Cheap Trees for Privacy and Screening

Cheap trees for privacy will usually be young hedging plants, and the cheapest come as cell-grown or plug plants. They cost less to buy, transport and plant, making them a practical option for long boundaries and blocking out offences to the eye. The trade-off is time: small plants will not provide instant screening^[1][3] unless you want to block out the view of an extremely close gnome collection. With established annual growth rates ranging from around 10cm for the slowest options to about 100cm (when established) for the fastest, you will be waiting at least a few seasons before Freddy the fly-fishing ceramic monstrosity is blocked off.^[9][13]

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Cell-grown plants are one of the most affordable ways to plant long screens, boundaries and shelterbelts. They are compact, quick and easy to plant, establish quickly and are cheap enough to buy 10% extra to pot on for gap filling and replacements. If you already know what you want and don't need to read any more, go to our cheap hedging plants section.

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Cheap Trees for Privacy and Screening Guide Contents

Privacy and Screening Comparison Table
Sources and Methodology

Relative Costs for Privacy and Screening Trees

First, What Is A Good Privacy and Screening Tree?

We would say the bare minimum is to provide a dense enough canopy to prevent easy viewing to the other side and can reach a height of 2m or more. Evergreen trees obviously have the advantage over deciduous trees for permanent tree screening, but deciduous trees can still provide a good screen if pruned correctly and forced to grow a dense framework during the early formative years.

The plants below are usually available in our cell-grown range and meet the screening test used in this guide: they are evergreen, semi-evergreen or deciduous and can form a dense winter framework when correctly pruned. The cost grouping is based on the price per plant per metre e.g. a Western Red Cedar can be planted at greater spacings than other screening trees i.e. becomes cheaper per metre

Growth speed

Foliage

Relative cost

Maintenance

Coastal

Plant	Annual growth	Relative cost	Best use and main drawback
Norway spruce Picea abies Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Dense, quick rural screening and shelter; ultimately very large and can thin at the base if crowded or shaded.
Scots pine Pinus sylvestris Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Hardy evergreen screening for exposed and poor-soil sites; develops an open crown and may lose lower branches as it matures.
Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis Evergreen	60–100cm per year Very Fast	Low	Very rapid screening for large, exposed or coastal sites; enormous ultimate size makes it unsuitable for ordinary gardens.
Maritime pine Pinus pinaster Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Evergreen screening for mild coastal and sandy sites; becomes a large, broad and increasingly irregular tree.
Serbian spruce Picea omorika Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Narrower conifer screen where width is limited; still becomes a tall tree and may become less dense at ground level with age.
Western hemlock Tsuga heterophylla Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Dense, shade-tolerant screening on moist sheltered ground; ultimately an exceptionally large forest tree.
Douglas fir Pseudotsuga menziesii Evergreen	60–100cm per year Very Fast	Low	Very rapid tall screening and shelter for extensive sites; one of the largest trees available and wholly impractical for small gardens.
Grand fir Abies grandis Evergreen	60–100cm per year Very Fast	Low	Very fast dense conifer screening for estates and shelterbelts; develops into an exceptionally tall forest tree.
Japanese red cedar Cryptomeria japonica Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Dense conical evergreen screening for moist, reasonably sheltered sites; ultimately very large and unsuitable for narrow boundaries.
Noble fir Abies procera Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Low	Dense blue-green estate or rural screening; slow to establish on poor sites and eventually becomes a very large tree.
Blue spruce Picea pungens Glauca Evergreen	20–30cm per year Average	Low	Dense, prickly blue-grey screening for open sunny sites; relatively slow to fill and eventually becomes broad.
Fraser fir Abies fraseri Evergreen	20–30cm per year Average	Low	Dense conical screening for cool, moist ground; slower than the quickest firs and performs poorly in hot, dry conditions.
Macedonian pine Pinus peuce Evergreen	20–30cm per year Average	Low	Dense pyramidal evergreen screen with good cold tolerance; ultimately a large tree rather than a narrow hedge.
Nordmann fir Abies nordmanniana Evergreen	20–30cm per year Average	Low	Dense symmetrical evergreen screen for large gardens; relatively slow to fill and eventually becomes a massive tree.
Silver fir Abies alba Evergreen	30–45cm per year Average	Low	Tall, dense screening for cool, spacious sites; ultimately huge and less suitable for dry, polluted or exposed urban locations.
Atlas cedar Cedrus atlantica Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Average	Evergreen tree screening for estates and very large gardens; develops a massive, spreading crown and is not a narrow clipped screen.
Mountain gum Eucalyptus dalrympleana Evergreen	60–100cm per year Very Fast	Average	Extremely quick evergreen screening that can be coppiced or pollarded; requires firm repeated control and can exceed 20m if neglected.
Western red cedar Thuja plicata Evergreen	45–60cm per year Fast	Average	Fast, dense evergreen screening that can be kept fairly narrow; needs regular trimming and eventually becomes enormous if left unchecked.
Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna Deciduous; dense thorny winter framework	40–60cm per year Fast	Average	Dense, thorny screening for rural boundaries and wildlife planting; winter screening is less complete than an evergreen screen.
Beech Fagus sylvatica Deciduous; clipped plants retain many brown leaves	30–60cm per year Fast	Average	Dense formal screening with useful winter leaf retention; unsuitable for persistently wet or waterlogged soil.
Cherry laurel Prunus laurocerasus Evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Average	Dense evergreen screening for sun or shade; naturally broad, needs regular pruning and is harmful if eaten.
Portuguese laurel Prunus lusitanica Evergreen	30–50cm per year Average	Average	Neat, dense evergreen screening with a finer texture than cherry laurel; slower to fill and harmful if eaten.
Gorse Ulex europaeus Evergreen	15–30cm per year Average	Average	Thorny informal screening for exposed, coastal and poor-soil sites; difficult to maintain neatly and limited to roughly 2–2.5m.
Hornbeam Carpinus betulus Deciduous; clipped plants retain some brown leaves	30–60cm per year Fast	Average	Dense screening for cold, exposed and heavier-soil sites; usually retains fewer winter leaves than beech.
Yew Taxus baccata Evergreen	Up to 30cm per year Average	Above average	Exceptionally dense, shade-tolerant screening that can recover from hard pruning; slow initially and highly toxic if eaten.
Milkflower cotoneaster Cotoneaster lacteus Evergreen	Around 30cm per year Average	Average	Bushy evergreen screening with flowers and berries; naturally broad and less suitable where a very narrow screen is required.
Oval-leaf privet Ligustrum ovalifolium Semi-evergreen	30–60cm per year Fast	Above average	Quick, dense screening that can be kept fairly narrow; may lose leaves in cold winters and needs frequent trimming.
Leylandii – green/gold × Cuprocyparis leylandii Evergreen	Up to 100cm per year Very Fast	Above average	The quickest dense year-round screen; needs frequent trimming and will not normally recover after cutting into old brown wood.
Holm oak Quercus ilex Evergreen	20–30cm per year Average	Above average	Tough evergreen screening for coastal and exposed sites; slow when young and eventually becomes a very large, broad tree.
Wild privet Ligustrum vulgare Semi-evergreen	20–40cm per year Average	Above average	Dense native-style screening with wildlife value; winter leaf retention is unreliable in colder or exposed locations.
Common juniper Juniperus communis Evergreen	10–20cm per year Slow	Above average	Evergreen screening for poor, dry and exposed sites; very slow and naturally variable in height, width and density.
Copper beech Fagus sylvatica Purpurea Deciduous; clipped plants retain many brown leaves	30–60cm per year Fast	Above average	Dense formal screening with copper-purple foliage and useful winter leaf retention; dislikes waterlogging and costs more than green beech.
Box Buxus sempervirens Evergreen	10–15cm per year Slow	Above average	Very dense evergreen screening where time is not important; extremely slow to reach privacy height and vulnerable to box blight and box-tree caterpillar.
Holly Ilex aquifolium Evergreen	10–20cm per year Slow	Above average	Dense, prickly year-round screening with good shade and exposure tolerance; very slow to establish and relatively costly per metre.

