I need hedging plants suggestions please.

[ChetChet]

So.
Open, west facing front corner plot.
To be placed behind 3ft high fence panels.
Normal growing conditions, I believe. Not boggy or too wet, bit stoney perhaps. Normal soil.
No dog pets so no need to consider potential toxicity.
Young children so no to berries and thorns.
Evergreen please.
Fast growing.
Intended for privacy and for kerbside appeal.
Errrr...I think that's all.

I'd love to read of suggestions. It's a minefield for a dunce like me.

Thanks!

We have beech hedging all around our property and it looks lovely, it is quite slow growing but we bought the ones that face a public footpath higher (and more expensive) - they were 7ft. The rest were 4ft.

Ceanothus : evergreen, blue flowers, fast growing

Escallonia : evergreen, white pink or red flowers, don't think berries are toxic

Cotoneaster lacteus : evergreen, white flowers, red berries

Portuguese laurel : lovely red stems white flowers.

This is part of our beech hedge - it is about 10 years in but it has been this height for a few years now.

The berries are safe-ish?

I'd love more than anything for wildlife feeding hedges, but my children are dangerously impulse.

How lovely your garden is. Nice solid lawn. Marvelous uniform hedge.

Griselinia will suit your needs.

We had escallonia is was shit, total waste of money.

Ceanothus only lives 8-10 years but is pretty. It doesn’t like being pruned hard though so you can’t shape it.

I've been looking for a hedge for a while. I recently walked past a whole hedge which was a bay tree (or likely several trees). It was evergreen, smelt lovely and you can use the leaves in cooking.

I love the look of holly, but the leaves are so prickly and more like razors when they dry! The berries are toxic and they are slow growing- so avoid!

If you can get bare root plants soon, they are much cheaper than the potted ones later in the year.

is this a front garden?

Choysia is a bit more of a bush than a hedge but it has nice white flowers in spring and doesn't get too big so it works well in a front garden.

Worth remembering that if you get a hedge that is fast growing, like griselinia, you’ll also have to cut it a lot!

I have a griselinia hedge and am not a fan for the reason stated above. It also has practically no benefit for wildlife. It doesn’t seem very good for nesting (too dense), doesn’t flower, there’s no fruit, even insects and snails/slugs avoid it (so again no food for birds)...It’s basically an ecological dead zone 🙈

I’m very slowly replacing mine with holly, which only grows about 10 cm a year, so not exactly a quick solution!

I've fallen for Griselinia. It ticks all the boxes. Thank you so much.

It's offered with a bare root option..I automatically looked at 2L or 5L pots. Price not withstanding, which is better for plants that take quickly and thrive? Which is easier to plant in?

Yes. A front garden. We are very exposed and open. It's a corner wedge of land. The previous vendors removed all the lovely established shrubbery/flowerbeds/lawn from before in favour of stones and paving. It's in sore need of greenery, love and kerbside attractiveness.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Humph. How odd because I'm reading Griselinia canmot be praised highly enough. I like that it fruits and it's not poisonous, so in my eyes a nice compromise. Do you know why yours doesn't?

@ChetChet

I've fallen for Griselinia. It ticks all the boxes. Thank you so much.

It's offered with a bare root option..I automatically looked at 2L or 5L pots. Price not withstanding, which is better for plants that take quickly and thrive? Which is easier to plant in?

If bare root it needs to be planted ASAP, by the end of this month really. Bare root take just as well as potted, but can only be planted out of the growing season.

It’s a nice plant and like any hedge it will provide a habitat for wildlife.
There’s a seller on Amazon who does bulk packs, I’ve had them and they’re very good, good price too.

Thank you, my husband has someone come and look after the lawn (DH mows it though). It took a while to get the hedge thick but we we put the sprinkler on it a lot in the summer and it's so much nicer than the huge leylandii hedging that we took out (I would not recommend that). The one you went for looks like a lovely hedging plant too.

I promise I don't work for the business but there is a fab company called hedges online, the guy who runs it is called Bob and he can literally advise on anything and will chat for hours if you let him, god knows how they make money! But it's a thriving company and the size of hedging is fantastic.

Just be aware if you get a bare root now ands it’s hot you’ll need to look after it well. I planted one in lockdown last year and my hedging plants did very little and I lost some of them in the heat. The survivors look much happier a year later so am hoping they’ll put on some growth this year.