Trees have many uses in the landscape. They provide food, wildlife habitat, and natural beauty. Trees also provide environmental services, such as helping with clean air and water. Evergreen trees can be valuable in the home landscape to provide shade, increase curb appeal, and be used as a privacy barrier or windscreen.
If you are looking for trees to help increase the privacy around your property, consider species with evergreen foliage. These trees will provide an excellent year-round screen of lush and beautiful greenery. There is no shortage of evergreen trees to choose from. From there, decide if you want taller or shorter trees, conifers, or broadleaf evergreens, or species with other ornamental value, like flowers, cones, or colorful fruits.
First, look at a USDA Plant Hardiness Zones map to determine your zone. Select tree species that are well adapted to live in your area. You’ll also need to consider how much space you have, how much sun the trees will receive, and what soil conditions you have.
There are trees for just about any landscape and any landscaping project. From small to tall, sun to shade, warm climate or cold, you will find trees you can grow. Keep reading to learn more about 25 beautiful and useful evergreen trees that provide plenty of privacy!
American Holly
American holly produces inconspicuous white flowers in late spring and red berries in fall.
The American holly is a medium-sized broadleaf evergreen tree. The leaves are thickened and glossy and have characteristic sharp, spiny edges. Inconspicuous creamy white flowers bloom in late spring.
By late summer and throughout the fall and winter, bright red berries line the stems, providing a valuable food source for fall and winter birds. Holly trees are dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Only the female holly trees form berries due to cross-pollination with a nearby male tree.
Holly trees will grow in a variety of soil conditions, but they favor a location with moist, well-drained soil. Do not plant these trees where the soil is consistently flooded or consistently very dry. American holly is typically a forest understory tree and does best in a site with some afternoon shade, particularly in warmer climates.
Arborvitae ‘Green Giant’
A columnar arborvitae, ‘Green Giant’ is a popular, fast-growing landscaping tree.
Arborvitae ‘Green Giant’ is a popular landscaping tree. It has a distinctive conical shape and forms a very dense mass of evergreen foliage. This is a fast-growing Arborvitae cultivar that can grow up to 60 feet tall but can be kept in a more compact form by regular pruning. Bunches of small cones dot the branches between softly needled leaves.
‘Green Giant’ Arborvitae needs plenty of space to accommodate its fast growth rate and large size. If using this tree as a hedge row plant, space individual trees at least 12 feet apart.
Grow it in a location with full sun or light shade. The soil should be moist and well-drained. These trees tolerate poor soil quality as long as the soil is well-drained.
Austrian Pine
This pine tree can reach 60 feet in height and 40 feet in width.
Austrian pine is an attractive needled evergreen tree. It can grow up to 60 feet tall and 40 feet wide, so be sure to give it plenty of space to grow to its full potential.
There are several cultivars available, including several dwarf and compact varieties that are perfectly suited for smaller spaces. The needles grow three to six inches long and form in groups of two. The cones are small, between one and three inches long, and compact.
The Austrian pine does well in cooler climates. Give it a location with full sun for the best growth and form. The soil should be moist and well-drained. Once established, Austrian pine will tolerate brief periods of drought.
Bayberry
A southeastern U.S. native evergreen, bayberry thrives in woodland shade gardens.
Bayberry is a broadleaf evergreen shrub or small tree native to the southeastern United States. It is a good plant for a woodland shade garden in a warmer climate zone. It will tolerate a range of soil conditions but generally performs best in moist, well-drained soil.
Bayberry has simple, waxy leaves with a slightly serrated edge. Flowers are small and insignificant, yellowish-green, and blooming in the spring to early summer. These plants make an attractive hedge and are valuable wildlife plants, providing food and shelter for birds and butterflies.
Boxwood
The small glossy leaves of boxwood are attractive in borders and hedges.
Boxwood is a popular landscaping plant with many assorted cultivars with different qualities and characteristics. This broadleaf evergreen typically has small, glossy, rounded leaves. The leaves may be solid green or variegated, depending on the cultivar.
