Plants for Growing a Hedge in Texas

American Holly

• American holly (Ilex opaca) grows in far eastern counties in Texas. American holly can grow to 50 feet, but you can trim it into a large hedge and keep it manageable. Featuring evergreen, elliptical leaves with short spines, American holly adds year-round color to your landscape. The female plants will turn out vivid red berries by October. The Maryland Dwarf cultivar and the Clarendon hybrid of this species are much smaller forms that you can employ to create a hedge.

Hedge Maple

• You can trim the hedge maple (Acer campestre) to make an effective hedge, as many landscapers do in its native Europe. Hedge maple will grow to 35 feet if left alone, but since the branches often grow quite close to the ground, it is a prime candidate for a hedge. The southern parts of Texas will be too hot for the hedge maple, but in Zone 6 through Zone 8 you can utilize this plant. Hedge maple is a good choice in urban venues since it withstands air pollution. The type of soil you plant it in matters little, since it adapts to nearly every soil variation, even heavy clay.

Osage Orange

• Texas is within the original range of the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera). The exact geographical distribution, however, is somewhat fuzzy, since farmers and ranchers planted them in rows to create natural barriers before barb wire appeared. Osage orange has plenty of interest, with orange-brownish bark, shiny green leaves, a whitish sap, thorns and a strange-looking fruit on the female trees. The fruit yields edible seeds, if you display the patience required to get to them through the rind and flesh. Osage orange seems designed to be a hedge, as you can prune the trees to small sizes and mark your property lines with them.

Leucothoe

• You can plant leucothoe (Leucothoe axillaris) in most of Texas, including the northern sections, since it is cold-hardy as far north as Zone 6. This small shrub works as a hedge plant. You can place it near foundations with no worries. If you use leucothoe in full sun, make sure to keep the ground moist as the plants establish their root systems. Leucothoe only grows to 4 feet high, but it possesses a vase-like form, with thick green leaves. The shrub blooms in May, notes the Missouri Botanical Garden, with the flowers aromatic and emerging in clusters. You get the bonus of bronze-purple leaf color in the autumn, despite the fact that leucothoe retains its foliage.