In article ,
Dawn wrote:

Priscilla Ballou wrote:

I'm planning to put a row of lilac bushes along most of the length,
since I just love lilacs and they should grow up into a nice shield.

Lilac bushes will fill most of the 15" of space you have.

Uh, it's 15 feet, not inches, and in any event the 15 feet is the
distance between my house and the house next door, not the length of the
area I want to put a privacy screen in. It's about 35 feet of length.
I plan to put in about 20 feet of lilacs, and have about 10 feet in
front and 5 feet in back to do something else with.

I hope you're
not planning on being able to walk through there in a few years.

I expect I'll prune them. They can hang over the fence on my neighbor's
side and be trimmed back on my side so I can walk down the side of my
house the few times I may need to. There's a few feet between where
they'll be planted and the side of my house.

I've
got about the same amount of space between my house and our neighbor,
fortunately no windows. There's a mature lilac there that is as tall as
our 2 storey house and regularly has to be cut back on both sides of the
fence to allow access to the back yard.

This isn't the major access to the back yard, and I have no fear of
pruning. Height would be fine.

Our miniature lilacs are much less energetic.

I didn't know there were miniature lilacs.

As for flowering, you might consider the Rose of Sharon, they bloom all
summer in pink, white, or purple, and make a nice screen as well.

Oh, I've got Rose of Sharon all over the place. The big bush balancing
out on the other side of my property is a big white Rose of Sharon. I'm
thinking more of something different -- a dwarf fruit tree, an
ornamental cherry if I can find one small enough, like that. I have a
lovely little flowering quince out back. It's about the size I'm
looking for.

Priscilla
--
"You can't welcome someone into a body of Christ and then say only
certain rooms are open." -- dancertm in alt.religion.christian.episcopal