welcome

i dont understand this: I have gigantic mith

ken

I couldn't think of the name of the grass that I have along the fence... it is called giganteus miscanthus grass. :) I just call it gigantic grass. I'm wanting to add about 30' of something different "in line" with the gigantic grass to continue screening my neighbor.

Think the OP was going for miscanthus. I'm fond of the red twigs and they are capable of forming a thicket if left to their own devices, perhaps not 10-12 feet high.

Yep. And now that I think about it, the red twig dogwood probably isn't what I'm looking for. I'd prefer something thick and leafy. Flowering is ok but less of what I need. Appreciate the time!

i pic would be worth a thousand more guesses ... especially to find something that 'fits' whats there ...

i dont recall if you said where you are ....

ken

I'll have to get a pic up. I'm in Indianapolis (zone 6a). My neighbor has a fence that runs down our property line. That fence starts at his house and runs the length of the property. We are about 40' apart from each other.

Closest to the house, I started planting the gigantic grass. It's nice, grows in thick and screens his house well. That decorative grass covers about 20 feet of the fence line. I'm looking to cover the next 25-30 feet with some other type of screen... a hedge of some kind. I could continue the tall grass and I'm sure it would technically do what I want but would like some sort of "texture" in the hedge line down the neighbor's fence... something to simply break up the routine and give the feeling that the landscape changes.

The goal is to get something that grows as thick as possible, I would like 10-12' high (or so), and around 6' "wide" so that I don't take up more of the yard than I need to. I don't mind pruning a hedge once a year so something that grows "big" would likely be ok as long as it doesn't require multiple prunes per year.

I don't know enough about different types of hedges that grow well in the area. Near my work I found a couple things that I thought looked nice and asked a local nursery what they are. One is some type of viburnum and the other, they said, was a red twigged dogwood. After looking up the dogwood that is definitely not what I saw. Either way... simply looking for recommendations that I can look up and see what they look like, growing information, etc.

Thanks again!

It's wider than you want, but doublefile viburnum is very dense at dog height, and doesn't get terribly tall. There is a repeat blooming type that grows taller than wide. Unfortunately I'm spacing on the name right now.

edit: Summer Snowflake is the name I forgot.

Forsythia is very prunable. The more pruning the fewer flowers, but if you learn from your mistakes, it will get over practically anything.

Littleleaf lilac is similar in size to the doublefile viburnum.

A lot of deciduous shrubs are relatively bare near the base. I'm trying to come up with some that aren't.

This post was edited by mad_gallica on Thu, Jun 19, 14 at 22:06

I have a neighbor who has a mix of red twig dog wood, viburnum, tall blue junipers, and I don't know what the third shrub is, maybe amelancier. They are in random order with the junipers interspersed. Now that they are leaved out, you can't look into their yard.
Length is probably 80 feet and it's my favorite hedge.

In terms of maintenance looks probably best if left natural and every few years, you cut a 1/3rd down to a foot or so. That helps maintain reasonable height.

Second favorite hedge is a sheared spirea. Based on leaf shape it looks like spirea Ogon. They keep it at 2 ft wide and shoulder high.

Last thought: a variety of evergreens, different shapes and colors. Minimal maintenance and you can control growth on most spruce or pine versions by pinching off 1/2 the new growth each year. Plus the evergreens keep the neighbors hidden in winter :-)

In all cases if you have bare spots at the bottom, just fill in with spireas, weigela, korean lilac etc or tall perennials

What is this... http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv232/aharper00/IMAG0960_zps4583184c.jpg

This is used as a hedge around a walkway near my work. It is about 6' wide at the base and grows with many legs. It is standing about 8' tall in this pic. This would be perfect for what I have in mind but I don't know what it's called.

Thanks!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:263970}}

Looks like there could be two different shrubs intermingled? Hard to tell. The top one with the spent flower sprays looks like a viburnum. Check out pics of viburnum dentatum Blue Muffin or other varieties.

Really difficult to tell. You can snip off a few leaves and take to a local nursery or extension office. Hopefully they can identify.

One looks like it might be Philadephus, mock orange.