Screening Plants 1m to 2m

How to choose screening plants that finish at head height

The most common mistake in this band is buying a 4m grower and planning to keep it at 1.5m. It can be done, but you pay in clipping several times a year, and the base thins as the plant keeps trying to be a tree. Everything in this collection matures between 1m and 2m, so start with plants whose genetics already agree with you.

Then weigh speed against character. Coastal Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) is fast growing, finishes near 1.5m and handles frost, drought, salt and poor soil, which is why it anchors so many low screens. For flowers and birds, the dwarf bottlebrushes are the picks: Captain Cook weeps to about 1.8m with bright red brushes in spring and again in autumn, and Callistemon 'Candy Pink' matches it at 2m. On damp ground that most hedges hate, the dwarf melaleucas answer: 'Snowstorm' at 1.8m and 'Claret Tops' at 2m both tolerate wet feet as well as dry spells. For a softer formal look in frost prone gardens, Camellia sasanqua 'Paradise Pearl' holds a dense 2m line with white blooms flushed pink, and for foliage interest there is 'Hot Tips' rhaphiolepis with its bronze red new growth, or the glossy variegated Coprosma 'Green and Gold'.

Where a low screen earns its place

Use this band to hide what sits at ground level: pool pumps, bins, air conditioning units, a blank stretch of fence. At 1.5m a screen hides a seated person, and at 2m it covers most standing sightlines beside a patio. Low screens also divide space, separating a driveway from a front garden or a lawn from a vegetable patch, all without shading either side.

Cold districts are well served here. Westringia, correa, the dwarf callistemons and melaleucas and the sasanqua camellias are all frost hardy, so the band suits Canberra, Tasmania and the cold inland as readily as the coasts. In the humid subtropics the bottlebrushes and melaleucas thrive, with 'Captain Cook' rated from the tropics down to cool temperate gardens. On exposed coast, White Correa (Correa alba) and coprosma shrug off salt wind that burns softer foliage, though coprosma takes only light frost.

Spacing and planting for an even screen

Most plants here close into a solid line planted 1m apart: the bottlebrushes, melaleucas, correa, rhaphiolepis and coprosma all follow that rule. Plant Coastal Rosemary at 70cm and 'Paradise Pearl' at 80cm. A 10m run therefore takes 10 to 14 plants depending on the choice, and adding one more lets you finish each end with a plant rather than a gap.

Dig each hole twice the width of the pot and no deeper, water in well, and mulch 50mm to 75mm deep with the mulch kept off the stems. Plants in this size band establish quickly, and a young screen at these spacings usually closes up by the second or third season.

Care in the first two years

Water deeply twice a week through the first summer rather than a light daily sprinkle. Tip prune from the start: five minutes with the shears after each flush of growth builds the dense base that makes a screen work, and it is far easier than trying to thicken a leggy plant in year three. Feed with controlled release fertiliser in spring. For the full method, our guide on creating a great hedge and keeping it sharp walks through it step by step.

Common questions

What grows fastest to 1.5m?

Coastal Rosemary and the dwarf bottlebrushes are the quickest here, with 'Snowstorm' melaleuca close behind. All of them are fast growers that still stop inside the band, so the speed does not cost you years of corrective pruning.

Do I still need to trim plants that stop at 2m?

Lightly, yes. A clip once or twice a year keeps the foliage dense to the ground and the line even. What you avoid is the constant cutting needed to hold a large screen artificially low.

Which of these handle coastal wind?

White Correa, Coastal Rosemary and Coprosma 'Green and Gold' all carry coastal and salt tolerance. The two natives are frost hardy as well, so they suit cold coastal sites; the coprosma is better where frosts stay light.

What if I need more height later?

Step up a band rather than pushing these plants past their genetics. The screening plants for 2m to 4m cover the next range, and shrubs for privacy spans both.

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