Nowadays there are many artificial and quite durable materials that can be considered for installing an effective and somewhat aesthetic privacy screen. Nevertheless, many gardeners still prefer the special charm of a natural privacy screen made of evergreen shrubs and hedges.
Which hedge plants are evergreen and offer privacy?
Evergreen hedge plants for year-round privacy include spruce, thuja, yew, cherry laurel, bamboo and ilex. They offer an effective and aesthetic privacy screen that, unlike artificial materials, is natural and environmentally friendly.
Evergreen plants for a privacy hedge
The decisive criterion for an evergreen privacy hedge is the fact that it offers consistent privacy all year round and does not become transparent when leaves fall off in autumn. That's why the beech trees used for hedge planting are usually included in this category, even though their leaves turn brown in autumn. Since, like some privet species, the leaves remain on the branches until spring, they are not, strictly speaking, evergreen, but are nevertheless sufficiently opaque until new growth occurs. The following trees and shrubs are actually green all year round for planting a green privacy screen:
- Spruce
- Subspecies of Thuja occidentalis
- Yews
- Cherry Laurel
- Bamboo
- Ilex
Advantages and disadvantages of cherry laurel as an evergreen hedge plant
Compared to other hedge trees, cherry laurel in particular has been increasingly present as a plant species in new plantings of privacy hedges over the last few years. This may be due not least to the fact that new cultivars are becoming more and more winter-hardy in our latitudes and that young plants no longer die so easily due to winter frosts. Cherry laurel hedges also offer particularly good nesting opportunities for local songbirds and thus make an important contribution to nature conservation in your own garden. You should only be careful if you plant a cherry laurel hedge along a wall or on a particularly exposed slope: very pronounced temperature changes between day and night can be a problem for the various types of cherry laurel during the winter months.
Evergreen for the privacy hedge: the boxwood
The boxwood, with its bushy, squat growth, used to be very common in Central Europe. However, various diseases and pests such as the box tree borer are increasingly causing problems for the plants. Since this battle is difficult to win, if in doubt you should currently switch to other types of evergreen hedge plants.
Tip
Be careful with plants purchased bare-root: These should only be planted under really suitable weather conditions and at the recommended planting time. The critical growth phase of various hedge trees is less problematic if plants are purchased with a root ball or in appropriate plant containers.
