This Fast-Growing Evergreen Is the Secret to Hiding an Ugly Fence – And It Looks Beautiful All Year

Pretty much every backyard has a fence. They’re functional, but rarely beautiful. We can certainly think of many more aesthetically pleasing elements of a backyard. So if you’re searching for a plant to hide an ugly fence, we get it. After all, life’s too short to spend looking onto an expanse of dreary grey-brown panels.

There are hundreds of excellent plant options to cover an ugly fence fast. And spring is one of the best times of the year to shop and plant all manner of climbers, shrubs, trees and perennials. The sun is starting to warm up the soil, nicely watered by winter rains, so your new additions will settle in quickly, sending their roots down deep and establishing themselves with ease, in readiness for a year of growth and, hopefully, flowers to delight you and your backyard wildlife.

Among the best plants to cover a fence is viburnum, and here's why. Being evergreen, it gives you year-round color and structure. It’s fast-growing, handsome and bushy, which makes it perfect for a contemporary yard, while also mixing well with more traditional styles of garden planting.

The Best Sweet Viburnum for Fast Screening Growth

There are so many types of viburnum to choose from but my favourite viburnum to hide an ugly fence fast has to be the Asian native sweet viburnum (Viburnum odoratissimum).

Like most viburnum varieties, it’s good looking, full of interest through all four seasons and easy to care for. It also tends to grow densely, making it ideal for screening and hedging.

The leaves are a prettily veined, deep green and super-glossy. It also has large, conical sprays of small tubular, creamy white scented flowers from late spring into early summer.

These are followed by oval-shaped red berries that ripen to black in fall – they’re popular with birds but not for human consumption. It will grow to an eventual height and spread of around 16 feet.

Shop for sweet viburnum at Perfect Plants.

How and Where to Plant Sweet Viburnum to Hide an Ugly Fence

Sweet viburnum is hardy down to 0°F, and suitable for US hardiness zones 8-10. Sweet viburnum is tolerant of most conditions as long as the soil isn’t too sandy and it’s not planted in a very exposed position, left to the mercy of cold, drying winds.

You can discover the range of viburnum varieties available at Fast Growing Trees.

If your backyard soil is very light, dig in plenty of leaf mould, soil improver or garden compost before planting. When planting any tree or shrub, it's also worth adding some mycorrhizal fungi to help them develop strong root systems.

Plant your sweet viburnum at the same depth as they were in their pots, at least 2 feet from the fence, backfilling with good nutrient-rich soil and watering them in well to settle the soil around the plants' roots. Shop for mycorrhizal funghi at Amazon.

Sweet viburnum will grow happily in sun or light shade and is one of the best low-maintenance screening shrubs, you'll find, with color and interest throughout the year, lightening up a dull corner of the yard magnificently.

If you’re using sweet viburnum to hide an ugly fence, you might want to grow it as a hedge, spacing plants around 3-4 feet apart. Wherever you plant it, its flowers will send delicious wafts of perfume across the garden in late spring.

How to Care for Sweet Viburnum

Once planted, sweet viburnum is easy to look after, young plants needing little more than regular watering during the growing season until their roots are established. In spring, it's a good idea to treat your plants to a 3-5 inch mulch of well-rotted manure or garden compost.

My guide to mulching is simple: spread your chosen mulch around the base of the plant, avoiding the main stem, to help plants to thrive, suppress weeds and retain moisture in the soil.

Sweet viburnum flowers on new wood, so once it’s finished flowering in early summer, you can prune it, but only if it needs it. Do this by cutting back stems to a healthy bud and reducing any branches that are either outgrowing their space or spoiling the symmetry of the plant.

As with all pruning, remove any diseased, damaged or dead shoots, cutting them right back to the base of the plant.

If you’re growing sweet viburnum as a hedge to hide an ugly fence – and this is an excellent option, as this shrub makes an excellent fast-growing living wall – once it’s grown to the height you want it, you’ll need to prune it yearly, for a more natural look, or every three or four months, after flowering, if you want to keep it compact and super dense.

Always use sharp pruners to avoid shredding the large leaves. Try these Fiskars serrated hedge shears from Ace Hardware.

Sweet Viburnum and Your Backyard Biodiversity

Planting sweet viburnum to hide an ugly fence will do more for your yard than simply screen those ugly eyesores.

Its berries will attract various species of birds in fall, while those clusters of scented flowers are rich in nectar, so a fantastic food source for all kinds of beneficial pollinators.

More good news: low-maintenance sweet viburnum isn’t a draw for deer and rabbits, which will leave it alone, and it’s not invasive either.

Planting Combinations for Sweet Viburnum

If you’re after similar low-maintenance fence screening but with a twist, try Viburnum odoratissimum ‘Coppertop’. Hardy and evergreen like its parent plant, its new spring foliage emerges a deep shade of reddish green, hence the name.

Trim it annually in early spring and you’ll keep those rich tones coming, welcoming both color and form into your backyard for 12 months of the year.

Naturally, some of the best viburnum companion plants are ones that enjoy the same light levels and nutrient-rich soil, but which have contrasting foliage colours or stem colours.

I love growing clematis through shrubs to provide a blast of seasonal colour and added interest, without the need for any trellis or supports. This clematis variety from Amazon is a stunning shade of lilac and arrives ready to plant out.

Either choose a later-flowering variety such as sky-blue 'Perle d'Azure' to extend the season of interest or opt for a spring hybrid clematis that will flower at the same time as your sweet viburnum, in which case give some thought to toning flower colour and contrasting flower shape.

Purple 'Daniel Deronda' or white 'Gillian Blades' would work well. Either way, plant the clematis on the north side of your sweet viburnum, so it will naturally grow through the viburnum towards the light, using the shrub as natural scaffolding.

However you choose to hide your ugly backyard fence, I always recommend thinking about the biodiversity of your space when considering your options. Aim to garden for pollinators and wildlife and you'll create a yard with so much more joy and interest. Berries, flowers, water and perching spots for birds are key.

Of course, the birds and the bees won’t be the only ones to benefit from your choices; you’ll be able to watch as they clear up backyard beasties such as slugs and snails, or pollinate your plants as they drift from flower to flower in the sunshine. Who knew hiding an ugly fence could be so rewarding?

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