A Good Tropical Tree for Privacy

Site Evaluation

• It's easy to visit a nursery and choose a large-sized plant to immediately place in your garden to screen an undesirable view. Plants are not stagnant objects but will grow over time. Evaluate your property before selecting a tree to use as a screen. Note how much sunlight reaches the area for the proposed tree as well as the type of soil and its moisture qualities. Measure the size parameters needed for screening. Determine how tall and wide the tree must be to be minimally successful in creating the screen. Also note the largest size that tree can become before becoming too large for the site and requiring excessive pruning or removal.

Tree Qualities

• Based on the site evaluation, you know what size tropical tree is best suited for your property as well as what's needed for privacy. A tree that matures to a massive size with invasive roots is problematic, such as with most tropical figs (Ficus spp.). Avoid seasonally deciduous trees, as they naturally drop their foliage in the cool of winter or the dry season from winter to spring. Large-leaved evergreen trees offer more effective and absolute privacy, while feathery, small-leaved trees still block the view but may have more of a wispy curtainlike effect rather than a visual wall. A screening tree may also provide a season of colorful or fragrant flowers or a crop of tropical fruits. Narrow down what tree qualities you desire so you can best select a tree from the stock on hand at a nursery.

Potential Choices

• Evergreen tropical trees potentially useful as a screen include verawood (Bulnesia arborea), Japanese fern tree (Filicium decipiens), Jerusalem thorn (Parkinsonia aculeata), seagrape (Coccoloba uvifera) and awabuki (Viburnum awabuki). Fruit trees with attractive leaves and dense foliage are longan (Dimocarpus longan), lychee (Litchi chinensis), loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) and any of the various fruit trees in the genus Syzygium, including wax jambu and brush cherry. Although not true trees, various bananas (Musa spp.) and clumping species of bamboo (Bambusa spp.) grow quickly into handsome, well-behaved, vaselike, tall plants more than 12 feet tall.

Regional Insight

• Contact your local cooperative extension office and speak to a horticultural agent about privacy trees appropriate and commercially available in your area. Trees suitable for screening in Hawaii may not be obtainable, or could be invasive weeds, in southern California or Florida. Keep in mind your comfort level in maintaining trees, too. Using a weak-wooded tree in hurricane-prone Florida leads to more pruning or potential for loss with wind gusts. If soils are dry and you lack irrigation, modify your search to include evergreen trees that naturally tolerate drier conditions without dropping their leaves.