These evergreen or deciduous shrubs protect your garden oasis from prying eyes and create a sense of solitude.
Privacy shrubs offer several benefits over hardscape solutions such asfencesor latticework.
Shrubs for privacy also absorb noise from traffic or neighbors, providing a sense of serenity.
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Many shrubs, especially native species, provide food and shelter for birds and other wildlife.
Tips For Selecting Privacy Shrubs
There are several factors to consider when selecting privacy shrubs.
Here is a selection of the best shrubs you’re able to plant for privacy.
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This evergreen shrub is perfect for shearing and shaping into formal hedges.
When left to grow naturally, it takes on a narrow columnar form.
Tightly packed deep green foliage covers the upright branches, providing a dense screen.
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‘Bright ‘N Tight’ is a compact cultivar of the native Carolina laurel.
Robins and cedar waxwings are common visitors in winter and early spring.
‘Bright ‘n Tight’ grows 8 to 10 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide in ten years.
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This compact, upright holly maintains a pyramidal form without the need for pruning.
Pink, star-shaped blooms bear a yellow throat and attract bees and butterflies to the garden.
‘October Magic’ Camellia
With dark and glossy evergreen foliage, camellias provide year-round screening and privacy.
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‘October Magic’ is a cultivar of Sasanqua camellia, a species whose branches reach up and out.
Like for all camellias, excellent drainage is essential.
Fragrant spring blooms and yellow-orange fall foliage add seasonal interest.
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This woodland native grows in USDA Zones 6-9 and is best suited to shadier areas of the landscape.
Morning sun and filtered afternoon shade are ideal.
It grows moderately fast to a height of 12 feet and a width of 8 feet.
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It maintains a lovely natural form with no pruning but also tolerates heavy clipping to create topiaries.
Perfect for cutting and drying, the showy flower heads consist of white flowers packed onto pyramidal panicles.
Oakleaf hydrangeas are hardy in USDA Zones 5-9.
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It is an excellent choice for nature lovers.
Large white flower clusters cover plants in spring attracting native bees.
Plants produce long, straight stems and shiny, deeply-veined foliage.
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Plants are also unbothered by confining pavement and other urban challenges.
The small flowers are visited by native bees and butterflies, while songbirds feast on the berries.
Yellow-rumped warblers and tree swallows are particularly attracted to the gray fruits.
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Dark green foliage lightens toward the branch tips.
False cypress is slow-growing, but worth the wait.
It is hardy in USDA Zones 4-8.
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It is hardy in USDA 6-9.
Winter brings a red tinge to the stems for added interest.
Plants areresistant to deer browsing.
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The shrub grows 6 to 15 feet tall; there are dwarf, medium-sized, and tall varieties.
Chinese fringe flower blooms white, pink, creamy white, or reddish-purple.
A boon for yards where deer browsing is an issue: Chinese fringe flower is seldom bothered by deer.
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The shrub grows 8 to 10 feet tall and 10 to 12 feet wide.
Border forsythia is suitable for USDA Zones 5-8.
Mock oranges grow 3 to 10 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide.
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The branches arch as the plant ages.
Mock oranges are tolerant to drought, heat, and humidity.
They are well-adapted to a wide geographical range (USDA Zone 5-10).
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Plant shade-tolerant shrubs, either as a specimen or a hedge, such ashydrangeas that thrive in the shade.
