Do skip laurels do well in dc? I need fast growing privacy hedging.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me if they planted skip laurel or English cherry laurel or one of those fast growing laurel shrubs for used as kind of a privacy wall and how to grow well in the type of soil we have? Can anyone recommend a good Bascaron privacy screen that’s a shrub for our area? Any native shrubs?

[Anonymous]

Yes, they do very well, with minimal attention. Water a couple times a week for the first couple summer seasons, and they take off and grow like crazy.

[Anonymous]

This is the only plant that I haven't killed in my yard and they've grown to huge sizes. I may have to take some out because they went from 3 feet to over 20 feet tall. You do have to cut them back so they don't get out of control. Some of mine have gotten diseases/pests but I cut those branches out and they recovered

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the only plant that I haven't killed in my yard and they've grown to huge sizes. I may have to take some out because they went from 3 feet to over 20 feet tall. You do have to cut them back so they don't get out of control. Some of mine have gotten diseases/pests but I cut those branches out and they recovered

How long did it take to achieve that growth?

[Anonymous]

Yup. They grow quickly.

[Anonymous]

They do well but they are susceptible to root rot and a few other diseases so not good for a wet spot.. If you really need privacy, a single species hedge might not be the best bet. It’s likely you’ll lose one or more along the way and be left with a hole. If you use a variety of species it will be easier to fill in.

[Anonymous]

Native hollies are a good option too but if you absolutely need privacy and you need it really fast just put up a fence.

[Anonymous]

The fastest growing, cheapest, and densest evergreen is Myrica cerifera (wax myrtle). It survives in dry and wet soil. We cut all the skip laurels because they were infected with fungus and my H hated the fruit; it's dark and juicy, similar to the mulberry one, so our yard and cars were covered in dark slimy bird poop. The Fredericksburg tree stewards sell the wax myrtle for $5 or give them away for free. They grow between 3 and 5 ft per year. In addition, they are not poisonous like the laurels are, so if you have small kids or dogs this one is also better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fastest growing, cheapest, and densest evergreen is Myrica cerifera (wax myrtle). It survives in dry and wet soil. We cut all the skip laurels because they were infected with fungus and my H hated the fruit; it's dark and juicy, similar to the mulberry one, so our yard and cars were covered in dark slimy bird poop. The Fredericksburg tree stewards sell the wax myrtle for $5 or give them away for free. They grow between 3 and 5 ft per year. In addition, they are not poisonous like the laurels are, so if you have small kids or dogs this one is also better.

You rock. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fastest growing, cheapest, and densest evergreen is Myrica cerifera (wax myrtle). It survives in dry and wet soil. We cut all the skip laurels because they were infected with fungus and my H hated the fruit; it's dark and juicy, similar to the mulberry one, so our yard and cars were covered in dark slimy bird poop. The Fredericksburg tree stewards sell the wax myrtle for $5 or give them away for free. They grow between 3 and 5 ft per year. In addition, they are not poisonous like the laurels are, so if you have small kids or dogs this one is also better.

You rock. Thank you.

Can wax myrtles grow in shade well? Are they as thick as a screen or more rangy vs skip laurels? How wide do they get and can they be pruned like crazy into a narrow kind of hedge? I’m kind of torn on this. Skip laurels can handle full shade.

[Anonymous]

Skip laurels did horribly in our backyard. We live in a well-drained area and have a built-in irrigation system. We had about 12 of them and two or three of them were constantly dying. We had a well-known garden company in the area trying to figure it out but never did. They said they’re super finicky in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Our skip laurel lost some branches in the big, heavy snow in early January. Beware!

[Anonymous]

Skip laurels do great in our yard, but need to be pruned. The branches grow up and the recent snow broke a lot of ours. We had not pruned in a couple of years and we probably let them get too tall. A couple of them are pretty much goners now.

[Anonymous]

I have some skip laurels doing great and one looks like it’s dying but I’m hoping it’s just winter burn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fastest growing, cheapest, and densest evergreen is Myrica cerifera (wax myrtle). It survives in dry and wet soil. We cut all the skip laurels because they were infected with fungus and my H hated the fruit; it's dark and juicy, similar to the mulberry one, so our yard and cars were covered in dark slimy bird poop. The Fredericksburg tree stewards sell the wax myrtle for $5 or give them away for free. They grow between 3 and 5 ft per year. In addition, they are not poisonous like the laurels are, so if you have small kids or dogs this one is also better.

You rock. Thank you.

Can wax myrtles grow in shade well? Are they as thick as a screen or more rangy vs skip laurels? How wide do they get and can they be pruned like crazy into a narrow kind of hedge? I’m kind of torn on this. Skip laurels can handle full shade.

Mine are very dense (like in the link below) in part shade and you can prune them whatever shape you want. I have some that I pruned and let grow as a tree inside my privacy fence and some like a green fence near my driveway. All my skip laurels died of fungus, so I replaced them with the native prunus caroliniana. The wax myrtles are denser.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/myrica-cerifera/