Prettiest Privacy Hedges

Having privacy is an essential feature of any landscape. It allows us to feel like our space is truly ours without the uncomfortable ‘goldfish in a bowl’ feeling. Many plants can be used as a privacy hedge, including ones that produce striking flowers and delightful fragrances, creating a space that’s as visually attractive as it is cozy. These are a few of our favorite hedge plants for both beauty and privacy.

Stunning Hedge Plants for Added Privacy

Bright ‘N Tight Carolina Laurel

This attractive shrub with its fragrant white flowers makes a perfect privacy screen for the backyard. The fragrance is sweet and reminiscent of maraschino cherries! Pretty evergreen leaves contrast nicely with the white flowers and provide your yard with all-season interest. ‘Bright ‘N Tight’ grows 8 to10 feet tall and can eventually spread between 6 and 8 feet wide, but is easily clipped to half this width. This shrub is suitable for full or partial sun locations and needs regular watering.

Podocarpus ‘Icee Blue’

This gorgeous shrub truly lives up to its name! Displaying beautiful gray-blue foliage, this is a plant that provides both beauty and function to your landscape. Mature specimens grow up to 10-12 feet tall and approximately 4 feet wide, offering ample privacy. Its narrow upright growth habit paired with the dramatic color makes for a distinctive addition to your yard. Icee Blue is easy to prune, and often grouped to form a privacy hedge or planted as a singular statement piece.

Hydrangea macrophylla

There are many stunning varieties of hydrangeas, but the large blooms of the macrophylla varieties come in all kinds of beautiful colors—and some of them change color according to the pH of your soil! By experimenting with soil pH, some varieties in this vast family of compact shrubs can be blue one season and pink the next, or if you really want to get creative, try for a gradient effect! The trick is simple, soil pH less than 5.5 will produce blue blooms, and soil pH greater than 5.5 will produce pink blooms. In addition to this unique characteristic, hydrangeas are great plants to use for a smaller privacy hedge; they are ideal as a pretty alternative for marking property boundaries when planted alongside each other in a row.

Gardenia

Perhaps one of the most elegant flowers, the delicate white gardenia produces a sweet, heady fragrance from late spring to early fall. Some people claim gardenias have a zesty, floral scent, while others smell something lighter like coconut or peaches. The dark green foliage is exquisite and contrasts beautifully with the snow-white blooms.

You will notice an influx of pollinators in your garden as butterflies, bees, and even nighttime pollinators like moths are attracted to the sweet aroma. Gardenia ‘Mystery’ and Gardenia ‘First Love’ are two excellent choices for privacy hedges as both of these varieties grow to be 6 to 8 feet tall and about as wide.

Adding hedge plants to your landscape is an effective and attractive way to boost your privacy at home. We have an abundant selection of beautiful hedge plants at Roger’s Gardens, just waiting to add privacy to your landscape today!

Learn more and grow with us by watching:
How to Choose Hedges for Screens with Sarah Smith
How to Use Hedge Plants in Your Garden with Suzanne Hetrick
Using Grasses to Soften Your Garden with Sarah Smith
Low Water Ornamental Grasses with James Maxwell
How to Successfully Grow Gardenias with Sarah Smith
Gardening 101 Series | How to Plant & Maintain a Camellia
Hardy Flowering Shrubs with Dalia Brunner