Here you will find the best privacy plants, the need for privacy plants in outdoor spaces, benefits, a list of plants with pictures, and quick care tips.
Privacy plants are like living fences. This option gives your yard or lawn perfect privacy along with a magnificent screening. These privacy plants grow with dense colorful foliage.
Consequently, they can create a hedge-type look but with a longer elevation. The best quality of these privacy plants is their growing adaptability apart from their low-maintenance nature.
Most of the privacy plants are cold-hardy and at the same time drought tolerant. Besides, they grow lovelier each year, unlike your common wooden fences. Thus, you don’t need to spend any extra effort on such living privacy options once you plant them properly around the margin of your garden.
Why You May Need Privacy Plants
Blocks unsightly views: Privacy plants can help to block out unsightly views such as neighboring buildings, unattractive fences, or garbage cans.
A private retreat: Privacy plants can create a peaceful, secluded outdoor retreat where you can relax and enjoy some quiet time away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Protects against prying eyes: If you live in a densely populated area, privacy plants can help to protect your outdoor space from prying eyes, giving you the freedom to enjoy your yard without feeling exposed.
To create a sense of enclosure: Privacy plants can be used to create a sense of enclosure, defining your outdoor space and making it feel like a cozy, intimate area.
Increases the property value: A well-landscaped outdoor space with privacy plants can increase the value of your property, making it more attractive to potential buyers if you ever decide to sell.
Privacy plants can enhance the beauty of your outdoor space by adding texture, color, and dimension. They can also serve as a natural backdrop for outdoor furniture, statues, and other decorative elements.
Overall, privacy plants can enhance the beauty and functionality of your outdoor space, making it a more enjoyable place to spend time.
Here are some best privacy plants suggestions for you in this regard. These 10 plants grow faster and take a shorter period to form a compressed barrier for your outdoor garden area-
Reasons These Are Good for Privacy Plants
Hicks Yew: Dark green foliage, tolerant of shearing, grows well in shade.
Bamboo: Fast-growing, tall, durable, and adds a unique tropical feel to landscapes.
Chocolate Vine: Rapidly growing, fragrant blooms, hardy in colder climates.
Boxwood: Slow-growing, versatile, easy to shape, and stays green year-round.
Privet: Fast-growing, easy to prune, hardy, and forms a dense hedge.
Photinia: Colorful foliage, tolerant of pruning, and easy to maintain.
Red Twig Dogwood: Bright red branches, hardy in colder climates, adds winter interest to landscapes.
Cypress Trees: Fast-growing, tall, evergreen, and resistant to pests and disease.
Euonymus: Tolerant of pruning, colorful foliage, and adaptable to a variety of soil types.
Lilac: Fragrant blooms, drought-tolerant, and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
Hicks Yew:
Description:
This plant grows with sleek needle-like leaves in bunches and sometimes berry-like fruits during winters. It can provide an evergreen backdrop to your yard with a long height of 10-60 feet. It can grow up to 1-1.5 feet per year.
Hicks Yew hedge is good for privacy, in terms of dense foliage to avoid peeping and also reduces noise from neighboring places
Soil: Loamy, loose soil with well-drained quality and neutral pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to the sun with full to partial shade
Fertilizer: You can feed this plant with any granulated fertilizer once a year that is high in nitrogen content
Pruning: Annually
Related: Fast-Growing Hedge Plants for Your Garden
Bamboo:
Description:
Bamboo is one brilliant option for a privacy plant as the longest natural fence. Bamboo plants can add a contemporary interior touch to your lawn in a pocket-friendly way. It can grow up to 30-40 feet tall, depending on the selected species.
Bamboo grows fast and gives your yard or garden an aesthetic appearance.
Soil: Loose humus-rich moist but well-drained soil with a neutral pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to the sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: You can try any organic fertilizer like compost, or manure in granulated or diluted form
Pruning: Not required until your plants reach their 4th to 5th year after the proper establishment
Chocolate Vine:
Description:
Chocolate Vine is a great choice to keep the privacy of your yard elegantly. This privacy plant produces five-fingered compound foliage with jagged tips and tiny brown-colored chocolate-like blossoms. It can thrive up to 15-30 feet tall with a 2-3 feet yearly growth.
Though chocolate vines won’t stand erect and act as a privacy screen, training these vines will benefit you in privacy and for a beautiful inside.
Soil: Sandy, loamy soil with well-drained quality and mildly acidic pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: Feed your plant with any homemade plant food like well-rotted manure or compost, once a year
Pruning: Once a year, during the winter
Related: Best Climbing Plants with Fruits
Boxwood:
Description:
It is one of the best choices to grow as a privacy plant due to its dense bushy foliage. The leaf’s color varies from emerald green to elegant white and sometimes glossy golden too. Every species grows foliage with the same size and same pattern. It can grow up to 20 feet tall with a ½ feet annual growth.
These shrubs are good as living fences for privacy and they can also be pruned to shape to make your garden beautiful.
Soil: Loamy, fertile well-drained soil with a slightly alkaline pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: Apply any all-purpose plant fertilizer in an average amount in the granulated form once a year during springtime
Pruning: Prune your growing boxwood anytime once you detect any informal shape on them
Privet:
Description:
It is one of the fast-growing long hedges that can elevate almost 2-3 feet tall each year of their growing session! The private plant produces tiny leaf-shaped foliage in the deep green shade along with white-colored flowers with a pleasant fragrance. It can grow 4-15 inches tall, depending on the oldness.
These hedges are amazing as a natural barrier and provide an evergreen living privacy screen for you, around the year.
