Trees or bushes for privacy in AZ, need help!! (flower, grow, fertilizing)

[AzWickedSS]

Well I just pulled out all the Oleanders in my back yard as they were out of control and truthfully a real pain to just keep up with. The issue I have now is I can see my neighbors to easily. The Oleanders provided a thick privacy wall so that was nice. Maybe I'm not use to it yet but I would like to add something back there to help fill up with open area. I'm looking for something that wont get out of control easily and is fairly low maintenance. I have checked a few nursery's and each place has their own idea's of what to use and personally I can't tell if they are just trying to push product that they need to get rid of or not. One suggestion that I have been digging into was a Bottleneck Bush or tree which seems fairly low maint but just not sure how much growth and coverage it will get.

Anyone able to recommend some trees or bushes to help add some privacy? This will need to cover roughly two walls 40ft in length each. I don't need it to be completely covered but would like to hinder a straight line of sight from anywhere in the yard.

[Azlcd]

Bottlebrush is pretty, but messy, and breaks easily. Mine was not "low maintenance!"

I had good luck with tx mountain laurel, and tx sage. Both grew much faster than I expected (with regular watering), and dealt just fine with the reflected heat from the wall. I live in tx now, and the "tx" stuff grew much faster in Phoenix. Go figure. I now have a pretty silvery olive tree variant, which has been very tough, and Althea, which look really nice all summer but need more water than anything else I've listed.

[HX_Guy]

Did you pull the roots of the Oleander or just cut them at ground level?

[georgeinbandonoregon]

some potentially useful suggestions from Azicd. FWIW and IMHO, "low maintenance" is a subjective term for most any plant anywhere. certainly bottlebrush (and the related melaleuca) can make a serviceable and attractive screen but generally unless pruned periodically most of the medium to large types suitable for screening tend to get rather rangy and tall. some other plants to potentially consider might include feijoa (acca) sellowiana (pineapple guava), acacia cultriformis (knife acacia) (also a. boormanii/snowy river wattle and a. iteaphylla/willow wattle), phylostachys aurea (golden bamboo), leucophyllum frutescens (texas ranger), and cordia boissieri ((texas olive) and no doubt others might also work but these and likely other plants that are potentially vigorous enough to make good screens and visual barriers will probably need good care (watering, fertilizing, etc.) during the establishment phase AND at least periodic pruning/thinning to control that necessary and useful vigor. OTOH, HX_Guy's suggestion about simply cutting the existing oleanders back real hard is a reasonable alternative to the hard work of yanking out old and buying and planting new stuff.

[HX_Guy]

Sounds like OP already pulled the Oleanders. Reason I was asking was because if the roots are still in the ground, it may be difficult or impossible to plant something else in the same area.

[AzWickedSS]

Everything was pulled out so we will be starting from scratch. I don't mind upkeep however the Oleanders were so out of control from when I first moved into my house I just couldn't get a handle on them. I don't need to completely shut off the neighbors view but its just plain right now I just want to add some privacy and break up the view from my back patio to theirs.

I was thinking about trees but one of the nursery's said I need to be careful because the root system could split the block wall that is up.

I will look into some of the options listed above as well and do appreciate it.

[Land Fish]

You might try bamboo privacy fence.....they don't look to bad and there's no maintenance.

[georgeinbandonoregon]

well, bamboo can make a great screen (I suggested golden bamboo earlier in this thread)---however, bamboo in general may require a certain amount of at least ocassional maintenance. it's a giant grass and like most grasses require fertilizer and water (especially in the hot and dry summers of the intermediate and low deserts of Arizona) to look good and grow best. also, a fair number of available species are "runners" with underground shoots that can spread all over the place unless controlled by some kind of artificial root barrier or periodic mowing/cutting back to keep the initial relatively small clump from becoming a large forest!!!. also, some bamboos are relatively slender and relatively short stemmed while some (the so-called "timber" bamboos) can become quite stout and tall (to over 50'). if nothing else, some care in selecting which type you want and where it is planted is strongly advised. finally, it's not unlikely that some thinning or cutting back of old dead, dying, or too thick an/or tall stems may be needed so I would not call bamboos absolutely "no maintenance" plants in either the short or long term (but still potentially useful and beautiful for sure and not needing the regular necessary care of some plants).

[Land Fish]

I didn't mean living bamboo....the bamboo fence you can get at home depot or lowes

[Finger Laker]

honeysuckle could work - you can create a pretty nice hedge with them lined up and they flower frequently ...... we have a couple that don't take a lot of upkeep aside from cutting them back (which you don't really have to do in a delicate manner either) ............. really only downside I've had with them is that bees like them