Privacy hedge

Discussion in 'Outdoor Gardening in the Pacific Northwest' started by glamourpuss, Mar 4, 2010.

  1. JCardina

    JCardina Active Member

    Messages:
    162
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Comox, Vancouver Island, British Columbia Canada
    Wow! People are recommending Yews? Do you have any idea how slow they grow. The original poster would be moldering in the grave by the time they provided any kind of screening. :)

    Maybe there's some super Yew that I've never heard of but we have Yews and they are growing entirely as expected, i.e. if you see any noticeable difference year on year it's miraculously fast growth.

    I strongly suspect people are confusing yew with something else if they claim it's growing a foot a year. Or they have some kind of technique for growing it that should be patented and sold to "big Yew" for big $$$.

    Screening is something we've dealt with big time on our property, we have pretty much everything suggested in this thread growing in some area or another of our property.

    After much research we planted western red cedars for the majority of hedging (over 500 of them) but there are some areas we wanted screening as quickly as possible and for that nothing beats bamboo, specifically clumping bamboo such as Fargesia Rufa.

    It's evergreen, cold hardy, grows incredibly quickly and it's clumping so there is no need to maintain the roots to prevent it from spreading.
     
  2. maf

    maf Generous Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

    Messages:
    2,116
    Likes Received:
    1,874
    Location:
    Northamptonshire, England
    If you cut the leader on a Yew plant it will grow very slowly in terms of height. If you leave it intact, you can get reasonable growth rates, perhaps as much as suggested in this thread. (But obviously nothing like a Leylandii).

    I also like clumping Fargesia type bamboos, but my info is that Fargesia rufa gets to about 2m tall, is that right? I think the O.P. needs something taller, like about 5m, I know some of the other Fargesias would fit the bill but I don't grow any of these tall varieties so am not in a position to recommend them.
     
  3. JCardina

    JCardina Active Member

    Messages:
    162
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Comox, Vancouver Island, British Columbia Canada
    Whoops, I mean Fargesia Robusta which grows 5m or more. Of course with a little bamboo barrier in place or twice a year diligent runner pruning there are plenty of timber bamboos that grow to 50 feet and higher.

    Lot's of info on bamboos that can be grown locally here:
    http://www.bambooworld.com/bamboo%20catalogue.htm

    I've never heard of a Yew growing that fast, ours don't and AFAIK neither do the native ones here on Vancouver Island. Maybe in an ideal climate somewhere in the world...
     

Share This Page