what is the goal of the mass planting ...

if sight block ... closer...

if not.. further ...

as to foundation plantings... allowing for a couple feet of bare space for home maintenance ... i would plant them at least 4 to 5 feet.. from the foundation ... especially if you dont want to be trimming them ...

do understand... MOST size estimates are at ten years... nothing magically stops growing at some given height ... and in most cases.. you can presume.. they can be twice as big in 20 years .... maybe they will.. maybe they wont ...

ken

If you want a hedge-like effect then you plant close together, much closer than if you want them to look spaced out many years later. You also plant quite close together when you want an informal drift, forming a shape of its own, independent of the shapes of the individual shrubs. This last is also what you should be doing if you are not planting a formal landscape with everything in straight lines, pairs, squares and other geometric shapes - something that should only be done where there is geometrically symmetric architecture establishing formal as the style to be followed on the site.

This post was edited by bboy on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 12:36

I purchased 4 of the shrubs many years ago and wanted to plant them in the back of my house. They just sit in the wood mulch and I just dug them up. So they should be planted.

The area is at the back of my house, under some windows. Nothing is planted there, just foundation. So this is just foundation planting, no formal hedge since this is at the back of my house. We have just one neighbor and very quite.

Low maintenance is strongly preferred. I want to leave space for its size at least 5 years from now. The bushes will be trimmed at the top to be below the windows, which I think are 6' high.

I believe this shrub can take thinning or renewal easily.