---
title: What is the fastest growing privacy hedge in the UAE?
url: https://heavenlyplants.ae/questions/fastest-growing-privacy-hedge-uae
updated: 2026-09-16
type: question
---

# What is the fastest growing privacy hedge in the UAE?

**Short answer:** Dodonaea viscosa (hopbush) is the fastest privacy hedge that survives an unshaded UAE summer, closing to about 2 metres in roughly one growing season at three plants per metre. Ficus nitida is denser and darker but slower to establish and needs considerably more water.

Speed is a function of three things: species, spacing and planting month. Three plants per running metre closes roughly twice as fast as two, and an October planting closes in about half the time of a May planting because the plant gets two cool-season growth flushes before its first Gulf summer.
For an exposed sunny boundary, [dodonaea](https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/dodonaea-hedge-5) is the fastest realistic option. Within salt-spray range of the Gulf, [clerodendrum](https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/clerodendrum-hedge-5) is faster in practice because ficus browns off. Where you need more than 3 metres of height quickly, [sea hibiscus](https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/hibiscus-tiliaceus) outgrows every conventional hedge plant.
Water daily for the first month after planting, whatever the species. That establishment month is the single biggest lever on how fast the screen closes, and it is where most UAE hedge plantings are lost.