Shrubs planted along a fence line are an effective way to create natural privacy while improving the appearance of a yard or garden. These shrubs form living screens that block views, reduce noise, and provide a softer, greener alternative to walls or artificial barriers. Many privacy shrubs grow densely, making them ideal for covering fences year-round.
Evergreen shrubs are especially popular for privacy because they keep their leaves throughout the year. Their consistent foliage provides continuous coverage in all seasons, even during winter when many other plants lose their leaves. Dense branching also helps create a thick visual barrier that limits visibility from neighboring areas.
Fast-growing shrubs are often chosen for fence lines because they quickly fill empty spaces and establish privacy sooner. When planted at proper spacing, they grow together to form a natural hedge. Regular trimming encourages fuller growth, helping the shrubs stay compact and thick rather than tall and sparse.
Privacy shrubs also offer additional benefits beyond screening. They can reduce wind, provide shade, and create habitats for birds and beneficial insects. Flowering or fragrant shrubs add seasonal beauty, while some varieties bring color through blooms, berries, or interesting foliage textures.
Shrubs that Grow Near Fences
Leyland Cypress
Leyland cypress is one of the most popular privacy shrubs for fence lines, growing rapidly at 3-4 feet per year to create dense, evergreen screening. These columnar trees reach 40-60 feet tall but can be maintained at any desired height through regular trimming.
Leyland cypress creates an impenetrable screen with its dense, feathery foliage and tolerates various soil types and urban conditions. While susceptible to some diseases in humid climates, proper spacing of 6-8 feet allows adequate air circulation to prevent problems while creating effective privacy screens.
Green Giant Arborvitae
Green Giant arborvitae is arguably the most popular privacy shrub for fence lines, combining rapid growth of 3-5 feet annually with exceptional disease resistance and adaptability. These pyramidal evergreens reach 40-60 feet tall but are commonly maintained at 8-20 feet for privacy screening.
Green Giant tolerates various soil types, drought, humidity, and urban conditions while maintaining dense, dark green foliage year-round. The combination of fast growth, disease resistance, minimal maintenance, and effective screening makes Green Giant arborvitae the gold standard for fence line privacy planting.
Skip Laurel
Skip laurel is an exceptionally versatile evergreen shrub producing dense, glossy foliage that creates effective privacy screens along fence lines. These large shrubs reach 10-18 feet tall and can be maintained at various heights through pruning. Skip laurel grows moderately fast at 1-2 feet annually and tolerates shade, pollution, various soil types, and urban conditions.
The glossy, dark green leaves create attractive screens year-round, and fragrant white flower spikes in spring add seasonal interest, making skip laurel an excellent choice for fence line privacy in partially shaded situations.
Cherry Laurel (English Laurel)
Cherry laurel creates dense, evergreen privacy screens with large, glossy leaves that provide effective year-round coverage along fence lines. These vigorous shrubs reach 15-20 feet tall and grow rapidly at 2-3 feet annually, quickly establishing screening.
Cherry laurel tolerates shade, drought once established, and various soil conditions while producing white flower spikes in spring and black berries attractive to birds. Regular pruning maintains desired height and density, and the shrub’s rapid growth and adaptability make it excellent for quickly establishing fence line privacy in suitable climates.
Emerald Green Arborvitae
Emerald Green arborvitae grows in a naturally narrow, pyramidal form perfect for fence lines where space is limited, reaching 12-15 feet tall but only 3-4 feet wide. These compact evergreens maintain their dense, emerald green foliage year-round and require minimal pruning to maintain shape.
Emerald Green tolerates various soil types but prefers well-drained conditions and grows at a moderate rate of 6-9 inches annually. While slower than Green Giant, the compact form and reliable performance make Emerald Green arborvitae excellent for tight fence lines requiring neat, permanent screening.
Nellie Stevens Holly
Nellie Stevens holly is an outstanding evergreen shrub for fence line privacy, growing rapidly at 2-3 feet annually to create dense, impenetrable screens. These pyramidal hollies reach 15-25 feet tall with dark green, spiny leaves that deter intruders while providing effective screening.
Female plants produce abundant red berries that attract birds throughout winter, adding wildlife value to the privacy screen. Nellie Stevens tolerates various soil types, drought once established, and urban conditions while maintaining attractive form with minimal pruning.
Viburnum (Various Species)
Viburnum species including Viburnum odoratissimum, Viburnum rhytidophyllum, and others create excellent privacy screens along fence lines with their dense growth and varied characteristics. Fragrant viburnum reaches 10-20 feet tall and grows rapidly, creating dense evergreen to semi-evergreen screens.
Viburnums produce fragrant flower clusters in spring, attractive berries in fall, and provide exceptional wildlife value. Their adaptability to various soil types and conditions combined with multi-season interest makes viburnums among the most versatile and attractive fence line privacy shrubs.
Forsythia
Forsythia creates effective privacy screens along fence lines with its vigorous, arching growth and spectacular early spring flower display. These deciduous shrubs reach 8-10 feet tall and spread equally wide, creating dense summer screens. While forsythia loses its leaves in winter, the dense, twiggy growth still provides some screening year-round.
