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Landscape Design and Landscaping Installation
When privacy is the priority, there are no shortages of great shrub options in North Texas. With so many great choices, you can narrow down your options by considering the desired height, sun requirements, best time to plant shrubs and maintenance requirements like shrub pruning.
In this article, we’ll share several specific plant recommendations for those which we consider to be among the best privacy shrubs for North Texas.
Some common characteristics of privacy shrubs are their overall height, evergreen foliage along with speed at which they grow.
One of our most common shrub recommendations would be the Holly shrub. Hollies come in several varieties between 5-25 foot tall and are adaptive to all levels of sunlight.
If year-round privacy is important, you will want to select a shrub variety that is considered evergreen.
An evergreen shrub will not shed it’s leaves during the cold season making it an ideal North Texas winter plant. In addition to the large variety of Holly bushes, Chinese Photinia is another great evergreen shrub which matures at 15 feet in height.
Most shrubs will gain about one foot each year. However, there are a few faster growing shrubs which are suitable for hedges.
Consider either the Elaeagnus (Silverberry) or the Wax Leaf Ligustrum (Privet). Both growing up to 2 feet each year, Elaeagnus will mature to 6 foot in height while the Wax Leaf Ligustrum can reach up to 10 feet tall.
In North Texas, we recommend choosing screening shrubs which are adapted to clay soil, drought & heat tolerant bushes and rated for plant hardiness zones 7-8.
The Elaeagnus, Wax Leaf Ligustrum and the Chinese Photinia are the most reliable and easy growing privacy screening shrubs.
Most nurseries carry privacy shrub plants between 3-15 gallon sizes. Depending on overall growth habit, a 3 gallon shrub will average 1.5 feet in height once planted while a 15 gallon shrub would likely provide 4-5 feet in planted height.
Depending on your budget and patience for developing privacy, the Glossy Abelia and Elaeagnus are two privacy shrubs that can be used to reduce the overall cost of landscaping.
There are several privacy shrubs suited for shady areas.
All holly varieties are very happy in the shade and provide a range of overall height options to suit any screening requirement.
Another gorgeous, shade loving shrub would be Sweet Viburnum.
Most privacy shrubs offer dense foliage year round. There are a few which also provide a few weeks of blooming and color interest each year during the spring or summer.
For early spring, the Texas Mountain Laurel delivers a sweet smelling, large lavender flowers that will bloom alongside other North Texas spring flowers.
For summer and fall color, consider planting Oleander for privacy. With a mild winter, we can even see the Oleander blooms as late as Christmas.