DescriptionPlanting InstructionsAfter CareDelivery & GuaranteeReviews(2)
Holly Hedge Plants - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee
Green Holly, Ilex aquifolium, is a native, medium sized tree that makes an excellent evergreen hedging plant or clipped ornamental bush. Holly plants are very hardy and suitable for any soil, both chalky and acidic. Holly will thrive in shade, on the coast, in polluted areas and a holly hedge is one of the best windbreaks for exposed sites. Mature holly is drought resistant.
Holly is good for tall hedges: it will reach 10-20 metres if it grows freely as a tree.
You can also buy Variegated Silver Holly and Ripley's Gold Holly.
Holly hedge plants are only delivered pot-grown, year round.
Choosing a size: When you are ordering Holly plants for a hedge, we suggest that you buy smaller plants if you are not in a rush. They are cheaper and easier to handle than large plants. They will also give you a bushy hedge with little effort. Use larger plants if you want a taller hedge quickly, if you want instant impact or if you want to clip them as topiary.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots and pot aren't measured).
Spacing a Holly hedge:
Plant Holly hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
General description of Holly plants:
Holly bushes have spiny, glossy green leaves which are very effective at reducing wind speed. Holly leaves are responsive to their environment; the high up leaves on a tall tree are safe from being eaten and lose their spines. Female plants have bright red berries from late autumn to early winter. Holly wood is strong and flexible, able resist the stresses of snow piling up on its branches and strong, wintry winds without breaking. Holly is on the RHS list of plants that resist honey fungus well.
History & uses of Ilex aquifolium
Holly hedging is attractive and low-maintenance. It goes well with laurel in a mixed hedge. Holly berries aren't edible to humans and attract wildlife into the garden during winter, blackbirds, thrushes and robins in particular. The prickly leaves encourage birds to nest in mature trees and they are safe for farm animals and horses. The wood of holly is almost pure white, hard and polishes well. It is much prized for use in furniture, especially for inlay work. It is also good firewood.
Will your Holly plants have berries?
Your holly bushes are grown from seed and are usually too young to have fruited when you buy them. In our experience, slightly more than half of the plants in a large batch will turn out to be female, though we can't promise this.
Growing Holly:
Holly is enormously hardy, wind-resistant and will grow well in seaside or industrial areas. It is tolerant of poor soil, deep shade and is very happy under large, deciduous trees that block out most of the sun during the summer; like any almost plant, it will grow faster in a sunny location. Holly is suitable for both chalky, alkaline soils and acidic soil, although it will grow more vigorously in acidic conditions.
It will not grow well if the site is too wet and boggy, but it likes damp soils and will cope with occasional waterlogging.
Rabbits love Holly bushes - Protect them:
Newly planted Holly is a target for rabbits, which like to bite young, green holly plants off at ground level.
If you have rabbits in your area, protect your saplings with spiral guards.
If you have a big rabbit problem, the 80/100 size plants are less vulnerable to being nibbled, although we still advise you to use spiral guards.
Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Holly are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is exceptionally poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.
Watch our video on how to plant a garden hedge for full planting details.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.
Note: Holly sometimes drops its leaves soon after planting. This is normal, but it prevents the plants from losing moisture through their leaves, so it's best not to water your plants heavily if you have have a moist, heavy clay soil. If your soil is dry, water your plants thoroughly as normal.
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.
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. You will also need to weed around the plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. Watering & weeding will be necessary for at least a year after planting.
Like all evergreen plants, Holly is active and needs moisture in the ground throughout the year. This means that if the weather is dry in the winter when they are planted your establishing plants need to be watered.
Trimming Formal hedge plants: It is beneficial to pinch off the leaves at the tips of the leading stems at planting time, to encourage really bushy growth. From the winter after planting onwards, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly once a year, until it is mature. When it is fully grown, you can clip it at anytime: the ideal time is in winter, after the berries have gone. You can cut Holly back hard if it is overgrown - Holly plants will regrow quickly from a major pruning operation.
As with any prickly plant, we advise you to wear eye protection when you are pruning holly.
Special notes on caring for Holly hedges:
Holly 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.
Just a note to say that the Hollies all arrived in good shape, thank you. We would also like you to know how impressed we are with customer aftercare. We shall certainly use you again should the need arise. James Brown,Apr 2012
Thank you for the safe and timely delivery of our 70 holly trees which we planted in our wood over the weekend. They were all great specimens and arrived in good condition. I look forward to watching them grow and based on this experience I will be a regular customer of yours over the coming years. Richard Blackburn,Nov 2011
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 March. 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 most bareroot plants is £9.49 + VAT.
If your order contains any standard sized trees, fruit trees or pot-grown plants, then the delivery charge is £12.55 + VAT in TOTAL.
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.