They make excellent borders, edges, and hedges and can easily be pruned to suit your needs and available space.
Most boxwood shrubs will do best with some light shade, but they will typically also grow well in full sun. Boxwoods are not too picky about the soil conditions as long as the soil is well-drained. These are easy-to-grow shrubs, and smaller dwarf varieties can even be grown in containers or raised beds.
California Bay
The California bay is an ornamental evergreen with tree-like or shrub-like forms.
California bay, also known as Oregon myrtle, is a medium to large broadleaf evergreen. This plant is very ornamental and can develop a more tree-like form in moist areas, whereas in dry locations, it typically stays more shrub-like.
The shiny, dark green leaves have a pleasant, spicy scent when crushed. A great choice if you’re looking for a flowering shrub, California bay features fragrant creamy-white flowers that bloom in the spring and attract many different pollinators.
California bay trees are native to the west coast of North America, from Oregon south into Mexico. Grow your California bay in full sun to partial shade, and be sure to give it plenty of space to spread out. This tree grows best in rich, moist, well-drained soil.
Carolina Cherry Laurel
Carolina cherry laurel is a fragrant, poisonous shrub native to the southeastern United States.
The Carolina cherry laurel is a medium-sized shrub to small tree. It has glossy leaves that have a cherry-like fragrance when crushed. Note that the leaves and stems of this plant are poisonous to humans, and even though they smell good, they should not be consumed in any way. Clusters of small white flowers bloom in the springtime, attracting pollinators.
Carolina cherry laurel is native to the southeastern United States. It can grow and spread rapidly and will require some pruning to keep it contained. Since it has evergreen foliage and spreads by root suckers, however, it also makes an excellent privacy barrier and hedgerow plant.
Chinese Fringe Flower
This evergreen shrub benefits from winter pruning for shape control.
The Chinese fringe flower is a densely growing evergreen shrub that makes an excellent privacy barrier in warmer climates. In cooler parts of its range or during especially cold winters, the Chinese fringe flower may lose its leaves for the winter months.
In the springtime, a dazzling display of fringe-like flowers covers these plants. Numerous cultivars are available with variations of foliage and flower colors, including purple, white, pink, and red.
Grow your Chinese fringe flower in full sun or light shade. These plants are not too picky about soil type. They prefer a rich, moist, well-drained soil. Prune your Chinese fringe flower in the winter to help maintain the desired shape and size.
Colorado Blue Spruce
Colorado blue spruce features short, silvery blue-green needles and a classic pyramidal shape.
Not everyone can grow a Colorado blue spruce because these trees love the cold, but if you live in a cold weather region, this might be an ideal tree for your privacy hedge. Colorado blue spruce is also a sun-loving conifer native to the Rocky Mountains region of Colorado and extending into mountainous areas in New Mexico and Wyoming. Give this tree moist, well-drained soil and plenty of room to grow, as a mature tree can reach 20 feet across.
Colorado blue spruce is a beautiful tree. The needles are short and have a silvery blue-green color. Trees have a classic pyramidal shape, filled with dense foliage. There are several attractive cultivars available, including more compact forms and showy blue-green needles.
Douglas Fir
Often cultivated as a Christmas tree, Doug Firs grow well in warmer regions with cooler elevations.
Douglas fir is a cold-hardy conifer native to western North America. In warmer regions, they may grow at higher elevations with cooler climates and are sometimes cultivated to be sold as Christmas trees. They prefer a location with full sun and moist, well-drained soil.
Douglas fir has short to medium-length bright green needles. The cones become three to four inches long and hang downwards from the tips of branches. These trees can grow quite large and are best suited for larger landscape settings. There are, however, several cultivars available, including dwarf varieties that will stay much more compact and are better suited for a hedgerow.
Eastern Redcedar
This medium-sized tree serves as a dense evergreen privacy screen in landscaping.
