Best Privacy Plants for Birmingham, Alabama
If you live in Birmingham, chances are there’s at least one spot in your yard where you’d like a little more privacy.
Maybe you want to block the view of a neighboring house, create some separation around a patio or pool, soften a fence, or simply make your backyard feel a little more secluded.
The good news is you don’t necessarily need to build a fence to get privacy.
At Andy’s Garden Center, we believe the best privacy screen is one that looks like it belongs in the landscape. The right plants can give you year-round coverage while adding color, texture, and interest to your yard.
Here are some of our favorite privacy plants for Birmingham and Central Alabama landscapes.
1. Nellie R. Stevens Holly
Nellie R. Stevens holly has been a Southern landscape favorite for years, and it’s still one of our go-to choices for creating a large evergreen screen.
It grows into a dense, pyramidal shrub or small tree with glossy dark green foliage that stays attractive throughout the year.
Given enough room, it can create an excellent natural barrier between properties or screen larger areas.
Best location: Full sun to partial shade.
Keep the mature size in mind when planting. Nellie R. Stevens can become a substantial plant, so it’s usually better suited to larger spaces than narrow foundation beds.
2. Oakland Holly
Oakland holly is a great option when you want a more upright, structured evergreen screen.
Its dense foliage and naturally pyramidal shape make it useful for property lines, corners, entrances, and areas where you want height without an extremely wide plant.
It also requires relatively little pruning when it’s planted somewhere that allows it to grow naturally.
Best location: Full sun to partial shade.
For a more natural look, give each plant enough space to develop instead of planting them too closely together.
3. Cryptomeria
Cryptomeria is one of our favorite choices when you need a taller evergreen screen.
These trees have soft, feathery foliage and can create an attractive living wall without looking as formal as a row of tightly clipped shrubs.
They work especially well along larger property lines or in areas where you need to screen a neighboring house, road, or other tall view.
Best location: Full sun to partial sun.
Good drainage is important. Make sure you also choose a variety whose mature size fits your space.
4. Green Giant Arborvitae
Green Giant arborvitae is popular for one big reason:
It grows.
Once established in a good location, Green Giants can grow relatively quickly and eventually form a tall evergreen screen.
They’re especially useful on larger properties where homeowners want to create privacy along a property line or block a distant view.
Best location: Full sun to partial shade.
Green Giants become very large plants. They aren't a good choice for every yard, so make sure you have enough room before planting them.
5. Tea Olive
If you want privacy but don’t necessarily want your landscape to look like a row of traditional screening plants, tea olive is a great option.
Tea olives are evergreen shrubs that can grow quite large over time. Their dense foliage provides screening while their small flowers produce an incredible fragrance.
You may smell them from across the yard before you ever notice the flowers.
Best location: Sun to partial shade.
Plant tea olives around patios, outdoor living spaces, property lines, or anywhere you can enjoy their fragrance.
6. Southern Wax Myrtle
Southern wax myrtle is a great choice for homeowners who want a more natural-looking privacy screen.
This Southern native grows relatively quickly and can develop into a large shrub or small tree. Its evergreen to semi-evergreen foliage provides good screening, and the plant works especially well in informal or native-style landscapes.
It’s also a useful plant for wildlife-friendly gardens.
Best location: Full sun to partial shade.
Wax myrtles are especially useful where you have enough room to let them develop their natural shape.
7. Chindo Viburnum
Chindo viburnum is an excellent broadleaf evergreen for privacy.
It develops large, glossy green leaves and dense growth, creating a substantial screen without looking like a traditional conifer hedge.
Chindo works well along property lines, around outdoor living areas, or as a backdrop for smaller shrubs and perennials.
Best location: Sun to partial shade.
Give Chindo viburnum plenty of room. It can become a large shrub, and allowing it to grow naturally usually looks much better than constantly trying to keep it small.
8. Camellias
Privacy plants don’t have to be boring.
Camellias can provide evergreen screening while also giving you beautiful flowers during fall, winter, or early spring, depending on the type.
They’re especially useful in areas with some protection from intense afternoon sun.
Best location: Partial shade is generally ideal.
Camellias are a great option for creating privacy around patios, porches, woodland gardens, and shaded property lines.
9. Little Gem Magnolia
If you love the classic look of a Southern magnolia but don’t have room for a massive tree, Little Gem magnolia may be a better fit.
