DescriptionPlanting InstructionsAfter CareDelivery & Guarantee
Sea buckthorn Hedge Plants - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee
Sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides, is a large, thorny shrub that makes a great hedging plant for sunny sites on the coast. It tolerates chalk, poor, sandy soil and very exposed locations.
Sea buckthorn is good for tall hedges and can reach up to about 6 metres high when it grows freely.
Browse all of our other varieties of Buckthorn hedge plants for sale.
Sea buckthorn hedge plants are delivered bareroot during winter (Nov-March) and pot-grown year round.
Bareroot bushes are cheaper than pot grown plants.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).
Spacing a Sea buckthorn hedge:
Plant Sea buckthorn hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
You can also plant Sea buckthorn at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row,
with 33 cms between each plant along the row and 40cms between the rows.
General description of Sea buckthorn plants:
This tall, native shrub is very prickly, with big, tough thorns. The branches are stiff and upright, forming an attractive shrub or a dense, secure hedgerow. It has narrow, silver-green leaves that are adapted to cope with strong winds and salt spray. Its flowers are too small to have ornamental value, but they attract plenty of bees and ripen into thick clusters of orange berries that contrast beautifully with the light grey leaves.
Sea Buckthorn is a typical plant for use in our mixed Coastal hedge packs.
History & uses of Hippophae rhamnoides:
The berries are edible and high in vitamin C, although they taste quite sharp. We suggest blending them with other fruits into a smoothie. Only female Sea Buckthorn plants produce berries and the plants we deliver will be a random mix of roughly 50-50 male and female. Female plants will start bearing fruit when they are about five or six years old, so the plants we deliver are too young for us to know which sex they are.
Sea Buckthorn is excellent for stabilising the loose soil on sand dunes and rocky slopes.
Growing Sea buckthorn plants:
This hardy shrub will grow in sandy or chalky soil right on the coast. It needs a well drained soil and is very happy on dry clay banks or hill tops. Because they fix nitrogen into the soil with their roots, they will grow in very poor soil on sand dunes.
They will not grow well if the site is wet or shady.
Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Sea buckthorn 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 country hedge for full details. The instruction to cut the plants in half after planting only applies to thorny native hedging and plants in the conservation hedge mix: this isn't necessary for Sea buckthorn.
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 have planted your Sea buckthorn 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.
Trimming Country hedge plants:
From the winter after planting onwards, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly once every winter, until it is mature. When it is fully grown, you can clip it at anytime.
Special notes on caring for Sea buckthorn hedges:
Sea buckthorn 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 ã9.49 + vat, which increases to ã12.55 + 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.