The eastern redcedar is a common medium-sized tree native to central and eastern North America. This tree has short needles and creates a very dense evergreen privacy screen for landscaping.
This plant also provides many benefits for wildlife, including a food source for birds and small mammals, foraging and sheltering opportunities for birds, and it is the larval host plant for the juniper hairstreak butterfly and the imperial moth.
Eastern redcedar is highly adaptable and will grow well in various environmental conditions. It does well in both full sun and partial shade. It is not choosy about soil types and will grow almost anywhere if the soil is well-drained.
Eastern White Pine
The expansive growth of the eastern white pine requires ample space.
The eastern white pine is a tall needled conifer native to central and eastern North America. It tolerates a wide range of growing conditions but prefers full sun with rich, moist, well-drained soil. White pines can grow both tall and wide, so be sure to leave plenty of space so as not to crowd your trees.
Eastern white pine has medium-length needles and looks great as a single, stand-alone specimen tree or grown in a wide hedge row. It grows a broadly pyramidal shape with a broad base, under which nothing else will grow.
Florida Anise Tree
Florida anise tree features toxic, glossy leaves with an anise-like scent.
The Florida anise tree is a small shrubby tree native to the southeastern United States and Mexico. It has glossy, leathery leaves with a distinctly anise-like scent when crushed, but this plant is toxic and should not be consumed.
Showy burgundy-purple flowers bloom in the springtime and have an unpleasant odor. There are several interesting cultivars of the Florida anise tree with variegated leaves, showy flowers, and varying growth habits.
Choose a shaded site for your Florida anise tree. The soil should be organically rich with consistent moisture as these trees are not drought tolerant. Trees will spread by root suckers which can be removed, as desired, or left to grow naturally and create a dense privacy hedge in your woodland garden.
Hardy Anise Shrub
This shrub serves as a privacy screen in woodland gardens.
The hardy anise shrub is a large shrub or small tree native to the southeastern United States. Grow it in a shaded location as an understory tree, allowing it to add a privacy screen within your woodland garden. Hardy anise shrub performs best in moist, well-drained soil.
Hardy anise shrub has pleasantly scented leaves, but the leaves, fruits, and seeds are poisonous and should not be consumed. The leaves are elliptical and slightly thickened with a slight yellowish hue, especially in the younger leaves. There are a couple of cultivars of the hardy anise shrub that have distinctly yellow leaves. Lightly fragrant yellow-green flowers bloom in the summer months.
Mugo Pine
The Mugo pine offers privacy and serves as a valuable habitat for wildlife.
The Mugo pine is a cool-climate, needled conifer native to the mountainous regions of Europe. It grows best with full sun and moist, well-drained soil. Mugo pine tolerates various growing conditions and has become a popular landscaping tree. Several cultivars are available, including many smaller dwarf forms with small needles.
Mugo pine has medium-length needles and relatively small cones. Forms of mature trees range from rounded to pyramidal to broad and spreading, depending upon the cultivar. These trees make an excellent privacy barrier and also an excellent wildlife tree, providing both food and shelter for insects, birds, and small mammals.
Myrtle-Leafed Distylium
The myrtle-leafed distylium can be pruned into a tree or shrub shape with minimal maintenance requirements.
The myrtle-leafed distylium is a small tree or large shrub with many popular cultivars. These plants have small evergreen leaves for a dense privacy planting. Distylium is easy to grow and low-maintenance. Just give it a location with partial shade and moist, well-drained soil.
Myrtle-leafed distylium is native to China and Japan and does best in warmer climates. It blooms in the spring or summer months. The flowers are unique in that they lack petals. They are reddish-bronze and small but quite showy. Prune the lower branches of Distylium for a more tree-like form, or allow the stems to grow naturally for a more shrub-like appearance.
Redbay
For an appealing privacy screen with glossy leaves, try a redbay tree.
Redbay is a medium to large tree native to the southeastern United States. In its native habitat, it typically grows as an understory tree in moist woodlands. In the home landscape, it will perform well in full sun to partial shade with moist, well-drained soil.