Sources and Methodology

Royal Horticultural Society: Plants for screening. Screening principles, suitable plant types and the need to match height and spread to the site.
Royal Horticultural Society: Hedges – selection. Foliage type, screening suitability, density and comparative hedge characteristics.
Royal Horticultural Society: How to grow hedges. Establishment, formative pruning, density and trimming requirements.
Royal Horticultural Society: How to trim a hedge. Trimming practice and the risk of cutting most conifers back into old wood.
Royal Horticultural Society: How to grow conifers. Size control, pruning periods and the limited ability of most conifers to regrow from brown wood.
Royal Horticultural Society: Hedge renovation. Regular light trimming and the limited renovation options for most conifer screens.
Royal Horticultural Society: Plants for coastal areas. Plants recommended for exposed or more sheltered coastal planting.
Royal Horticultural Society: Windbreaks and shelterbelts. Screening, shelter, exposure and general planting guidance.
Royal Horticultural Society: Find a Plant. Exact-species profiles used to check foliage, ultimate size, exposure, pruning and suggested uses.
Forest Research: Sitka spruce species guidance and Forestry Commission guidance on conifers and coastal exposure.
Trees Online 2025–26 cell-grown price list supplied for this article. The listed price per plant and supplied plant size are used without conversion.
Cost-per-metre methodology: supplied price per plant multiplied by the comparison planting rate recorded in the HTML table data. Source-backed single-row rates are used for conventional hedge plants. For species normally used as free-growing tree screens, one plant per metre is a standardised comparison assumption rather than planting advice. Cost groups use the ranked cost-per-metre results, with equal-cost plants kept in the same group: Low up to £0.88/m, Average £1.03–£1.78/m and Above average £1.96/m and over.
Forest Research Tree Species Database, RHS individual plant profiles and the species-specific references used during drafting were used to check the broad annual-growth bands. Actual annual growth varies with provenance, soil, exposure, establishment and management.

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