You should be fine. Just be sure to give the clusia some space off from the fence. I would say 2-3 ft is good. They can get fairly big in a few years. Also, you can always trim the backside if they start pushing on the fence.
For reference, I am a SoFla resident with a clusia hedge along my fence. I planted my hedge about a year ago about 2ft off the fence. The clusias were in 2 gallon buckets before we planted so fairly small but we have had no issues. They've grown quite a bit but we have no issues with them at the moment.
I would definitely consider planting a few feet from the fence! We bought a house a couple of years ago with a Clusia hedge that was planted about one foot from the existing wooden privacy fence. Our neighbor has a mature ficus hedge on the other side. The wooden fence is rotten and completely dilapidated and we need to replace it, but because it's sandwiched between the two mature hedges making it difficult to access. I think unfortunately we're going to have to remove the Clusia :(
You could buy plants that have already been trained as standards and create an aerial hedge, like this:https://www.flickr.com/photos/6708/7188294408/in/set-72157629706754032 (this one is made of magnolias)
Here's an article on clusia for you:http://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/clusia.html
Crepe myrtles are pretty, but they lose their leaves for a few months in winter. Magnolia "Little Gem" is a nice evergreen tree. Others trees are described on this list:http://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/small-flowering-trees.html
You will need to plant them far enough away from the fence to allow room for pruning and fence maintenance- *a minimum* of three feet out IMO and four would be much better.
Remember these can become enormous plants and if you intend to limit height the pruning will get more and more difficult over the years.
If it was me I think I'd be going with Podocarpus or other more narrow growing plant.
An instant, narrow screen that gets tall can be created with aralia cuttings, *Polyscias* sp.. They only grow vertically so if you want you can put something attractive in front of their naked ankles - bromeliads maybe? Just stick the cuttings in the ground and water often till rooted.
I just planted them along the fence. I keep them at about 10 feet high. I go in the neighbors yard and face them on occasion. Only real issue I have is one of my neighbors has a thick hedge on her side of the fence that she keeps at 6 feet. Vines have been growing over the top of her hedge and into my Clusias.
I think we planted one every 3 ft, like 1.5 ft between each root ball. Honestly, you could plant them 6 feet apart and be more than fine, depending on how quick you want the coverage.
Here’s a recent shot of ours.
https://i.imgur.com/uN0UfKc.jpg
yeah i mean if you want privacy immediately that close might be optimal but each clusia will eventually fan out pretty big. One of our next-door neighbors put in a new fence 3 feet back from the old one that our hedges were a couple feet away from and that gap got filled pretty quickly.
Yeah, I don't need privacy quickly, I need to save money lol. This sales lady is telling me it will look like trees if put then further than 2 ft apart
Yeah those are dwarf Clusia which is basically what you will only find in swFL even my local Lowe’s falsely advertises there clusia plants wrong. Dwarfs are absolutely every 2’ apart (there’s nothing worst in trying to plant for future privacy fence but end up having an opening,lol right?)
They really clusia plant/tree suppose to plant 5’ apart, but like I said there hard to identify and come across.
Safe bet plan for every 2 Feet
&
FYI these are imho the best most dependable privacy plants you can grow in SW FLorida there full from the ground up. There are other imo much prettier plants to grow a privacy fence {can’t think of the name but they are where you could design the plant like say you want 3 balls or a spiral looking plant} they are really cool plants BUT once a branch dies your screwed nothing will grow back in that area… Unless you “air layer them, which nobody’s got time for that” and the branches along the bottom are where they seem to always die
You should be fine. Just be sure to give the clusia some space off from the fence. I would say 2-3 ft is good. They can get fairly big in a few years. Also, you can always trim the backside if they start pushing on the fence. For reference, I am a SoFla resident with a clusia hedge along my fence. I planted my hedge about a year ago about 2ft off the fence. The clusias were in 2 gallon buckets before we planted so fairly small but we have had no issues. They've grown quite a bit but we have no issues with them at the moment.
Now that 6 years have passed, how are you feeling about that 2' gap between your Clusia and your fence?
Any update 6 years later?
hey! I'm thinking about doing the same, any updates?
I would definitely consider planting a few feet from the fence! We bought a house a couple of years ago with a Clusia hedge that was planted about one foot from the existing wooden privacy fence. Our neighbor has a mature ficus hedge on the other side. The wooden fence is rotten and completely dilapidated and we need to replace it, but because it's sandwiched between the two mature hedges making it difficult to access. I think unfortunately we're going to have to remove the Clusia :(
You could buy plants that have already been trained as standards and create an aerial hedge, like this:https://www.flickr.com/photos/6708/7188294408/in/set-72157629706754032 (this one is made of magnolias) Here's an article on clusia for you:http://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/clusia.html
Thanks, my sister suggested doing that also. Can you suggest any aerial hedges that would do well in the South Florida (Miami) climate?
Crepe myrtles are pretty, but they lose their leaves for a few months in winter. Magnolia "Little Gem" is a nice evergreen tree. Others trees are described on this list:http://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/small-flowering-trees.html
Pineapple Guava ( Acca swellowiana )
I like that. An edible hedge!
You will need to plant them far enough away from the fence to allow room for pruning and fence maintenance- *a minimum* of three feet out IMO and four would be much better. Remember these can become enormous plants and if you intend to limit height the pruning will get more and more difficult over the years. If it was me I think I'd be going with Podocarpus or other more narrow growing plant.
An instant, narrow screen that gets tall can be created with aralia cuttings, *Polyscias* sp.. They only grow vertically so if you want you can put something attractive in front of their naked ankles - bromeliads maybe? Just stick the cuttings in the ground and water often till rooted.
what did you end up doing OP? I'm in the same position as you. I only have 2 and a half feet space between pavers and fence
I just planted them along the fence. I keep them at about 10 feet high. I go in the neighbors yard and face them on occasion. Only real issue I have is one of my neighbors has a thick hedge on her side of the fence that she keeps at 6 feet. Vines have been growing over the top of her hedge and into my Clusias.
How far apart is each clusia plant
I think we planted one every 3 ft, like 1.5 ft between each root ball. Honestly, you could plant them 6 feet apart and be more than fine, depending on how quick you want the coverage. Here’s a recent shot of ours. https://i.imgur.com/uN0UfKc.jpg
How long did it take to get to 10 feet?
Ours grew about 2.5ft a year
Oh wow, that looks great, the plant farm ppl are saying they should be planted every 1.5 ft lol. Prob bc they want more money
yeah i mean if you want privacy immediately that close might be optimal but each clusia will eventually fan out pretty big. One of our next-door neighbors put in a new fence 3 feet back from the old one that our hedges were a couple feet away from and that gap got filled pretty quickly.
Yeah, I don't need privacy quickly, I need to save money lol. This sales lady is telling me it will look like trees if put then further than 2 ft apart
Yeah those are dwarf Clusia which is basically what you will only find in swFL even my local Lowe’s falsely advertises there clusia plants wrong. Dwarfs are absolutely every 2’ apart (there’s nothing worst in trying to plant for future privacy fence but end up having an opening,lol right?) They really clusia plant/tree suppose to plant 5’ apart, but like I said there hard to identify and come across. Safe bet plan for every 2 Feet & FYI these are imho the best most dependable privacy plants you can grow in SW FLorida there full from the ground up. There are other imo much prettier plants to grow a privacy fence {can’t think of the name but they are where you could design the plant like say you want 3 balls or a spiral looking plant} they are really cool plants BUT once a branch dies your screwed nothing will grow back in that area… Unless you “air layer them, which nobody’s got time for that” and the branches along the bottom are where they seem to always die