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Evergreen tree/tall shrub/pleached shrub for dry shade
Apologies in advance for the length of this post, just trying to give as much relevant information as possible.
We have a border which is, for the most part, very heavily shaded by 2 large conifers in our neighbour’s garden and a large sycamore in ours. The sycamore is being crown lifted and pruned later in the year but will likely stay in place for some years to come. I’ve managed to plant a number of evergreen shrubs which are growing well to screen the boundary (Laurel, Aucuba, Rhododendron (one that tolerates more neutral soil although it’s planted in a sunken bottomless container in ericaceous compost), Mahonia, Yew, Fatsia Spider Web, Holly Nellie Stevens, Fairy Magnolia, Garrya, Photinia, plus Hornbeam.
Things I have considered:
Our neighbours are rebuilding the house on the plot and took out a few smaller conifers which now leave a gap that will let them see into our bedroom (and vice versa I think) especially in winter. Whilst this is undesirable long term, in the short term I’m thinking it will allow more light onto the shrubs I have planted to encourage their growth rather than being in pretty much full shade, but we would like to plant something taller and evergreen in this gap to screen the view.
If we buy something which is 2m tall, the top would receive a lot of sun till midday and dappled for some time afterwards as we would be planting at the back of the border which is about 3m deep and it is due south. Based in the North East of England, the soil is mostly neutral clay although this part of the garden was previously used for grass clippings/leaf mould so is improved a bit.
Whilst I’m not averse to using one of the previous plants as I know they can do well in the conditions, I’d like to consider if there’s something different that I haven’t thought about.
The space to screen is around 2m wide and we would like whatever we plant to get to around first floor window height sooner rather than later so either something fast growing (but only up to around 12m max over a lifetime so it doesn’t need to be pruned) or tall to start with.
- Magnolia Grandiflora but I’m concerned about its eventual height and how quickly it gets that tall or what it would look like if we have to prune it?
- A pleached version of one of the things we have already but I don’t know what happens to the growth of the plant beyond the trellis supports - can it ever be self supporting? Does it become like a standard tree
- A conifer if it was fairly columnar
- A variegated Holly grown as a standard
We would spend up to £500 for something which was around 3-4m tall - although spending this much does make me take a sharp intake of breath in case it doesn’t flourish 😳
Does anyone have some more suggestions for me to look at?
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