It is a narrow-ish stretch, I just made the bed last year out of a grassy knoll. It's about 7' X 14'.

Right up against it are some of my neighbor's boxwoods, which as you can see below are not in great condition. To the far left is the street and the far right is a forsythia.

Under the black plastic cloche, ahem, is the rose Cecile Brunner. The sticks in the dirt are just my attempt to measure things out.

I want something tall to create some sense of a screen and I want something gorgeous and with several seasons of interest. I am open to having one big specimen shrub and some smaller companions, or having a more formal row of one or two types of shrubs. What I don't want is something that completely disappears or needs to be cut down in winter. I also don't want it to take up the full 7 feet, so if it's not more columnar and spreads a lot, I'd like to be able to prune it without hurting it.

Some I have thought of:

Virburnum nudum -- Winterthur and Brandywine
Korean Spice Viburnum
Red Twig dogwood
Cotinus coggygria
Flowering Quince

Any advice would be appreciated!

these three.. are shrubs that sprout from below ground.. leading to multiple leaders.. and can easily. inside 5 years.. create a footprint in excess of 5 feet wide [the plant being twice as wide] .... i think that they will eventually be too big for the area ... unless you can find some named variety that is smaller ...

a nice conifer might be at the link ... i have one going on about 10 feet and barely two feet wide ... and no snow load issues ... its not flowering like you are thinking.. but it could give some vertical element w/o taking too much space ... a bit of diversity ... think outside the box you have already created ...

what about flowering almond???

ken

The Thuja occidentalis looks very promising! It could at least block the hole in my neighbor's boxwood hedge.

I see they are sold online and are quite affordable for less than $10 for a small 8"-14" plant. Do you know how quickly it will put on height?

I love flowering almond. Do you have it? How long does it flower for and how does it look the rest of the year?

the de groots... will do about a foot a year after a year of getting roots down ...

put in 3 or 4 ... in every gap of the boxwood.. and then smaller shrubs in between ...

i think there is a dwarf lilac called palibin .. and dwarf is relative in lilac ... thru rejuvenation pruning or training to tree form.. it could be kept small ... see link

ken

Arborvitae, on the other hand, is probably the most over-used, uninteresting shrub you could plant there. Totally unnecessary as you already have the evergreen background of the boxwood hedge, which appears to only need a light trim to get rid of dead wood. The hole in the hedge is actually quite charming; if you were a big kid like me, you would see the potential. :) In any case, you could always disguise it by planting a shrub in front of it. Whatever, these are pretty big and would be expensive to replace, so capitalize on that while you can!

I'm a huge fan of dogwoods (Cornus sericea or sanguinea). Yes they are large and fast-growing, but there is a trick to keeping their winter stems bright red or yellow or orangish that effectively contains the size of the shrub. You must cut the oldest stems all the way to the ground in spring in order to get the brightest color on the stems in winter. You could try a grouping of 'Alleman's Compact' with an edging of Sedum spectabile for a reliable, all-season show.

Or maybe you would prefer a tall grass, such as Miscanthus sinensis purpurascens, or "Flame Grass" which has a smaller footprint than other Maiden grasses, or a Korean feather reed grass. Mix a few of these with a few dwarf round shrubs, such as Fothergilla gardenii or Berberis thunbergii, don't forget the sedum (I never do, lol) and you will have a border with interesting color, texture and possibly even fragrance in several seasons.

I love sedum too and have it everywhere, but I want something big with bones too.

I am curious about the potential you see in the big hole. Please share! But remember, these are my neighbor's boxwoods, so I cannot prune or otherwise mess with them.

I like the idea of grasses a lot, and I think I will definitely incorporate them. They will also help make the border interesting in the fall.

As for the Thuja being overused, not around here! Around here it is azaleas, rhodies and more azaleas.

===>>> agree regarding the species.. disagree on the named cultivar ...

IMHO .. she needs some vertical .... to create a boundary ... a sight line boundary ..

and she needs something that will not outgrow a 7 foot bed ...

a nice squat hedge is one thing .... but where is the vertical ...

i suppose an arbor and some clematis might be an option ...

i am not a fan of flowering trees overhanging the driveway .. though i dont have time to recheck the pic ..... and the facts ...

it will be for you to check the zone thing..

ken

ken