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I'm planning on planting around 500 ft of evergreen hedge in Tennessee, partly in the sun and partly in shade. I talked to a local landscaping company who recommended one of the following:

  • Manhattan Euonymus
    I'm leaning towards Manhattan at the moment, because it's fast growing and doesn't look bad, but I'm concerned because the person at the landscaping place mentioned that the leaves of the ones out in the sun will probably turn a lighter green than the ones in the shade, which would definitely not be what I want. I'd like 500 ft of uniformly colored hedge. She also said that if properly fertilized, the leaves should stay the same color. I'm looking for other opinions!

  • Osmanthus fortunei
    I was considering Osmanthus but was concerned that they get much taller than I want, which might lead to a leggy appearance at the bottom if I shear them at 4 ft tall.

  • American Boxwood
    Boxwood is quite slow growing in comparison to the others, and I'm fairly certain it offers no real benefits to me.

I'd like the hedge to be about 4 feet high at the most, but very thick. I will be putting up a fence behind the hedge, and would like the hedge to cover the fence, and I'm wondering what sort of planting structure I should go for.

I'm planning on planting them 6 ft apart and the Osmanthus/Manhattan plants are already about 3ft tall. Should I plant them all on one side of the fence, or alternate fence sides, or add another set of plants on the other side of the fence?

Lorem Ipsum
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Jon Zane
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2 Answers2

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The leaf color of Manhattan Euonymus does keep its color better when fertilized, but you should also expect a larger, more vigorous plant than you would otherwise have. I think that this plant would be a good one for what you are trying to do here.

About the planting layout, if you are looking to cover the entire fence on both sides, then you will definitely want a full row on each side. The reason is that Euonymus are upright plants, and will not want to cascade over the fence and cover the other side. Manhattan grows fast, and if you want a thick hedge, you should head them in several times during their growth periods for the first couple of years.

Also, the way I see this type of project fail most often is from trimming the sides of the hedge either straight down or inward, causing it to become thin from lack of sunlight. Trim the sides sloping outward from the top, away from the center.

Lorem Ipsum
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J. Musser
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I work at a conference center in Western North Carolina. I just removed an Eounymous from a chain link fence. It absolutely ruined that section of fence, wrapped around the post so bad that we had to pull that post with a backhoe. The roots are still in the ground there and we are going to have to dig that up. The woody part of the stalks had to be cut out of the chain link to the point where we had to use wire cutters to remove pieces of the fence. I am not saying all Euonymous is like this but please be warned! This plant ruined that section of fence!

James
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