Holy Grail of Hedging Plants

[AllJoyAndNoFun]

Hoping to get some advice on suitable hedging plants and wondered if anyone had any experience they could share (good or bad)

These would be planted along a 20ft boundary in front of a 6 ft fence so don't need to form a solid boundary, but intended to soften the fence line. Will not impact daylight into neighbours garden.

Problem is the area is shady and under a number of Scots Pines so poor soil? Is there anything I can grow there to round 6ft-8ft that won't just die. Someone's suggested hazel. I also thought maybe holly as there is an existing holly tree that seems to be doing ok but can that be a hedge vs a tree? Any other suggestions? Happy to improve the soil to an extent to get them established and do routine pruning but don't ideally want to get trapped in a cycle of intensive ongoing maintenance. Would prefer a native species as that area of our garden has a lot of wildlife and trying to encourage.

Sorry, big no to bamboo- still mentally scarred from last property being under siege from neighbour's giant bamboo :-)

TIA

I agree, no bamboo!

Holly can definitely be grown as a hedge. And you could mix a few varieties.

Photinia red robin is a great hedging plant, easy to grow and maintain and looks great too.

I’m no expert on hedging but I think I’d be inclined to try mixed hedging and see what does and doesn’t work. Holly can be used for hedging (there’s often a bit growing naturally in mostly hawthorn roadside hedges) - you could get a few different ones and obviously males and females if you want berries.

Thanks all- this is helpful. I would love hawthorn but realistically not enough light in that spot. Seems holly could be a good call and maybe some mixed hedging to see what takes also a great idea before committing to the entire 20ft! . I love Photinia and inherited a lovely mature one but trying to keep this area of garden native if possible.

Holly can become brutal to manage over a larger area and will go skywards if given the opportunity. But a mixed hedgerow would be very effective and environmentally beneficial to burds, insects and other wildlife.

Hoping to get some advice on suitable hedging plants and wondered if anyone had any experience they could share (good or bad)
I have no experience, but have heard many professional gardeners extol hornbeam hedging. It's a native tree that takes well to being shaped to hedge.

I'd buy a load of mixed native hedging and use that. The species we use as hedges are often 'understorey' plants in the wild so will be fine. Avoid elder though as that is a thug.

Hedging firms usually send them out as bare-root plants over the winter months, between November to early March, but you do have to avoid planting if the ground is frozen solid.

You will also have to water them all through next year while they establish.

I was going to suggest native mixed hedging too - Holly, hawthorn, Acer campestre, hazel. They will all grow under mature trees but would need watered until established. Native hedges look good and attracts wildlife.

But if there isn't enough light for hawthorn, there isn't really enough light for anything.

How dense is the shade? Is it a mature pine?

Can you raise the canopy to let light in?

I planted a couple of Aucuba japonica under a conifer in my garden, they seem to be establishing quite well.

Here is an rhs list of plants for shade under trees....

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/for-places/under-trees

We have a mixed native hedge in front of our fencing, it is still growing but my OH aims to square it off at about 8ft.
Beech, hornbeam, hawthorne & holly plus a few other individual ones mixed in for a bit of variety.

Ilex crenata or privet. They don't mind a bit of shade and at least they aren't prickly to prune.
Hazel is a pain in the neck - we have loads of it around our garden and it grows really, really fast.
We have a beech hedge round part of our garden. It keeps its dead leaves through the winter so provides year round screening.

Thanks - lots of votes for mixed hedging so will look into it. The height of the canopy isn’t really the issue as these are extremely tall and old Scots Pines with a high canopy mixed in with a few sycamores. Issue is that the spot is on the north side of a north facing plot and due to position of our trees and neighbours trees, it just doesn’t get much sun.

interesting what you say about Hawthorn as what I’ve read seeemed to suggest it needed more light than, say, holly, but maybe I’ll give it a go.

Personally I would avoid hazel.

Planted it as part of our native species hedge (see my earlier post) but the hazel dominated and blocked the light.
Very fast growing, initially we were pleased that the hedge was filling out so quickly but later on we saw that the fast growth of the hazel was to the determent of other plants.
We dug out the hazel earlier this year and the other plants really appreciated the space & light, we have now filled the gaps with beech. If any hazel survived the dig out, we will leave it but keep under control.

If you go for mixed native avoid Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn. It suckers everywhere! Ilex crenata was suggested but it's a bit of a diva regarding growing conditions. If it likes what you've got all well and good but if it doesn't it slowly dies.

Thanks everyone. Will research all these in more detail but would be great to try and get them in in the next few months. Better get digging!

Laurel? Ours seems to do well in shade.

I’d avoid blackthorn in an hedge I’d have to tend anyway because it’s vicious! I’ve known a couple of people get sepsis after impaling themselves on it.

We have laurel in another area- it’s struggling a bit but tree guy did say it looks super old so could just be that. Issue is both shade and crappy soils from all the pines- we live in an area where they are sort of a defining feature of the landscape so hard to escape! I’ve thought about buying a few “plugs” and seeing how those do.

Well, if there are a lot of pines I assume it's acid soil, so beech may be your best choice. The beech hedge up our driveway does OK and it doesn't get a lot of sun - building right behind one side and tall trees on the other. Ours are green, but there's copper beech too.

Laurel won't fulfil the wildlife criterion. Unless a fox decides to make a den under it.

Yeah- the Laurel is in another part of the garden and is a boundary hedge of unclear responsibility so I kind of don't really want to go there at the moment as replacing it would be a huge negotiation with neighbours. But it's another reason I'd like the other (new) hedge to be wildlife friendly. We already have enough foxes :-)

I agree with the above suggestion for beech. I have been really pleased with our beech hedge, it looks lovely all year round as it keeps the brown leaves in winter, it is really low maintenence and great for wildlife.

I have a very long hornbeam hedge. It's beautiful at it's best. Like beech it keeps the dead leaves over winter and sheds in spring as the buds appear. Not sure how it would do against a fence. The caveat is that it needs a cut about three times a year to keep it under control. Not a hard cut but it's more work than I would like.

Our laurel hedge is full of birds. The squirrels seem quite fond if it too.