a welcome addition. The idea is to have the growth thick to keep out wandering passers-by [near a bus stop] and establish a boundary, plus a visual barrier against traffic. The common thought is hedging cedars, I think we thought about 6-7 large ones to fill the space, but I am wondering about alternatives. We could possibly use a couple of trees again, if anyone has a suggestion for a conifer that tends to grow wide and thick rather than tall and rangy. The berm does have elsewhere in it some cypress-like trees with a golden hue that grow huge and very thick, that would be a possibility, although they do get very very large. Also they may take some time to turn into a barrier. Pyracantha grow quickly, that seems to be a virtue, although I am not sure we can purchase large ones the way we can purchase large hedging cedars. The old roots have been removed and the soil has had a chance to weather for half a year, and we can add nutrients and some better soil before planting. There is a lot of sunlight in the area, morning and afternoon. They are evergreen, correct? What about hawthorn? Is that evergreen?
Another conifer you could use for a screen/hedging and is drought tolerant is upright Junipers. The blue/silver needle ones such as Wichita Blue or MoonGlow are attractive and can make a great screening hedge. They can be sheared and topped if desired.
