April 2015 - Mastering the Art of Landscaping

There may be many reasons why you might want to add a privacy barrier to your Tampa landscape. Perhaps you would simply like some privacy! Or, you might need one as a sound barrier next to a noisy street, or to block out a street light that disturbs your sleep. Maybe the local teenagers cut through your yard on their way to the park, or your neighbors have an unkempt yard that offends your view. No matter the reason, a privacy barrier can be one of the best landscape investments that you can make.

When selecting the types of plants that you might like to use, you need to keep a few things in mind: it should be a plant that is hardy and permanent; you need to understand the maintenance requirements and preferred planting site of the selected plant(s); and you must make sure that you have the space for a privacy barrier.

Primarily, you want to make sure that the privacy barrier will live for many years. Given it's function in the landscape, if the plant that your select is prone to freeze damage, you have the potential to lose your privacy hedge in any given winter. A good example of this would be using plants like Bougainvillea or Hibiscus, that could potentially be killed or freeze burned to the ground, and you will have to wait many years for them to grow back. If you would still like to use plants such as these, consider adding a few so that you get the look that you like, but do not rely on them as a permanent plant.

Secondly, make sure that understand the growth habit of your desired plant(s) for the privacy barrier. Some plants like Podocarpus can be trimmed as a more narrow and upright hedge, but plants like Dwarf Bamboo will need plenty of side room to grow. Also, while some plants are versatile in their sunlight and soil preferences, others may not be. One example is Ligustrum, which prefers sunlight and well-drained soil, but will be thinned out in too much shade or may get root rot in soils that are too moist.

Lastly, make sure that you truly understand the ultimate growth habit of the privacy barrier plants that you select. If you can determine the height of the privacy barrier that you desire, you can try to select plants that will ultimately stop growing at near that preferred height. Otherwise, you should at least try to understand the maintenance level that it might take to keep a plant at 10' when it really wants to grow to 20'. Ask yourself how many times a year will I have to trim it, and does that schedule mesh with what I willing to do in my landscape?

Fortunately, there are many wonderful plants that you can select from to create your privacy barrier. While some plants grow very slowly (like Chinese Fan Palm), others grow very quickly (such as Sweet Viburnum). Depending upon your budget and the urgency of the privacy barrier, you may be able to buy smaller plants (3 or 7 gallon size) and let them grow. Conversely, if you need an instant privacy barrier, you will have to purchase plants that are several years old, and have a much higher price tag.

Any of these plants will work for your Tampa landscapes, just be sure to understand their ultimate growth height and spread, preferred planting conditions, and typical maintenance schedule:

Dwarf Bamboo, varieties such as Golden Goddess, Fern Leaf, and Alphonse Karr
Chinese Fan Palm
Areca Palm
Roebellini Palm, in select situations due to limited growth height
White Bird of Paradise
Fishtail Palm
Bottlebrush tree, single trunk or multi-stem
Podocarpus
Sweet Viburnum (Viburnum odoratissimum)
Red Cedar
Eleocarpus
Ligustrum tree
Holly, many varieties

Any of these plants would make a welcome addition to your landscape, either in a grouping or hedge, or as a solitary plant. As well, many of them can be mixed together in a pleasingly cohesive design that can create a privacy barrier that doesn't look like a "wall". As always, half of the fun of landscaping is experimenting, so if you do your homework, and understand the nature of the selected plant(s), you will be amply rewarded!

Let's get growing, Folks! You privacy barrier is awaiting!

Donell

Every landscaper and gardener has their favorite go-to landscape plants, that they prefer to include in a landscape design for their unique color or foliage, ease in maintenance, and versatility under many planting conditions. Here are my favorite landscape plants, my top 10 (although I will admit, it was hard to winnow the list to only 10!)

Ti Plants, but only certain varieties. I like to use the varieties that can be planted in full sun or shade, and stay full throughout the plant, naturally or with a little trimming. My two favorites are Black Magic (on the left) for areas that could use a larger and wider growing plant, or varieties such as Auntie Lou or Xerox (on the right), that are more slender, upright growers. And, I never, never use Red Sister! In fact, Red Sister usually looks horrible after the first year, and, sadly, just gives the rest of the family a bad reputation.

Crinum Lily, either green leaf or the red-leafed varieties. This is a great 4'X4' growing plant, your mid-sized mini-specimen, so that not everything is tall or small in the landscape design. It is drought tolerant, generally pest free, and needs two time a year leaf clean up. Occasionally, small pups do need to be removed, but they can either be planted elsewhere in the garden, or given to friends in a seed or cutting exchange.

