DescriptionPlanting InstructionsAfter CareDelivery & GuaranteeReviews(3)
Hornbeam Hedge Plants - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee
Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus, is a medium-large sized native tree that is a classic choice for a non-evergreen formal hedge. It is very hardy and tolerates damp, shady conditions. Hornbeam will grow in both chalky and acidic soils, but we don't recommend it for poor, dry soil.
Like beech hedging, a Hornbeam hedge will hold onto its autumn leaves for part of the winter.
Hornbeam is good for tall hedges: it will reach 20 metres if it grows freely as a tree.
The plants on this page are young saplings. You can also buy larger Hornbeam trees and Fastigiate Hornbeam.
Hornbeam hedge plants are delivered bareroot during winter (Nov-March) and pot-grown year round. Pot-grown Hornbeam saplings are more expensive.
Choosing a size: When you are ordering Hornbeam 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. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).
If you are ordering the larger sizes of bareroot Hornbeam, you could save money when you buy it in packs of 50 plants.
Spacing a Hornbeam hedge:
Plant Hornbeam hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
You can also plant Hornbeam at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row,
with 33 cms between each plant and 40cms between the rows.
General description of Hornbeam plants:
The glossy green, slightly crinkled leaves turn golden yellow in autumn and then brown in winter.
When it is grown as a normal tree, Hornbeam makes a beautiful parkland specimen, with a rounded, spreading canopy that casts deep shade underneath it. It is a very popular tree for pleaching on wires into a flat screen and for pollarding.
History & uses of Carpinus betulus
Hornbeam was extensively grown as a coppice tree and numerous old plantations are still in use today. The hard, dense wood burns very nicely and it is good for making heavy duty items like floorboards and the handles of tools.
Hornbeam VS Beech:
Grown as a hedge, Beech and Hornbeam look very similar, but beech is considered to be the better choice because it holds onto its autumn leaves for longer during winter. However, Hornbeam is a much tougher plant than Beech. If your site is damp, shady or in an exposed Northern location, hornbeam is the best choice; it is also a bit cheaper.
Growing Hornbeam plants:
Hornbeam will grow well in any averagely fertile conditions, including chalky places. It loves damp clay soil and it will grow well in quite deep shade. It is very hardy when it is dormant in winter, but in the wild it doesn't grow at high altitude in Northern regions where late spring and early winter frosts are more severe.
It will not grow well if the soil is very poor and dry.
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.
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:
Hornbeam doesn't need any clipping at all in its first year. From the second winter onwards, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly once a year, until it is mature. When it is fully grown, the ideal time to clip it is in August. This will make the hedge hold onto its autumn leaves for longer during winter.
Special notes on caring for Hornbeam hedges:
Hornbeam is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established, except that we advise you not to carry out major pruning work in late spring. It will "bleed" sap, which isn't a major problem but it is better to avoid it.
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.
I ordered some hornbeam standards on Tuesday afternoon. They arrived this morning & they are all perfect & I would like to say thank you very much for the perfect customer service & I am very pleased. So thank you :) Mr Leach,Mar 2012
Some feedback for you. The other company which I considered ordering from was hedgesdirect. I phoned both companies, to ask some general questions and for advice. The chap I spoke to at Ashridge knew what he was talking about, and seemed genuinely to want to give me the best advice. This contrasted with your competitor, who was clearly just answering my questions by reading from a webpage, and was mainly concerned with selling me things I didn't need. A. Atkinson,Nov 2011
Thank you so much for the plants you sent recently. The quality was
excellent. I was particularly impressed with the hornbeam hedging; each and every one was well-branched and sturdy. Judith Armstrong,Feb 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.