Soil: Normally fertile and well-drained soil with a slightly acidic to the neutral pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: Apply any commercial fertilizer twice a year with high-nitrogen and low-phosphorus content in a 15-5-10 NPK ratio
Pruning: Twice a year as they bounce back more quickly after pruning
Photinia:
Description:
Photinia can give your place full-coverage privacy to your outdoor space for the richness of its bushy shrubs. The foliage grows in dark green shade and clusters of leaves from mobbed stems. Leaves can turn reddish to golden red color sometimes, depending on the age of the leaves. Plants can grow up to 12 feet tall with a 1-3 feet growth each year.
These plants can establish faster to get privacy earlier and are easy to care too
Soil: Arrange loamy, fertile, well-drained soil with a slightly acidic pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: Use any slow-release organic fertilizer to feed your plant once a year
Pruning: Prune every year from winter to early spring
Related: Best deer-resistant plants for your yard.
Red Twig Dogwood:
Description:
This is a scarce privacy plant that grows bright red branches with green leaves and white flowers. Stems turn completely red during the autumn when the leaves drop off. It can add a cheerful dash to your outdoor area with a sprinkle of unusualness. It can thrive up to 10 feet tall with a 2 feet yearly growth.
These red twig dogwoods grow faster during their initial years and give a lovely ambiance in winter with its red twigs
Soil: Fully fertile, moist but well-drained soil with a mildly acidic pH level
Sunlight: Full sun to sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: Feed this unique-looking privacy plant with homemade plant food like compost or fish emulsion twice a year
Pruning: Once a year during winter or early spring to promote the new growth rapidly
Cypress Trees:
Description:
This is one more tall privacy plant option that can give your outdoor space a classy look with its separated yet shaggy discretion looks.
The Leyland species of this plant grow super quickly and add an extra 4-5 feet each year of its normal growing session. The awl-shaped leaves spread nicely and always grow in pairs with the whorls of three to four fronds. Plants can grow up to 50-70 feet tall in their full maturity.
One of the majestic and tall-looking privacy trees, that grows really faster.
Soil: Average-type soil with well-drained quality and acidic pH level
Sunlight: Full sun
Fertilizer: Amend the soil during plantation and apply an all-purpose fertilizer once every 2 years
Pruning: Not essential, you can try once every year to give them any desirable shape
Euonymus:
Description:
It is another fastest-growing privacy plant that can grow up to 10-15 feet long with 4-5 inches annual growth. The woody flowering shrub grows distinctive foliage with beautiful leaf-shaped foliage in green-gold variegated forms. You can cultivate this species as a climber plant as well with an unimaginable height of 60-70 at their highest peak.
Just like boxwood, these plants can be pruned to get your plants in shape and they also come in different colors which gives you a lush and beautiful garden too.
Soil: Loose, well-drained, and slightly fertile soil with any kind of pH from acidic to alkaline
Sunlight: Full sun or sun with partial shade
Fertilizer: Any all-purpose fertilizer that is high in nitrogen content, once a year
Pruning: Every time after the flowering season is gone and once a year to keep the plant in shape
Lilac:
Description:
This is a great choice for a privacy plant for an unavoidable nice fragrance along with an exotic look. Lilac grows with a busy texture and bunches of flowers that can block the outside eyes successfully from your yard.
If you are looking for any flamboyant living privacy for your garden that can fill your area with nice odor too, this can be the best choice for sure. It can grow up to 15 feet tall with wide 12 feet spread in full maturity.
Lilacs are not just for privacy they make your garden look amazing, and yes they are good wind barriers too.
There are some cultivars of Lilac that can be used for privacy screening, such as the Hungarian Lilac (Syringa josikaea), which has a more dense growth habit and can grow up to 10-12 feet tall and 8-10 feet wide.
Related: Best wind-resistant plants for your garden.
Soil: Loamy, well-drained soil with a neutral pH level
Sunlight: Full sunlight
Fertilizer: Any all-purpose fertilizer with a high-nitrogen quantity, once a year during springtime
Pruning: Once a year, after the flowering season is completed.
Everything About Privacy Plants
What are some good privacy plants?
A: Some good privacy plants include Hicks Yew, Bamboo, Boxwood, Privet, Photinia, Red Twig Dogwood, Cypress Trees, Euonymus, and Lilac.
How tall should privacy plants be?
A: The height of privacy plants depends on your needs and preferences. Some privacy plants, like Hicks Yew, can grow up to 20 feet tall, while others, like Privet, may grow up to 10-15 feet tall.
How fast do privacy plants grow?
A: The growth rate of privacy plants varies depending on the plant species and growing conditions. Some privacy plants, like Bamboo, can grow very quickly, while others, like Boxwood, grow more slowly.
What are some low-maintenance privacy plants?
A: Some low-maintenance privacy plants include Hicks Yew, Photinia, and Cypress Trees.
Can privacy plants be grown in containers?
A: Yes, some privacy plants can be grown in containers. However, it is important to choose plants that are well-suited to container growing and to provide them with the appropriate care.
What are some tips for growing privacy plants?
A: Some tips for growing privacy plants include selecting plants that are well-suited to your climate and growing conditions, planting them in the appropriate location and soil, providing them with appropriate water and nutrients, and pruning them regularly to maintain their size and shape.
Can privacy plants be grown from seeds?
A: Some privacy plants can be grown from seeds, while others are typically propagated through cuttings or other methods. It is important to research the specific plant species you are interested in growing to determine the best propagation method.
Reference Websites
https://www.thespruce.com/reasons-why-you-need-privacy-plants-2736554
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/landscaping-and-hardscaping/landscaping-for-privacy-plants
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/plants-mixed-privacy-screens