I was in a client meeting the other day. The homeowners were looking to screen their neighbors with an evergreen plant that required no maintenance, wouldn’t grow too fast or get too tall, wasn’t expensive, was full size at install and was deer resistant.
Sounds like the perfect plant! Unfortunately, that plant doesn’t exist. Slower growing plants usually require less maintenance but are expensive and are rarely available as mature plants. Landscape sized plants, something in the 5-7′ range, that miraculously stops growing doesn’t exist either.
The plant that continued to come to mind, that crossed off most of their boxes was Pieris. Evergreen, slow growing, deer resistant etc… The only characteristic it didn’t check? It isn’t available in a 5-7′ plant and if they were, they would be ridiculously expensive. Sometimes with landscaping, no matter your budget, you just need to wait.
Here are some Pieris screening at at my house. I couldn’t be happier these Andromeda. Currently, they are in the 9-10′ range.