Best species for this hedge

..Brian..

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to plant a 61 meter span. Want to keep it cut tidy, max height, 1 meter. Want year round foliage with a mixture of colours, flowers, berries etc. Don't want to lol at 61m of laurel!

What are my options? TIA

Souness

Cotoneaster, flowers, berries and changing foliage might be a good option

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3338891/How-to-grow-the-best-cotoneasters.html

Lumen

Tricky to get a mixed hedge looking tidy, particularly if you want flowers and berries.

..Brian..

Doesn't necessarily need both flowers and berries, I just want a bit of variety to it. Like I said, I don't want to look at the same laurel leaves down the whole side of the garden.

Souness

Had meant to say that a cotoneaster hedge would give you flowers, berries and changing foliage depending on the season. Or pyrocantha but that's very thorny. But neither would be fast growing if that's important. Photinia would be fast growing alternative to laurel.

standardg60

Lumen wrote: »

Tricky to get a mixed hedge looking tidy, particularly if you want flowers and berries.

Exactly.. you're looking at an informal hedge, ie allowing each individual shrub to grow flower and berry between prunings.
Which is no bad thing if you want to give back to nature..why not a pure berrying hedge, Holly, cotoneaster, pyracantha, viburnum, mahonia (ever wonder why bird**** is purple in may), hawthorn etc, would be fabulous

Car99

I dont like the look of the common laurel and i now have over 300ft of prtugese laurel. Have you looked at portugese laurel. Lovely slow growing hedge .


Doesn't look anything like the common laurel.

Lumen

..Brian.. wrote: »

Doesn't necessarily need both flowers and berries, I just want a bit of variety to it. Like I said, I don't want to look at the same laurel leaves down the whole side of the garden.

Sorry, what I meant was flowers OR berries OR mixed hedge.

These are all challenges to a neat hedge, because you have different plants growing at different speeds, flowering and fruiting at different times, but you want to keep the whole thing looking like a simple block.

If you look at a proper hedgerow, it looks super-neat in winter when it's cut back, bit in summer it's a complete mess! A glorious mess supporting lots of wildlife, but still a mess.

I'm not sure what the answer is but I think neatness is the enemy of all your other requirements.

..Brian..

Ah I see. Neatness (or height) is a high priority as there is a beautiful view of fields, woods and hills on the other side. Hence wanting to keep it below 3 feet tall. Had considered a nice fence but it was working out very expensive which brings us to the hedge. Might have to bite the bullet and go for something like beech or laurel.

kellypeter1991

Laurel is very hard to beat for hedge in fairness.... i know you think it might be bit boring, but i though the same and mines now looks superb to be fair, kept it to about 4 foot looks fantastic
done 150 metres of it..

just like a real nice dense wall

thanks

macraignil

..Brian.. wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to plant a 61 meter span. Want to keep it cut tidy, max height, 1 meter. Want year round foliage with a mixture of colours, flowers, berries etc. Don't want to lol at 61m of laurel!

What are my options? TIA

..Brian.. wrote: »

Ah I see. Neatness (or height) is a high priority as there is a beautiful view of fields, woods and hills on the other side. Hence wanting to keep it below 3 feet tall. Had considered a nice fence but it was working out very expensive which brings us to the hedge. Might have to bite the bullet and go for something like beech or laurel.

I think laurel is a bit boring as a hedge and it is vigorous so you will need to trim it regularly. The common laurel has fairly big leaves so even Portuguese laurel would be a better option in your situation in my opinion. I think Hornbeam can at times be a better choice than Beech as it is hardier and the leaves that are kept on the plant over winter are more yellow than the monotonous brown of the Beech leaves in winter.

I think the Cotoneaster is a good suggestion as some varieties are evergreen and they have some change in leaf colour over the seasons and flowers and berries. I would personally avoid the very small leaved horizontalis variety as I think the other types look a bit better. Holly might also be worth considering and I have a variegated leaf variety that is fairly vigorous.

Privet is another option with nice flowers in summer.
There are also evergreen varieties of barberry that have nice flowers and fruit.
I also like the variegated leaves on some of the pittosporum varieties but it all depends on what the nursery you want to get the plants from has in stock.

Also with interesting bright coloured small leaves is a variety of honeysuckle called lonicera nitida Baggesans gold.
Viburnum tinus would also be a good option some body has already suggested that I think could be a good choice but the easiest thing to do would be get the price list from your local nursery and see what is available. Here is a link to one from a nursery near where I live as an example.

secman

I have a 70 meter long hedge, blackthorn, whitethorn, field maple, holly, a proper rural hedge, full of birds, but as previously stated its only neat over the winter when it gets a proper trim. Hard work though, will be tackling it fairly soon... a good days work in it.

pwurple

Ok, so what you are looking for is interest, rather than evergreen.

I have a few suggestions...
Hornbeam. It’s not evergreen, but at 1m height it will hold onto the leaves, like a beech hedge does. I find hornbeam and beech give good seasonal interest. In spring they get the fresh light green leaves, in summer they darken, colour change again in autumn and in winter the great structural skeleton of it is there, with some of the nutty brown leaves, gorgeous with snow on top.

Hornbeam has a more textured leaf than beech, (like crinkled crisps) and is slightly slower growing. It can also be cut very tightly, or into shapes like slopes or curves... it is one of the thinnest hedges you can grow and you can get a fantastic sharp finish. Looks exceptionally neat.




If you do want evergreen, holly would be my next suggestion. Gets tiny white flowers, is native and has berries. I prefer the non-variegated form personally.

Another evergreen to consider is the native Irish yew. Very dense, neat hedge again, has dark berries. Extremely slow growing, and will be expensive because of that.


Last, and most nuts notion, is a mixed apple and hazelnut hedge. I saw this in gardens in France, apple saplings bent and tied at the hedge height, almost coppiced. inter planted with hazel. That certainly gives interest all year. Apple blossom, fruit and nuts. Would need maintenance and tending though.

looksee

I would second hornbeam, can be made into a lovely neat hedge. I would go for something like rosa rugosa myself, but no-one could describe it as neat.