Any suggestions for 'knot garden' type hedging.

[PhoebesHusband]

Now retired and getting interested in gardening. I want to replace parts of a tatty lawn with flowers and herbs, thought to separate the beds with a low hedge.
I have been through the threads about replacing box. Many of those are too big for me.
Something fast growing to about 200 mm, cheap and easy to home propagate.

Is there such a plant out there?

They had some great looking 'hedging honeysuckle' in a formal garden on gardeners world a few weeks ago. Lonicera pileata, and googling also comes up with lonicera nitida which looks good too.

I don't know about cuttings tbh- although normal climbing honeysuckles are easy from cuttings.

Maybe try yew? Box hedges have been almost decimated by box blight, even Monty is removing his low box hedging.

Thanks for quick suggestions, Is yew quick growing?

Yew will grow around a foot a year before it is cut back for the first time, thereafter I believe it’s around 5cm a year (I’m wanting a few feet more on my hedge). There is a Monty Don video of how to propagate yew cuttings.

Thank you for the suggestions I will look up the Monty Don vid

Went to Ham House today and they've replaced the low box hedging with lavender - looks good and good for insects.

Our lavender spreads so wide.

Wisley have a whole garden area dedicated to low hedging. But even their non-box suffered badly this year. I am SE and persist with my box (small garden) as no other topiary is quite so crisp but it costs a lot.

Ilex crenata is the other one suggested by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society )

Cuttings from lonicera nitida and l. pilea take as easy as pie.

I've seen a lovely hedge using curry plant (helichrysum italicum). It is a nice soft grey colour, will take pruning, and it also flowers in the summer. If you don't want the yellow flower look, just keep pruning it short.

Munstead or Hidcote lavender. Low growing, compact and easy to clip.

fast growing means more clipping, especially if you want to keep it to knot garden proportions. Clipping then means clearing up, which is tedious.
Ilex crenata is a very convincing alternative without the threat of blight or caterpillar- I saw some at a trade show a couple of weeks ago and if you didn't know that it wasn't box....

I believe what they lost was the winter- that horrendous week long freeze after a wet spell

Was at a garden with Hebe low hedges today, although they weren’t in a knot garden so I don’t know how well they would respond to clipping or which variety would be best. I know I’ve struck cuttings from hebes in the past, but they are generally quite short lived plants I understand.

Saw a low rosemary hedge a few weeks ago, it looked great.

Another vote for lonicera nitida - I’ve used it for low bushes in my garden, it’s really cheap to buy, clips nicely and propagates so easily

So many kind people with suggestions, thank you all. I have had to look up many, so I am being educated as well.

Ah there we go, a couple of knowledgeable people can confirm it propagates easily- I might take my own suggestion myself then! Looked really good on GW.

Hello PhoebesHusband,

Check out / contact the RHS as they have been carrying out a trial at Wisley in the walled garden into the alternatives to box hedging.

The Beechgrove garden in Scotland also in the last TV series in 2023 and also in the first part of this year’s series looked at low growing hedging alternatives. You can look at old programs on BBC iPlayer.

Happy gardening
TheSustainableGardener

Lonicera cuttings are easy peasy, pretty high success rate. Stick them in and away they go. I took about 40 cuttings at the end of February and nearly all of them have taken.

Ilex crenata is a good substitute for box and looks very similar.