Blushing Bromeliads, the Neo variety (not the ones that are green all year and bloom once a year for a month). These wonderful plants come in all leaf colors and growth sizes, and if used properly, can add foliage interest to a well-designed landscape. They have little maintenance requirements, and multiply over time to fill in an bed area, and yet are still easy care enough that you can control their growth so that they do not over take your garden.

Angel's Trumpet is not for everyone, but if you have the room and the inclination, this plant can provide endless ghostly salmon or white trumpet flowers during the humid summer months, that have a delicious subtle fragrance that wafts through the stillness of the night air. It is a hallucinogen, though, so care must be taken with pets and children.

Foxtail Fern could not be a more versatile plant, that lives in almost all light and soil conditions. It's bright lime, funky foliage works well against almost any other plant color and texture, and can be used as a border plant, or a mid-sized filler plant. As well, it is unique in that it's foliage generally does not "stretch" or change color in the sun versus shade, so it can easily be used as a plant that matches on both sides of a bed with different light conditions.

Pinwheel Jasmine is a mid-sized shrub that blooms almost year-around, in sun or shade. It makes a great background or foundation plant, and it's blooms stand out nicely in the shade or even at night. White foliaged or white blooming plants are often over-looked in the landscape, but they stand out nicely against dark paint colors or other green-foliage plants, and can help other bold landscape colors pop.

Dwarf Crown of Thorn is a fabulous option to use instead of seasonal flowers. Seasonal flowers must be changed out 2-4 times a year, whereas Dwarf Crown of Thorn is a long living perennial that blooms throughout the year. If trimmed properly (two times a year), it can grow to the size of a soccer ball, and will be dense throughout the plant. While it can be prone to frost and freeze damage, it generally bounces back within one season, making it a viable landscape plant for a Tampa garden.

Dwarf Bamboo varieties such as Alphonse Karr, Golden Goddess, or Fernleaf cannot be matched as far as privacy barriers go. They are not only quick growing, they are cold hardy for Tampa landscapes, drought tolerant, and pest free. They require little maintenance after they are established, and have foliage from top to bottom, making them ideal for privacy. Dwarf Bamboo does require space to grow though, as they can grow almost as wide as they grow tall (8'-15'), so that must be taken into consideration. Despite that, they also offer an easy tropical or lush flair to many styles of landscape design.

Adagio Grass, also called Chinese Silver Grass, is a large growing (4'X4') landscape grass that is a great substitute for the much larger growing Pampas Grass. In the landscape, it can be used as a stand alone feature, as a background plant, or in mass plantings. It provides many soft white plumes throughout most of the warm months, and it's foliage has a white rib, that gives it a silver shimmer. I find that it grows well in most soil conditions, and while it prefers full sun, it will tolerate and still bloom in part shade. While it can hold on to it's old leaves as it grows new ones, one easy method to remove these is to use a leaf rake like a hair comb, used upside down. Other than this 1-2 time a year maintenance task, this plant is generally care-free.

Bottlebrush is a small growing tree that can easily be sheered and trimmed to a desired size, thereby making it a perfect candidate for a small specimen plant or privacy barrier. It can also be allowed to grow to it's full potential of 15-20', allowing it to be a magnificent and glorious centerpiece of your landscape design. It can be purchased in multi-trunk form or in single trunk form (called a standard), and I generally prefer the standard variety, as it allows for plantings underneath to help create a multi-layered landscape design. Bottlebrush trees can bloom for several months of the year, and have the added bonus of being pollinators that attract butterflies, honey bees, and hummingbirds. Preferably, they should be lightly trimmed once a year to help keep them dense.

From these photos, and my brief plant descriptions, you may be able to see why I have listed these as my favorite landscape plants, and as my top 10. I have many more favorites, and I will post about them later, perhaps as another round of favorite landscape plants, top 20. Mostly, though, they made the list for their ease in care, fabulous characteristics of form/color/texture interest in a landscape design, and their versatility of site conditions and purposeful use in the landscape.

When you decide as to what you would like in your landscape, I suggest that you start with a favorite list as well, and then learn the nature of that plant to determine if it will fit into your over-all plans. Again, half the joy of gardening is the trial and error.

So, let's get to picking favorites and making new garden friends, folks!

Donell