Pleached Trees - is this fool proof?

[united4ever]

Looking at buying 10 of these to cover back of neighbours ugly fences.

www.paramountplants.co.uk/plant/quercilexfra/quercus-ilex-pleached-trees.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAg8OBBhA8EiwAlKw3ksxi7jRqYIIE2NkXqn3HVq6IMaeIU2B_WVDPAZoVU8Ag-MRDLdI_AhoCVooQAvD_BwE

Obviously it's a lot of money so would be gutted if they didn't take for some reason. Am a novice gardener, is there anything i should beware of with this plan. Do you think they would look good?

Picture if garden attached.

Could move a few shrubs that are right up against the wall as required.

They look good... but I've only ever seen pleached trees in places that have a gardener, I'd want a bit more detail about what sort of pruning they need.

I think they’ll need pricing every few years, worth checking with paramount plants -
Might be something you could do yourself with a ladder and someone to hold it. We bought a ready made holly oak hedge and it’s fantastic, such a lovely plant, v low maintenance generally.

Grr pruning!

At that price point I would find a proper gardener to source and plant them and do initial care and maintenance. It would possibly work out cheaper than buying at retail cost and with less risk. Even more so if you are not an experienced gardener.

We’ve got 4 trees coming on Monday from paramount plants, I can let you know what they are like! We went with standard trees rather than pleached as they are cheaper and we have the space.

I think pleached trees look stunning and should work well with your wall.

Have you thought about Photinia Red Robin? They seem to thrive pretty much anywhere and are cheaper. But they do shed a lot of leaves so you have to keep on top of that. Gorgeous colours though, and take brutal pruning if you are not an experienced gardener.

Yes, love Red Robin but want evergreen. Yes, may be sensible getting a gardener to do it. Anyone know a good one in South Manchester/Trafford area and what sort of premium this would cost?

Photinia are evergreen, in as much as they are covered in leaves all year round, which aren't necessarily green of course!

We also have a huge beech hedge which can be grown in a pleached style. However, that is very expensive and not evergreen, although the branches on ours grow so densely that they still provide a good screen even when most of the leaves are gone. It's particularly beautiful in the autumn.

I think I'd be worried they might grow unevenly and also perhaps be a bit too samey in a normal sized garden. I'd probably go for a mix of different evergreens which would have different seasons of interest. It depends what effect you're after of course!

I've also just realised its Quercus Ilex which can get huge... the shaped ones I'm familiar is the massive barrels at Arley Hall which need scaffolding up when they're pruned!

@united4ever Red Robin are definitely evergreen, I’m staring at one right now. They shed an awful lot of leaves but never seem any sparser. They require so much pruning though, well ours does. I hate it honestly, so much raking and pruning.

Ok, looking at photinia now. Looks very pretty. I might just go for a standard tree or two of this. And then get a similar height standard tree or two to give variety. Wouldn't have the continuity of blocking out the ugly view but may be a compromise on cost. What would match a couple of standard photinia well? I might have to plant them half a metre in front of the wall so the top bit doesn't interfere with neighbours fence.

The fence used to be covered in ivy (Not from my garden) which I liked but it was damaging their fence so they ripped it out but now have a view of fences in various states of disrepair.

These are two of the trees that came this morning. We are trying to cover an overlooked fence of about 14m. We have gone for 4 ‘small’ different evergreen trees rather than the look of one as I didn’t want it to look hedge like. We also have red robins and they are lovely and don’t drop many leaves. The trees in the pic were roughly £300 for paramount plants.

Yes, my word how ugly your neighbours forcing us. You have a lively little bit if brick walll. So I do see how you’d like to keep that on display

I often dream of oleached trees like this in our garden - but it’s a dream due to cost.

Have you thought about trellis above your brick wall and then some climbers such as rises, wisteria, clematis - or such like?

You can leave your existing planting alone, don’t lose light and the cost is much, much less. No risk of the trees dying nor specialist maintenance

I would paint their fence black or a dark grey all over so it fades into the background first, if allowed. Then get a professional Gardener to advise.

We have a beautiful deep red hawthorn that has a long trunk, so your wall would still be showing (it's lovely) and the foliage is quite dense most of the year, although it is deciduous. We didn't pay much for it, maybe £40, and it's grown a lot in the last 2 years.