Lurking

 

That space is way too small for green giants. Mine are 5 years old and already 7 feet wide even after pruning. And emeralds are sloooow growers.

How about crepe myrtles? Not a great screen during winter but grow fast and have lots of color choices. They will be larger than your space canopy wise but maybe it works.

 

Emerald green or pillar arborvitae will work, for awhile. Eventually they will get too wide for a 2 ft bed width. But if this isn't your forever home go ahead and plant and 10 years from now the homeowner would need to remove

 

Thanks for the replies! Sorry, didn't see these until now, thought I'd get email notifications by default...

7 feet wide?? Ha, I did not get that impression - thought you could train/trim them to a particular diameter as they grew. Guess we'll find out, I already ordered some! There are some tall thujas in my neighborhood, 15 feet by 4 or 5 maybe. Guess I'm not sure if those are emeralds or green giants. What sold me is that growth rate.

Good news is I do have a rotary hammer and the existing concrete right there is already cracked and buckled in some spots - Pretty sure I'm going to replace it with paver stones. That said, I can shore up some space.

And hopefully I can bonsai these things. I guess we'll see. I know of other places I can transplant them to if necessary.

I did not know about pillar arborvitae... guess there are lots of choices. I also have 7 or so random saplings from the Arbor Day Foundation thing growing into season 2 now. This is all quite fun.

Any recommendation for soil/fertilizer with the green giants?

 

I probably got swayed by this lol

 

You don't shape arborvitae like a boxwood topiary. The height is the height. The width can be influenced but that is by planting a row of them close together

 

Lol. Y'all got me panicking so I cancelled the order.

Those pillar arborvitae do look ideal... I just wish I could find some that are taller to begin with. The green giants I came across were offered in taller sizes (5'-7'), but I've only found 3' tall pillar arborvitaes so far. I have read they can grow fast though... 3'-4' a year?

There's a place near me that has 5'-6' emerald greens but it seems to be the consensus those will grow less than a foot a year. I'm hoping for a 8'-9' hedge (or taller).

I might have some 7' emeralds in my front yard I could stand to transplant. I'll measure and post them here later to confirm.

Thanks all!

 

Arborvitae prices are ridiculous if you are trying to get "teenager" trees. They are cheap as babies. Pretty sure the pillar variety is a fast grower. Won't take long to get your hedge

 

Cool so 5 or 6 in a line seem ok for a 15 ft strip? I could remove some of that concrete and do a double row staggered at a slight angle I suppose...

I'm a little limited on nurseries where I am but I did find these... recommendations?

https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/american-pillar-arborvitae

5 x 2'-3' = $499.75

https://www.greatgardenplants.com/products/full-speed-a-hedge-american-pillar-arborvitae

6 x average height of 35" = $137.94??!

https://gardengoodsdirect.com/products/american-pillar-arborvitae-trees?variant=31723545002026

6 x 3 Gallon Pot (2 to 3 Feet Tall) = $313.23 (including optional $16.50 "shipping protection")

Also see the pics below... what do you think they are? I'm going to guess emerald greens since a Google street view dated 2012 show these at about half the height, haha. These are on the opposite side of the property. Would you transplant these? Already 8 feet... but pretty established...

 

That tree is way too big too be transplanted unless you have serious equipment.

In my experience, dont go cheap on the trees. Spend the extra to get the more mature. Wife talked me into that and i dont regret it.

Also. Middle of summer is typically the worst time to plant. Recommend waiting till the fall.

 

I don't like staggered rows of arborvitae. People say straight lines are boring, but to me arborvitaes look best in dead straight lines evenly spaced. You want that hedge effect on a property line.

 

So if I plant now they will die or there will be risk of permanent damage, even with watering? He's my average climate, though we might have received even more rain this last fall/winter/spring lol

 

Oh. You might be alright. When I saw you were in zone 8 or 9 I assumed you were in the southeast where we are constantly in the 90s now. You might be good to go. Dont listen to me. I clearly dont know enough about zones.
😆

 

All good, ha. Sorry, I don't envy you at this time. My dad lives in Florida and about 20 years ago I vowed to never visit him again in the summer. :laugh: