What trees for visual screen?

[Brent]

My wife and I recently purchased our first house sitting on 5 wooded acres in SW Missouri. We have a good thick stand of timber throughout our property that is primarily mature oak/hickory with typical understory cover for our area (buckbrush, some sassafras, green briar, poison ivy, etc.). We love our little piece of land, but we are worried that our neighbor is eventually going to sell out his 35 acres to a developer who has put in a neighborhood down the road. Fortunately, to the west of the property there is a powerline and pipeline easement that will prevent development from taking place, and the east side of our property is very densely wooded. The south side of the property is a little thinner than I would prefer and it will make our backyard semi visible if development eventually takes place. While we already have a decent visual screen, I would like to enhance it in some of the thinner areas to block out the imminent urban sprawl. Three sides of our property are fenced and do a good job defining our property line. This winter I plan on clearing out some of the smaller trees and understory brush along the fence line to make room for planting visual screen so that I can get a head start on our natural privacy fence. I prefer to utilize natives because of their wildlife benefits and lower maintenance once they become established. Im planning on ordering from MDC next month and I would like to hear any suggestions on any plants that you all have experience with that will help to develope a good thick visual screen. I realize evergreens provide the best year round screening, but I want diversity- not just one thick line of white pines. I already plan on ordering eastern red cedars, white pines, short leaf pine (MO's only native pine- not the best visual screen, but I enjoy them), sumac, and ninebark. I'd love to hear any other suggestions that you may have for trees and shrubs that can handle partial shade.

 

[Native Hunter]

Hazelnut grows well in partial shade and makes a decent screen. If you get some plants started you can layer the shoots and help the bushes to spread. It is however, not fast growing and establishing.

Witch Hazel makes a pretty good screen too, especially if you train it to be bushy. It does well in partial shade and establishes faster than hazelnut.

 

[willy]

Red oaks grow fairly fast and in partial shade areas. They keep their leaves until the spring.

 

[Fish]

Go heavy on the red cedars and offset them with gray dogwood. Gray dogwood is a fantastic screening shrub for a deciduous plant. The pines will do a great job to start, but before long they will cast a lot of shade and eat up your screen. Id go light on them or plan on taking some out when that day comes.

 

[Brent]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll which hazel and dogwood will be added to the list. Love to hear any additional suggestions as well.

 

[Brushpile]

I live in SW Missouri, about 5 miles SE of Pleasant Hope and 15 miles North of Springfield. If you live nearby I could look at your property and give a recommendation. My concern along the power line is spraying. Drift from spray will kill evergreens like Pine and Cedar. Wild plum is thicket forming and creates a screen because of stem count, and it grows in the shade, but won't form a thicket in the shade.

 

[1yellowdog]

I like the suggestions of Dogwood (I like to use all the varieties of dogwood) and wild plum. But I also like to add speckled alder into my habitat screening projects. It is bullet proof; the deer will browse and rub, and it seems to come back with a vengeance. It grows well with spruce, pine, oak and the other mentioned dogwood and plum. Tolerates shade and is a great edge plant. In my experience, I can get the Speckled Alder established quicker, because it matures quickly to provide seeds with plenty of new volunteers that transplant easily.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

I am going to plant a 10 yard wide buffer that is a mix of DCO, columnar white oaks, sawtooth, and maybe some other shrubby stuff......I plant to let the sawtooth get 5-8 years old then cut them off to make multiple shoots. The columnar oaks will be a long tern fix, but the DCO and sawtooth should help with under 6' height blockade.

 

[Neahawg]

Sequin might work it can become a large bush, holds it leaves well I have been told, and have read its an understory plant.