Strelitzia nicolai

[ahosey01]

I have this dead space next to my house between the house, the fence and my air conditioner.  You basically can't get anything back there except a person.  Would like some vegetation in that area if it's just gonna be dead space, but don't really want to put a palm there because it abuts the neighbor's property line.  Would hate for them to trim off fronds extending over their fence line, or having to cut a palm out when I need to get a new condenser back there.

Was thinking Strelitzia nicolai might work for this purpose.  In theory it would fill the space up with greenery, shade my condenser and I wouldn't care if one day I had to cut the whole thing down to get a new unit in there because it'll just grow right back anyways.

Any thought?  What kind of roots do these grow?

[aabell]

How big is the space? I like them but they get big fast and it's a challenge to keep the suckers under control, so they get wide too. The roots are big and fat but brittle, not too difficult to dig out if you need to, so not a bad idea for a cheap potentially temporary screen but I wouldn't shove it into a small space right next to the house. 

[ahosey01]

1 hour ago, aabell said:

How big is the space? I like them but they get big fast and it's a challenge to keep the suckers under control, so they get wide too. The roots are big and fat but brittle, not too difficult to dig out if you need to, so not a bad idea for a cheap potentially temporary screen but I wouldn't shove it into a small space right next to the house. 

It's probably 6ft x 12ft.  So fairly small, and it is close to the house - lol

[Midnight Gardener]

I don’t recommend planting one in a tight space like that, especially if close to the house and the A/C unit. They have a big root system and could cause issues.