Redbay is an attractive plant that can make an excellent privacy screen. Its large, glossy green leaves form a dense protective shield that makes these trees wonderful for a wildlife-friendly landscape. Birds and small animals take shelter within the tree cover, and birds eat the small bluish fruits. Redbay is also the larval host plant for two species of butterflies.
Rosebay Rhododendron
The rosebay rhododendron features glossy elliptical leaves and vibrant summer blooms that attract hummingbirds.
The rosebay rhododendron is a small tree native to the cooler and moderate eastern North America. In its natural habitat, it is typically an understory tree that grows in moist woodland forests and ravines. Give it moist, well-drained soil, and add a layer of mulch to help protect the shallow roots from drying out in the warmer months.
Rosebay rhododendron has broadly elliptical leaves that are dark green and glossy. It blooms in the summer months with extremely showy flowers. There are several spectacular cultivars available with brilliantly colored flowers that may be white, pink, or orange, depending on the cultivar. The flowers will attract hummingbirds and pollinators, but all parts of this plant are poisonous to humans and should not be consumed.
Southern Magnolia
A popular evergreen, the southern magnolia features glossy leaves and large, fragrant white flowers.
The southern magnolia is a large broadleaf evergreen popular in the home landscape. The leaves are long and wide, glossy, and thick. In the summer, it blooms with jumbo-sized fragrant white flowers that attract insect pollinators.
After flowering, large cone-like seed pods develop, filled with showy, bright red seeds. There are many cultivars of the southern magnolia, allowing you to choose specific characteristics that best suit your needs.
Southern magnolia is native to the southeastern United States, where it typically grows as an understory tree. As a landscaping tree, it performs very well in full sun and light shade. Give it a location with rich, moist, well-drained soil. You can prune the lower branches to give it a more tree-like appearance or allow the lower branches to develop naturally, and you will enjoy a luscious spreading wall of greenery.
Sweet Bay Magnolia
This versatile tree with glossy green leaves and large snowy blooms thrives in various climates.
Sweet bay magnolia is a small to medium-sized tree native to the southeastern United States. In warmer climates within its range, it will stay evergreen, while in the cooler regions, it becomes a deciduous tree.
Sweet bay magnolia grows well in full sun or partial shade. It does best in organically rich soil with consistent moisture levels, even tolerating boggy wet soils where many other trees won’t grow.
Sweet bay magnolia has large, thick, glossy green leaves. It blooms in late spring to early summer with large, white, showy flowers. The flowers are fragrant and also attract an assortment of insect pollinators. Several cultivars are available, including dwarf forms and more cold-tolerant varieties that remain evergreen in cooler climates.
Tea-oil Camellia
This small tree produces fragrant pink or white flowers in late fall and winter.
The tea-oil camellia is an attractive small tree native to China. It has thickened, leathery, glossy leaves that stay evergreen throughout the year, providing year-round ornamental interest. These trees flower in the late fall and into winter.
The flowers are either pink or white, showy, and fragrant. This is a great wildlife plant because the cold-season flowers are some of the few flowers available, attracting many late-season pollinators.
Tea-oil camellias prefer a location with partial shade, and they will grow very well as an understory plant. This plant does best with rich, moist, slightly acidic soil, although it will tolerate a wide range of soil conditions. Grow a row of these camellias together for a stunning fall floral display.
Wax Myrtle
Best for coastal habitats with salty, sandy, and windy conditions, wax myrtle has fragrant flowers.
Wax myrtle is a small tree native to the southeastern United States and Central America. It often grows in coastal habitats and tolerates salty, sandy, and windy environments. It grows best in full sun to partial shade. Wax-myrtle prefers moist, acidic soil with excellent drainage.
