Build Your Private Sanctuary Just in Time for the Holidays
Hedges are one of the best ways to add value to your home and create a classic look to your landscape. With so many options to choose from, it gives you the opportunity to decide between a formal or informal look that could vary in height, size, color, and shape!
Some of the biggest reasons for a homeowner to want to add hedges into their landscape include:
- Making a sound and weather barrier
- Creating a dramatic entryway
- Adding a wall of color
- Forming a living border
The number one reason should be no surprise (hint: it’s in the title!) to anybody. The biggest reason most people decide to add hedges in their yard is for the amazing privacy it creates around their home. We have compiled some of our favorite hedges to plant for our current fall season before it’s too late. Keep reading and see which hedge is right for you and your yard!
Japanese Blueberry (Elaeocarpus decipiens)
The Japanese Blueberry tree is a visually appealing evergreen due to its thick, lush foliage and striking leaf color that lasts throughout the year. The green hues from the foliage provides a fantastic backdrop for contrasting flowers and shrubs. It thrives in full sun and can handle the cold extremely well. It has become one of Houston’s most planted hedge variety and is an excellent choice for just about any landscape. Depending on how you choose to trim your trees, you can plant them to grow tall and upright and create a thick privacy wall that covers more than your fence does or make a fence completely made of Japanese Blueberry trees!
Carolina Cherry (Prunus caroliniana ‘Compacta’)
The Carolina Cherry is native to the Texas area and does great when grown in the general southwestern region. This evergreen can be grown and used as a large shrub or as a small tree, whatever your needs might be. It grows easily in full sun exposure and requires little upkeep for it to grow and thrive. The Carolina Cherry has become a popular choice for its overall minimal maintenance, natural upright cone-like shape, and ability to tolerate heat, drought, and wind. These features make it great to be used as a weather barrier as well as for privacy purposes. The Carolina Cherry is a small to medium-sized evergreen with dark green, lustrous wavy foliage on brown thorn-less stems. They can also be easily sheared into a tall screen or sound barrier which make them a near-perfect option for many homes.
Wax Leaf Privet (Ligustrum japonicum ‘Texanum’)
One of the only hedges on this list that is NOT a tree is the Wax Leaf Privet shrub. This plant does great in Texas due to how much sun it enjoys and how tolerable it is with different variations of soil conditions. The Wax Leaf Privet is easy to maintain once established only needing low to moderate watering and only needing pruning at the discretion of the home owner, depending on your desired size and shape design. This fast-growing evergreen shrub produces unique green foliage, blooms with white flowers and berries, and is recommended to be planted in the fall while the soil is perfectly prepared to handle a new transplant.
Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera)
The Wax Myrtle tree is an interesting evergreen to add to your yard. It can be grown as a tree or a shrub, which leaves you with many options as to how to use it and where to place it in your landscaping. The most common uses for this plant is to create a hedge or larger privacy screen. Because of how fast it grows, the Wax Myrtle can be used for those purposes quickly. This evergreen can tolerate almost all landscaping environments from full sun to partial shade and different types of soil conditions, good or bad. If you don’t have the best soil in your yard, don’t worry! Our Soil and Water Conditioner will help you get the best soil for your new plants.
Nellie Stevens Holly (Ilex x ‘Nellie R. Stevens’)
Another great option that can be trained as a hedge and creates a near perfect privacy fence with a little different look is the Nellie Stevens Holly tree. This tree is considered one of the most attractive hollies and it’s easy to see why! This evergreen tree grows fast with dark green foliage and grows upright into a pyramid-like shape. To contrast the dense foliage, new color shows up twice a year as small white flowers in the spring and ruby red berries in the winter time (perfect timing for festive décor!). Not only is this a great tree due to how fast it grows, but for how easy it is to maintain. They just need partial to full sun, little water, and benefit from fertilization in early spring. Other than that, they do best being left alone, unless you decide your trees need a haircut.
Feel free to stop by your local Moon Valley Nurseries, speak with our nursery professionals, and schedule a landscape design consultation. Let us do the work for you from planning, designing, delivering, and #freeplanting.
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