The brilliant yellow spring flowers that completely cover bare branches create spectacular fence line displays before most other plants emerge, and the shrub’s toughness and adaptability to various soils make it reliable for difficult fence line situations.
Inkberry Holly
Inkberry holly is a native evergreen shrub creating excellent privacy screens along fence lines in wet, poorly drained soils where other evergreens fail. These dense shrubs reach 5-8 feet tall and spread through suckers to form impenetrable thickets along fence lines. Inkberry maintains its dark green, glossy foliage year-round and produces small black berries that attract birds in winter.
The shrub’s exceptional tolerance of wet soils, adaptability to shade, and year-round screening capabilities make it invaluable for challenging fence line situations.
American Holly
American holly creates magnificent evergreen privacy screens along fence lines with its dark green, spiny foliage and brilliant red winter berries. These large shrubs or small trees reach 15-40 feet tall and grow at a moderate rate, creating impenetrable screens that deter both trespassers and deer.
Female plants produce abundant red berries that persist through winter and attract birds. American holly tolerates various soils and conditions while providing year-round screening, and its native adaptation, wildlife value, and elegant appearance make it one of the most attractive privacy options for fence lines.
Knockout Roses
Knockout roses create beautiful, informal privacy screens along fence lines with their prolific blooming and dense, thorny growth. These vigorous shrubs reach 4-6 feet tall and bloom continuously from spring through fall in shades of red, pink, or yellow.
The thorny canes provide additional security along fence lines while the abundant blooms create colorful, attractive screens. Knockout roses are disease resistant, drought tolerant, and require minimal maintenance while providing blooms for most of the growing season, making them excellent for decorative privacy screening.
Photinia (Red Tip Photinia)
Red tip photinia is a popular evergreen shrub for fence line privacy known for its brilliant red new growth that contrasts dramatically with mature dark green foliage. These vigorous shrubs reach 10-15 feet tall and grow rapidly at 2-3 feet annually when properly fertilized.
Regular pruning stimulates new red growth, and the colorful foliage combined with effective evergreen screening makes photinia attractive for fence lines. While susceptible to entomosporium leaf spot in humid climates, proper spacing and pruning practices help prevent disease while maintaining attractive, dense screens.
Privet (Ligustrum)
Privet creates some of the fastest and densest privacy screens available for fence lines, growing rapidly at 2-3 feet annually to form impenetrable hedges. Both Chinese privet and Japanese privet varieties produce dense, semi-evergreen to evergreen foliage and can be maintained at various heights through regular pruning.
Privet tolerates shade, pollution, drought, and poor soils better than most privacy shrubs, and it can be sheared into formal hedges or left to grow naturally. While invasive in some regions, sterile cultivars offer the screening benefits without seed-spreading concerns.
Camellia
Camellia creates elegant, evergreen privacy screens along fence lines with its glossy, dark green foliage and spectacular winter or spring blooms. These large shrubs reach 6-15 feet tall and maintain their attractive foliage year-round.
Camellias produce stunning flowers in shades of red, pink, and white during late fall through spring when little else blooms, adding unique seasonal interest to fence line screens. The shrubs prefer acidic, well-drained soil and partial shade, making them excellent for shaded fence lines in mild climates.
Boxwood
Boxwood creates formal, dense evergreen hedges along fence lines with its small, rounded leaves and compact, controllable growth habit. These versatile shrubs range from dwarf varieties to large shrubs reaching 8-15 feet and can be precisely maintained through regular shearing.
Boxwood tolerates shade, various soils, and urban conditions while maintaining dense evergreen screening year-round. While susceptible to boxwood blight and boxwood leafminer in some regions, disease-resistant varieties like Buxus ‘SkyPencil’ and North Star provide the formal hedge aesthetic with improved disease resistance.
Eastern Red Cedar
Eastern red cedar is a native evergreen tree often grown as a large screening shrub along fence lines, providing dense, year-round coverage with minimal care. These adaptable trees reach 40-50 feet tall but can be maintained shorter through pruning and provide excellent wind and noise reduction along with visual screening.
Eastern red cedar tolerates extreme drought, poor soils, alkaline conditions, and urban pollution while producing blue berries valuable for wildlife. The native adaptation, extreme toughness, and year-round screening make it excellent for difficult fence line conditions.
Rosemary
Rosemary creates fragrant, evergreen privacy hedges along fence lines in Mediterranean climates and similar warm, dry conditions. These aromatic shrubs reach 3-6 feet tall with needle-like leaves and small blue flowers that attract pollinators.
Rosemary provides both decorative and culinary value along fence lines, creating edible hedges that can be harvested for cooking while maintaining screening function. The drought tolerance, minimal maintenance, and wonderful fragrance make rosemary excellent for fence line privacy in suitable climates where winters are mild.
Clumping Bamboo
Clumping bamboo, unlike running bamboo varieties, creates dense privacy screens along fence lines without invasive spreading concerns. Varieties like Fargesia and Thamnocalamus reach 8-15 feet tall with elegant, arching canes and dense foliage.
Clumping bamboo grows moderately fast and creates tropical, architectural privacy screens with distinctive texture and movement. The evergreen foliage provides year-round screening, and the clumping habit keeps growth contained to the fence line without the invasive spread that makes running bamboo problematic in landscape situations.