Ilex (holly) prickly leaves, shady area, for standalone tree or hedging

Thankyou @Goldenlily26 for your suggestion. Do you know at what age the plant starts fruiting, and whether it is scented/highly scented from a very young age?

I am thinking that if it smells nice when I plant it, that might stop foul play from the other side of the wall. (There are frequent yukky smells wafting over from there, so they might be glad of the perfume - I certainly would).

However, will it be fragrant in deep shade and do the leaves offer good coverage (leaving aside the lack of prickles for now).

It is not very fast-growing either from what I have read.

However, it has been on my wish-list for ages, not necessarily here though, where I would not see it easily.

 

I am wondering if the - in some quarters - 'disliked' Aucuba crotonifolia would be faster growing than most shade loving shrubs? Alas, not prickly, but if fast-growing, maybe I could plant it with something spiky like a pyracantha.

 

I found it very slow growing @ClematisDbee and it can also suffer from leaf browning. An ungrateful plant in my opinion . If you can go without the spikes for something fast growing, Griselinia does well in the sandy soil in my garden in both sun and shade. I grow it as hedging and as individual shrubs. You could interplant it with Pyracantha for your lovely neighbours .

 

Thankyou @Plantminded , that is a shame. Another one to cross off the list...but another to consider - Griselinia - thankyou. I think interplanting/co-planting will be the answer really, and I am sure you can guess where the spiky plant of the two - yes probably pyracantha - will be planted in relation to the boundary wall...

 

Pyracantha does grow quite quickly. I bought one that was about 12" tall and within a yr it was a good 5 foot.

 

Thankyou @ViewAhead, did you plant it in shade? Was it bare-rooted or potted? That is good growth I would have thought. How is it looking now? Have you had berries?

 

It was planted in semi-shade (getting a few hrs sun per day) in quite dry soil, under the edge of the canopy of a giant oak. It was potted to start with. It got too big for the situation, so I'm afraid it is no more. I was a novice gardener back then and prone to disbelieving garden centre labels re final height and spread, so made a few early errors. It did have great orange berries.

 

Pyracanthas can certainly be kept neat. I've never used gauntlets for pruning anything jaggy - maybe I'm just used to it!
Holly would be fine as it's often grown as a hedge, or part of one, but it really depends on the look you want. Mahonias tend to be better as stand alone specimens, but can also be part of a hedge or a wind break type of barrier - I have one with a holly for that purpose. Berberis are also used as hedging, but make good 'stand alones' too, depending on the site and the amount of room.
You could also consider hawthorn if you opt for a hedge. It really depends on the type of barrier you want.

That pyracantha I had was in a corner, between two house walls, and faced north west. Even in summer, the sun never got to it, because of all the trees nearby, so it was basically in shade all year round.

 

I only know the bog standard one as above, there are a few named varieties about which I know nothing.

The flowers are fragrant on tiny plants grown from suckers or cuttings and shade makes no difference. The one I grew in my previous garden developed berries quite early on but I haven't noticed any on my current bush, now about 15 years old, maybe the birds take them before I notice them. I know they are small and black. A small price to pay for such a delicious addition to the garden.

I grew some cuttings on and they flowered within 2 years, fragrant and well leafed. I gave one to my daughter and one to the other mother in law. My daughter's bush looks quite different to mine because it is growing in rich soil with a lot more shade than mine. It has much darker green leaves, flowers earlier, her garden is at the bottom of a valley, mine is exposed, and it flowered from the age of 2 years old. They seem to put on approximately 6 ins of growth each year and flower on last years wood. Pretty bomb proof.
If your neighbours are pains in the **** and non gardeners I would not bother to try and please them. I doubt if they would notice the scent as it flowers Dec. - March and I am guessing neighbours like that will not be in the garden much at that time of year.
If you decided to plant a fragrans and they cut it back on their side I do not think it would harm it. It would just wave to them and carry on growing with its new haircut.It grows really easily from prunings so you could always try sticking a few pieces in the open ground to grow on as spares should you ever need to replace the original. I kept my rooted prunings for 4 years before handing them over to their new owners and they were about 3 ft. tall and in flower. The surplus ones I gave to a charity community garden for people to help themselves. They didn't last long.
Mine has a 50% leaf shed in March after the flowers have finished but soon comes back into full leaf which gives a dense coverage. If left unthinned you cannot see through it easily.
You could also have more than one specimen in your garden, one for the hedge and one where you see it from the house. I have mine growing close to the steps down from the carparking area to the house so I and visitors can enjoy the scent as we come down the steps. The flowers are tiny compared to many others but more than make up for lack of size with a strong perfume.
Mine is growing in thin, gritty, well drained soil in full sun, exposed to the SW gales etc., my daughter's plant is growing in rich, damp, soil in semi shade, a bit of a frost pocket but very sheltered from wind.

 

Thankyou, @ViewAhead, that is helpful to know. I have read they can grow @ 50 cm per year. I am leaning more to pyracantha as one of the shrubs for my shady situation.

 

Thankyou, @fairygirl , they sound that they have quite similar attributes, which makes it a bit more difficult to choose, but I am getting there I think. Hawthorn would definitely be deciduous, so I think I will discount it.

I am so glad you said your pyracantha was between two house walls, because that is the space I have here. I also have the west-north-west facing situation, and the tall trees. I don't mind watering and the area isn't waterlogged. I think pyracantha needs a role in my cast of defence here!

 

Thankyou, @Goldenlily26 , for your description of Lonicera fragrantissima and extensive experience with growing and propagating in different situations. I am seduced seduced - I cannot not give this plant a space after reading your comments. I think the fact that the flowering is almost 'out of season' should mean the plant is safer in terms of the **** neighbours. I think I might try your suggestion of having more than one plant. I do have another space I could plant into, before preparing the space under discussion here. That way I would be able to see and smell it.

Yippee!!!

This sounds like balm to my soul. I cannot wait to get started, thankyou!

 

I originally thought you wanted it as a barrier to 'undesirables' getting in your garden - it's a well known deterrent, along with berberis, for keeping a safe boundary, but as it seems to be dodgy neighbours more than anything, it would suit well.
I always have it somewhere in the garden as it's a great plant for birds and insects, and a good backdrop for other plants, so it earns it's keep. The bonus of being prunable and the fact that it can be wall/fence trained makes it a winner for me.
I have some on my main boundary fence, and recently got another one for the back fence for that last reason.
The only real problem with them is that can get scab, and I had one which suffered a few years ago, but you just prune out all the affected branches and it gets going again. That's the first time I've ever had that, and I've been growing it in every garden I've had.

 

Thankyou @fairygirl, you were right before too. I get beer cans chucked over, pieces of cheese, plastic milk bottles half full...the tenants change all the time and don't really care as they move on so rapidly. Never know who I might get next and their outside steps get higher near to part of the wall, so I am trying to discourage them from even thinking about doing anything by growing something prickly that is higher than the wall. (My wall, but their outdoor courtyard and side return is on the other - their- side).

I think pyracantha sounds brilliant for this situation and I would like the birds and insects to have something positive too. I feel quite a bit more positive about a rather depressing situation, now.

 

I can understand the problem @ClematisDbee . There's no guarantee of any kind with neighbours, whether they're tenants or purchasers, unfortunately.
It will certainly help if you have something they may not want to handle too much, but there's also the question of maintaining it yourself. It doesn't sound as if you could go round to their side for that, so as long as you can reach anything from your side, that should be fine. If they hack bits off, it's not likely to cause a problem to a healthy plant either.
Difficult to judge without seeing the site though. Good luck with whatever you go for.