Monthly Archives: August 2008

Native Hedging: Top Ten Country Hits

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Almost any plant, provided it is woody and does not mind a bit of competition and being cut back occasionally can be used in a country hedge. But that does not make it a great native hedging plant. I have, honestly, seen a hedge made entirely from Ash. Interesting idea, but utterly useless.

Here are my top ten native hedging plants:

  1. Hawthorn – Crataegus monogyna
  2. Blackthorn – Prunus Spinosa
  3. Field Maple – Acer campestre
  4. Hazel – Corylus avellana
  5. Dog Rose – Rosa canina
  6. Spindleberry – Euonymus europeaus
  7. Guelder Rose – Viburnum opulus
  8. Common Alder – Alnus glutinosa
  9. Dogwood – Cornus sanguinea
  10. Cherry Plum – Prunus cerasifera

All of these hedge plants are available on our site (naturally)

Relax and watch your plants grow!

Ten Years After

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Entrance to our wood 10 years after planting We went to stay with the in-laws this week-end. They live in Leicestershire, just outside Market Harborough. My father in law is a natural planter – one of those people who looks on themselves as being a custodian (rather than an owner) of the landscape. He is eighty now, has spent the last 50 years living in the same house and has used most of those years to plant trees, sometimes in large numbers. Almost exactly 10 years ago, we planted a copse – I provided the trees and understory (the smaller shrubs that grow beneath), and the hedging that grows round it. He provided about half an acre. Ten years sounds like a long time, but it passes in the flick of an eye. Bill and I walked up to the copse today and marvelled at just how BIG, the little bare root whips of 1997/98 had got. There are thirty footers amongst them. Some have been killed by the competition from their neighbours, but what was a corner of a field is now an established wood, teeming with wildlife. Once planted, there was no maintenance barring an annual slash of weeds for the first three years and then a bit of lopping of branches that got in the way. Looking out the other end.... Pictures tell it all I hope, but there is an amazing thrill in seeing something young and vibrant and immensely powerful that, mankind willing, will be standing long after my children’s childrens children are forgotten…. (by the way that last was a comment that was made by one of my children)

Death by Black Walnut

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We have had a few complaints this summer from people who bought trees from us that died.  When you sell as many as we do, this happens sometimes (and we replace them under guarantee so all is not lost, dear customer!)

However I noticed with a couple that Black Walnut (although not dead) was on the order.  To the Latin scholar chemists amongst you that should tell you all you need to know.   For the rest of us it might be a mystery unless you are lucky like me and happened to see an information leaflet on the stand of Hadlow College who were strutting their stuff at the Chelsea Flower Show this year.

I must admit I sort of knew something about black walnut’s ability to kill other trees but the students of Hadlow made it very clear.  Black Walnut is called Juglans nigra in Latin.  Juglans is the root (no pun intended) for juglone which is an allelopathic drug. That means it stunts or kills.  And black walnut is the biggest natural produced of juglone, which it uses to great effect to kill unrelated plants and trees nearby. If you have a black walnut and trees and shrubs relatively nearby suffer wilting, yellowing foliage and either die or stop growing, now you know why.

So here is (as the Americans would say) – the take away.  Mother nature likes balance, so there are a number of plants that don’t mind juglone and so can be planted near your black walnut. They include:

 Acer negundo (Box Elder)
 Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple)
 Acer rubrum (Red Maple)
 Acer saccharinum (Silver Maple)
 Aesculus (Horsechestnut)
 Betula pendula (Silver Birch)
 Betula nigra (Black or River Birch)
 Catalpa bignonoides (Indian Bean Tree, Foxglove Tree)
 Cornus Mas (Cornelian Cherry)
 Crataegus (Hawthorn)
 Cydonia oblonga (Quince)
 Fagus (Beech)
 Gleditsia triacanthos (Honey Locust)
 Juniperus (Junipers)
 Liquidamber styraciflua (Sweetgum)
 Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip tree)
 Picea abies (Norway Spruce)
 Platanus (Plane)
 Prunus serotina (Black Cherry)
 Pyrus calleryana (Pear)
 Quercus (Oak)
 Rhus (Sumach)
 Robinia pseudoacacia (Black Locust)
 Tilia platyphyllos (Broad leaved Lime)
 Tsuga (Hemlock)
 Ulmus (Elm)
 Viburnums

Relax and enjoy watching your garden grow!

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Death by Black Walnut by Julian de Bosdari is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at blog.ashridgetrees.co.uk.
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Blueberry Fields Forever…

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Well sort of.  We sell a lot of plants each year and having only a few hundred of something popular tens to cause more trouble than it is worth – you sell out before the season has started and only end up upsetting people.

Well, we have been building our stock of blueberries to the point where we will at least last the month of November. Blueberries, of course, as “in” – they are amazingly healthy and given acid soil (post on the subject coming) they are wonderfully easy to grow.

So we have two new entrants to the Ashridge Trees list, an early blueberry called (amazingly) Earliblue that you pick from the beginning of July and a whopper of a cropper, Chandler that produces fruit through the whole of August and September.  Both are container grown (in 1.5 litre pots which is ideal for quick establishment) and are extremely well priced…

Hope you like them.