Marietta Daisies Garden Club

GARDEN TIPS

Privacy landscaping, to Cold to Plant?

If you've been thinking about more privacy in your yard—blocking views, defining your property line, or just making your space feel like yours again—this is your moment.

The plants that take your yard from exposed to comfortable. 

Now, just being honest with you, waiting does come with a cost

(nothing dramatic, just how plants work):

• Every week you wait is a week of missed root growth

• Plants installed now will be noticeably fuller by summer than those planted in spring

• Late winter planting gives roots time to settle in before the heat stress hits

In short: plants in the ground now are stronger, happier, and better established when summer rolls around.

Top Privacy Bushes with Winter Berries (Zone 7):

• Nellie R. Stevens Holly: An excellent choice for a fast-growing, dense evergreen screen. It produces deep green foliage and abundant red berries in winter, growing 10–20 feet tall.

• American Holly: A native, tough evergreen that handles shade well. It is deer-resistant, but requires a male plant nearby for the female plants to produce berries.

• Winterberry (Ilex verticillata): A deciduous shrub that loses its leaves, revealing brilliant red berries that persist throughout winter. Grows up to 8 feet.

• Gin Fizz Juniper: An evergreen with blue, berry-like fruits that appear from early summer through winter.

• Oak Leaf Holly: Known for its distinctive leaves, this shrub provides a dense screen with red berries in the fall. 

  Top Native Privacy Bushes with Winter Berries (Zone 7)

  These shrubs provide, structure, privacy, and berries that often last into or through winter. 

  • Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata): Deciduous, but features bright red berries that persist into winter.

  • American Holly (Ilex opaca): Evergreen with classic red berries; offers thick privacy.

  • Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria): Evergreen, small-leaved shrub that can be sheared into a formal hedge.

  • Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia): Deciduous, but produces bright red berries that often hang on through early winter.

  • Viburnum species (Nannyberry, Arrowwood): Dense growers, with clusters of berries.

  • American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana): Famous for vibrant magenta berry clusters that persist into winter; best in partial shade.

  • Eastern Baccharis (Baccharis halimifolia): An excellent, hardy, sun-loving native shrub for screens.