Wax myrtle has thickened, glossy leaves that stay evergreen in its native warm climates. Fragrant yellowish flowers bloom in bunches along the stems in the springtime, attracting pollinators. Blue-gray berry-like fruits mature in the fall and provide an excellent food source for fall and winter birds and other wildlife. This is also the larval host plant for the red-banded hairstreak butterfly.
White Fir
The conical shape, short needles, and seed-bearing cones of white fir offer an appealing choice for landscaping.
White fir is a beautiful coniferous evergreen tree native to the western United States and south into Mexico. It grows best in full sun but also tolerates dappled shade. Plant it in a location with moist, well-drained soil.
White fir trees have a conical or pyramidal form with dense, short needles. White fir makes an excellent stand-alone landscaping tree, but it also looks great grown in a row for privacy or used as a wind-break. A single tree can produce many seed-bearing cones that will interest small mammals, while the tree itself makes excellent cover for nesting and roosting birds.
Yaupon Holly
This holly tree features glossy leaves, non-prickly foliage, and white spring flowers.
Yaupon holly is an attractive medium-sized holly tree native to the eastern United States and south into Mexico. This broadleaf evergreen has glossy green leaves and reddish stems.
Unlike the American holly with sharp-edged leaves, the Yaupon holly has non-prickly leaves. Clusters of small white flowers bloom in the spring and attract butterflies and bees. Bright red fruits ripen in the summer, providing a good food source for birds.
Yaupon holly is dioecious and requires both a male and female plant growing nearby, allowing the female plants to develop the characteristic red fruits. For an attractive evergreen privacy screen, plant several holly trees close together.
These plants do well in a variety of conditions but will perform best in a sunny location with average-quality, moist soil. There are many cultivars of Yaupon holly available for almost any landscaping style.
Yew
Yews are easily recognized by their unique green needles and red berries.
Yews are a diverse group of needled evergreen shrubs and trees. There are dozens of cultivars to suit just about any landscaping needs. They may have a more rounded shape or an upright columnar shape. All yew trees are suitable for creating an evergreen buffer or landscape privacy screen. Many varieties look great in a border or hedge. You can plant them quite close together to increase privacy.
You can grow yews in full sun or partial shade. They prefer a slightly acidic, moist, well-drained soil. Short green needles and small bright red fruits are characteristic of these trees. Yew trees provide shelter for wildlife, but all parts of the yew tree are poisonous to humans and other mammals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Early spring and fall are ideal times to transplant trees. Ideally, you’ll want to get your trees in the ground while they’re still dormant, as this will help minimize transplanting stress. If you order your trees through the mail, they will often be shipped at an ideal planting time, so you can get them in the ground as soon as possible after they arrive. After planting a new tree, water it well and keep it moist for the first few weeks to help it settle in.
The choice is really up to you. Some trees look great when mass-planted, and there’s nothing wrong with this technique. If you prefer a bit more variety, however, try planting several species along your hedgerow. Just make sure they all enjoy the same growing conditions and that you allow each plant enough room to spread out to its mature size. Growing different tree species together can look great, attract more birds, and provide different foliage, flowers, and fruits to add diversity to your landscape. If you are growing trees with separate male and female plants, you’ll probably want to grow at least two if you want them to produce fruits.
You may have to wait a few years for a young tree to fill in enough to provide adequate privacy. Trees grow at different rates, but you can expect some growth each year. Trees and shrubs will grow annually both in height and girth, and as they grow, they will continuously add new branches and new leaves. A fast-growing tree can reach a very filled-out size within five years, while slower-growing trees will take a bit longer.
Final Thoughts
Evergreen trees are an ideal landscaping choice for year-round privacy. You can grow them in a row as a hedge, or you can scatter them throughout your landscape, providing patches of privacy and a more interesting and diverse style.
Evergreen trees are much more than pines and other conifers. There are many broadleaf evergreens with beautiful foliage, interesting flowers, and showy fruits. You will have many other evergreen options to choose from, including small and tall, sun-loving, and shade-friendly, so you are sure to find several trees to suit your particular needs.
