Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Mr. Smarty Plants receives numerous inquiries concerning appropriate plants for privacy screens. He doesn’t have a “list for all occasions”, so he is going to introduce you to our Native Plant Database,  that you can use to help you select the plants for your landscaping project. The Database contains the names of 7,188 species of native plants from which to choose. There are several ways to use the Database, and we are going to start by using the Recommended Species list.

 After clicking on Native Plant Database, scroll down to the Recommended Species List box and click on the View Recommended Species page. Next, click on New York on the map, and you will get a list 112 commercially available native plant species suitable for planned landscapes in New York. This is more information than you need, so let’s eliminate some of the names for now. You mentioned perhaps planting bushes, so lets see what’s available. Go to the Narrow Your Search box to the right of the window and make the following selections: select New York under State, Shrub under habit, and Perennial under duration. Check Sun under Light Requirement and Moist under Soil Moisture (or use the conditions that apply to your site). Click on the Narrow Your Search button and the list is reduced to five. Clicking on the scientific name of each plant will bring up its NPIN page that has a description of the plant, its growth requirements, and photos. These can help you select plants suitable for your location. Pay attention to the moisture and soil requirements of the plants so you can match the plants to your growing situation.

Repeat the process, and this time select Tree under habit, leaving the other choices the same. This will give you a list of 27 trees to choose from.

For some help closer to home, you could contact the folks at the Nassau County office of Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Growth rates vary from plant to plant depending on the growing conditions. For perrenials, a growth rate of 2-3 ft./year is considered fast growth.