"Daniel" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 21:54:54 -0000, "Dave" wrote:

Hello,

I'd be the first to admit I know nothing about gardening, hence my
question.
I have a mid-sized rectangle garden with a new house being developed
behind
it. Some of the rooms in the new house will overlook our garden and
bedrooms
so I would like to put up a screen of one to three trees in the corner of
my
garden to give us some shelter. Ideally, they should be tall and thin,
give
us privacy all year round but more so in the summer, easy to maintain and
be
about 15 meters tall.

I'd quite like them to be 'elegant' rather than something plain.

Can anyone give me some suggestions on what I fits that description. The
soil is well drained and the position is full-sunlight, south facing in
the
south of England.

Many thanks,
David.



Hello,
I quite favour Nothofagus betuloides - antarctic beach, an evergreen
slow growing with tiny serrated leaves. Batsford Arboretum near
Moreton in Marsh have a mature example and pot grown ones for sale,
although mine has been in about 3 years from planting at 5 feet high
and is only now about seven feet and still like a whip rather than a
tree.
Sorbus aria mitchelii (irish whitebeam) is quite a pleasant variety
that can go near(ish) to buildings that has large glabrous deep green
leaves with a downy silver underside (deciduous).
What about a monkey puzzle tree?
A blue spruce?
Balsam poplar is of a columnar habit but i find the roots a little
invasive despite it not reaching the same heights as other poplars.
Eucalyptus will give you leaves all year round and is reasonably quick
growing.
Parotia persica looses it's leaves in winter, but only after they go
through various shades of red and russet, gets to a reasonable height
after a few years...

Some I hadn't ever heard of / didn't recognise there!

When in a similar situation I went for a whitebeam, on the grounds that I
hadn't heard of one and it seemed like it might fit the space nicely (in 20
years), but in retrospect I rather think I would have liked to get a
mountain ash if doing it again.

15m is apparently quite tall for a mountain ash though. Tall and thin does
sound like poplars or (please don't flame me) leylandii. If you really want
something exciting as opposed to plain then there's always (please don't
flame me) magnolia. Don't know about elegant! You have to make sure you go
for the right sort though since more cultivated kinds will tend to be too
short for you. Not sure whether British climate can grow the wild-type ones
or not, and they almost certainly won't be thin.