DescriptionPlanting InstructionsAfter CareDelivery & Guarantee
Copper Beech Hedge Plants - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee
Purple or Copper Beech, Fagus sylvatica Purpurea, is an excellent formal garden hedge plant that makes a bold statement and provides great contrast for green leaved plants and lawns located in front of it. Clipped beech hedges hold onto their autumn leaves in winter. Beech is suitable for any well drained soil, including chalk, although copper beech is not recommended for shady sites.
Copper Beech can be grown as a hedge of any height: it will reach 30 metres if it grows freely as a tree.
The plants on this page are young saplings, ideal for planting as hedging or in woodland projects.
You can buy larger Copper Beech trees here. You can also buy green beech plants.
Beech hedge plants are delivered bareroot during winter (Nov-March) and pot-grown year round. Bareroot Copper Beech saplings are cheaper than pot grown plants.
Choosing a size: When you are ordering Beech plants for a hedge, we generally recommend that you use plants that are graded at 40/60cms or 60/80cms. They are cheaper than large plants, easier to handle and they will establish well in poor conditions. Use larger plants when you need a tall hedge quickly, or if you are going to let them grow into trees. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).
Spacing a Copper Beech hedge:
Plant Copper Beech hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
You can also plant Copper Beech at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row,
with 33 cms between each plant and 40cms between the rows.
General description of Copper Beech plants:
Beech leaves are a rich copper colour in spring, changing to purple in early summer and darkening even more as summer wears on. Some people consider the overall effect to look gloomy, especially if the hedge is not in full sun. Another factor is the garden around the hedge: bright green plants and healthy lawns look great in front of a copper beech hedge because the contrast will make the greens stand out even more. The autumn colour of copper beech is warmer than green beech, with more of an orange hue.
By clipping a mature beech hedge in midsummer, you will help it to hold onto its autumn leaves during winter.
Mature beech trees have quite smooth, grey bark. Their small, inconspicuous flowers are pollinated by the wind.
History & uses of Fagus sylvatica Purpurea
Copper beech is a natural variant of green beech: about 1 in every 1000 green beech seeds will turn out to have at least partially purple or brown leaves. One of the earliest records identifying beech trees with purplish leaves dates back to Germany in the late 1400's.
Copper Beech, also called Purple Beech, may be listed as Fagus sylvatica purpurea, atropurpurea or atropunicea. They are all the same tree.
Our plants are seed grown from stable, purple-leaved parents. A very small percentage of these seeds revert back to green and these are weeded out in the nursery. In very rare cases, a plant may have copper leaves for up to 3 years from the time it sprouts before it suddenly turns green, so it is possible to end up with a single green-leaved plant in your hedge if you start with small plants. This is as natural (though much less common) as a blonde baby's hair turning brown.
Growing Copper Beech plants:
Beech is happy in any well-drained soil type. If your site is shady, we suggest planting green beech instead. Copper beech is less vigorous than green beech and its darker leaves look best when they are well lit.
It will not grow well if the site is damp. If it takes more than a day for surface water to drain away after heavy rains, then your soil is probably too heavy for Beech. Hornbeam is a good alternative to green beech, as it looks similar and it also holds onto its autumn leaves in winter.
Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the area where you plant a hedge several months in advance, especially if the soil is poor. Destroy the weeds first: nettles, brambles and ground elder are tough and a glyphosate based weed-killer is the best way to remove them. Then dig the soil over; remove rocks, roots and other rubbish. Mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades. If your soil is rich, you don't have to dig it over, but killing all the weeds is still necessary.
Watch our video on how to plant a garden hedge for full details. The plants in this video are delivered pot-grown, but planting out bareroot stock is essentially the same.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.
Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If you are planting in an area with rabbit and/or deer, you will need to use a plastic spiral guard for each plant, supported by a bamboo cane. Grey squirrels also target beech, so spirals may be necessary in some urban areas.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.
After you plant a hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. If you didn't use mulch of some kind, you will also need to weed around the hedge. Both of these will be necessary for at least a year after planting.
Trimming Formal hedge plants:
Copper Beech hedging that is planted in winter can be trimmed very lightly, just enough to remove the leaf buds from the ends of each stem. We recommend this more for the larger sizes, over 80-100 cms. If you are using smaller plants, there is less benefit in trimming them after planting. If you are planting a beech hedge in summer, using pot-grown plants, don't trim them at all.
From the winter after planting onwards, your young hedge should be trimmed very lightly once a year, until it is mature.
When it is fully grown, you should clip Copper Beech hedging in late summer to make it hold its autumn leaves right through the winter.
The ideal day for a trim is overcast with rain on the way; full sun on the freshly cut leaves can cause the edges to brown and plants always like to have a drink after a trim.
Special notes on caring for Copper Beech hedges:
Copper Beech is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established. If you didn't use a mulch fabric, it is beneficial to mulch around the base of the hedge each year with well rotted manure or compost.
Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.
Read our full terms and conditions here.
Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £9.49 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.
Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.
Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.
Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.
Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.
Your 12 Month Guarantee
If any of the plants that you buy from our nursery die within a year of delivery, we will replace them.
You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.
We do ask for clear photos of the plants in the soil, both taking in the planting area and close up. These will help us to work out what went wrong so we can give you the right advice for looking after your replacements.
The most important thing to do with establishing plants is to water them in dry weather. Water very thoroughly, but not too frequently: allow the top 2 inches of soil to dry out before you water again. In hot summer weather, this should mean that you are watering 1 to 3 times per week, depending on your site's drainage and exposure to wind and sun.
If there is heavy rain, that counts as a watering for your plants. If there is only very light rain during hot weather, this probably won't be of much use to your plants and they will still need watering.
Weeding is also very important; we strongly recommend using a mulch mat (for trees) or mulch fabric (for hedges) if weeding your new plants will be impractical.
Outside your 1 Year Guarantee period?
If your plants die or get sick after their first year, you are still welcome to take some photos and send them in: we will still be happy to give you what advice we can.
We can't make any promises, but if you want to buy replacements from us, give us a call and we'll see if we can arrange a discount for you.
Place an order for £250 excluding VAT and delivery and we deliver it for FREE!
Bare-root Plants are only delivered in the winter season, from November to April. Pot grown plants can be delivered all year round
Advantages of Bare-root plants:
You pay less for the same size plants.
You can carry and plan them easily.
You only plant them in winter, so they need less maintenance after
planting. The rain will water them for their first few months.
You get the biggest selection: Many trees are not sold pot-grown.
They are "asleep" in winter - this is the best time to transplant any tree.
They use fewer fertilisers & fungicides, less water and fuel in their production & delivery.
Advantages of Pot Grown plants:
Pot grown plants can be delivered & planted all year round.
Plants with tender roots & larger specimens must be delivered in pots.
Plants in pots can be kept for months longer if there is a delay in planting.
Our Advice to You:
If you can't wait to get planting, order Pot grown plants now.
If you are not in a hurry, order bare-root plants for delivery this winter. Simply add them to your basket and choose a winter delivery date that suits you during checkout.
This will reserve your plants before they sell out.
We won't charge you until the day before delivery, so cancelling your order is always easy.
If you are only ordering chemicals and other small items, delivery is £3.50
Our delivery charge for all other orders is £6.50 + VAT.
If you live in the Scottish Highlands or the Isle of Wight, there will be an extra charge of £15 + VAT on top of the appropriate basic charge, as listed above.
If your order is over £250 exc. VAT, there will be no delivery charge.
If you are uncertain, just add items to your basket which will calculate the basic shipping charge for you.
