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Simple Fence and Arbor
I wanted the fence and arbor to be awesome and simple.
Bougainvillea
This bright pink vine / bush is a showstopper. People new to Phoenix get clap-happy with joy and want to take their photo in front of the bright pink plant. The pink flowers are actually just pink leaves. But who cares?
What’s Good
- They are stunning.
- You can train them to grow up a trellis or an arbor.
- Once established, a bougenvilla can thrive in direct sunlight with minimal water. Give them one year of attention and you won’t have to think much more about it.
What’s Bad:
- Despite what some people say, the leaves die off in the winter. They are not green all year.
- They have thorns and they sting like a bee. If you have to trim them back, you had better wear a thick jacket and gloves to keep from getting ripped up.
- Because the bougainvillea does so well, you can see them all over town, unkempt and abandoned next to an ugly strip mall. Somehow this brings down their value in some people’s eyes.
Oleander
The Oleander is an extremely durable bush which makes dense, magnificent hedges. For people who are new to the Phoenix-area, they are delighted that such a deep green hedge could thrive in the desert. The pink flowers, although not as large and showy as the white oleander flowers, have a beautiful sweet aroma. Frost doesn’t seem to harm them.
Problems with Oleanders:
- There leaves are poisonous for kids and pets. Eat the leaves and you might die.
- Mature oleanders want to be massive. If left alone in the right conditions, they can boom to 20 feet tall and almost as wide.
- If not trimmed back, they can become very woody and branchy. Savage.
- Hauling away oleander trimmings is no small job. A single bush can produce 200+ pounds of trimmings every year.
- Oleander Trees are not real. Don’t be fooled. They are bushes that are trimmed to look like a tree, and then sold to you real fast before they sprout branches on the trunk to become bushes again.
When to use Oleanders:
- Like most bushes, they want to grow as wide as they are high. So if you want a hedge that is 8-10 feet tall to block view of a busy street, then you should allow 8-10 feet of space for the hedge to grow.
- If you own a large piece of property, you can plant a hedge on the far side to give you some space from a neighbor. But in almost every other application, people who plant an oleander end up ripping it out 5-10 years later.
Alternatives to Oleanders:
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