Its evergreen foliage is dense and attractive throughout the year, and the large white flowers add classic Southern character to the landscape.
Little Gem can be used as a specimen tree or planted where its foliage helps provide screening.
Best location: Full sun to partial shade.
Although smaller than a traditional Southern magnolia, Little Gem still needs room to mature.
10. Skip Laurel
Skip laurel is a dense evergreen shrub that can work well where you want a traditional hedge or privacy screen.
Its broad green leaves create a softer appearance than many conifers, and it responds well to pruning when a more maintained hedge is desired.
Best location: Partial sun to partial shade.
Good drainage is important, especially in Birmingham's heavier clay soils.
How Fast Do You Need Privacy?
This is one of the first questions we ask when someone comes into the garden center looking for screening plants.
Everyone wants instant privacy, but faster-growing isn’t always better.
A plant that grows quickly may also become much larger than you expected or require more maintenance later.
Instead of choosing a plant based only on its growth rate, consider:
- How tall the screen actually needs to be
- How much width you have available
- How much sunlight the area receives
- How quickly you need coverage
- Whether the area drains well
- How much pruning you're willing to do
- Whether you want a formal or natural-looking screen
Sometimes a slightly slower-growing plant that fits the space is a much better long-term choice.
Don't Plant Your Privacy Screen Too Close Together
This is one of the most common mistakes we see.
When you’re staring at small plants at the garden center, it’s tempting to plant them close together so the area fills in faster.
But remember—you’re planting for what those plants will look like five, ten, or even twenty years from now.
If a plant eventually grows 10 feet wide, planting several of them only 3 feet apart can create problems as they mature.
Crowded plants may require excessive pruning, compete with each other, and develop poor airflow.
Giving your plants the proper spacing may take a little more patience in the beginning, but it usually creates a much healthier and better-looking screen in the long run.
Should You Plant One Variety or Mix Several Plants?
A privacy screen doesn’t have to be one straight row of identical plants.
In fact, some of our favorite privacy plantings use a mixture of evergreen trees and shrubs.
You might combine taller evergreen screening plants with flowering shrubs, smaller evergreens, or ornamental trees to create layers.
This can make the landscape feel much more natural while still blocking the view you don’t want to see.
It also means your entire privacy screen isn’t dependent on a single type of plant.
What About Alabama Clay Soil?
As with most plants in Birmingham, drainage matters.
Our heavy clay soil can hold a lot of moisture, especially in low areas of the yard.
Before planting a privacy screen, pay attention to what happens after a heavy rain. If water sits in the area for long periods, you’ll want to choose plants that can tolerate those conditions or address the drainage before planting.
Avoid digging deep holes in heavy clay and filling them entirely with soft amended soil. This can sometimes create a "bathtub" where water collects around the roots.
If you're dealing with a difficult clay area, check out our guide to Best Plants for Alabama Clay Soil.
When Is the Best Time to Plant a Privacy Screen in Birmingham?
Container-grown trees and shrubs can be planted during much of the year, but fall is one of our favorite times to establish a privacy screen in Alabama.
The air temperatures are cooler, but the soil is still warm enough for roots to continue growing.
That gives your plants time to begin establishing before they face their first hot Birmingham summer.
Early spring is another excellent planting time.
We'll cover this in more detail in our guide: When to Plant Trees and Shrubs in Alabama.
Need Help Choosing the Right Privacy Plants?
There isn't one privacy plant that's right for every yard.
A Green Giant arborvitae may be perfect for a large property line but completely overwhelm a small backyard. A camellia may thrive along one side of your house but struggle in another location with intense afternoon sun.
The best privacy screen starts with choosing plants that actually fit the space.
Bring us a few pictures of the area you're trying to screen, along with some basic measurements and an idea of how much sun it receives. The team at Andy’s Garden Center in Vestavia Hills can help you figure out how tall your plants need to be, how far apart to space them, and which varieties make the most sense for your landscape.
We'd rather help you create a privacy screen that gets better with age than sell you a row of plants you'll be constantly fighting to keep under control.
Andy’s Garden Center
3351 Morgan Drive
Vestavia Hills, AL 35216
Serving gardeners throughout Vestavia Hills, Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Homewood, Hoover, and surrounding Central Alabama communities.