We were at a friend’s house for lunch today and on the way in, walking though his garden, I admired his beech hedge. It is not an old beech hedge, maybe 5 years (although I need to check).  What struck me about it were two things:

1.  It was very full – the lowest branched were ON the ground. No gaps or ugly legs at the bottom.

Tags: beech

Prunus Laurocerasus Rotundifolia is one hell of a mouthful for one of the most common hedging plants in Britain.  Poor old cherry laurel.  Abroad it is known as the “English Laurel” for good reason – no one plants it as much as we do.

That, of course, is because no one understands it like we do. Prunus laurocerasus is the best roadside hedging plant there is, and with our small island, and seemingly unlimited cars (I read the other day somewhere that car numbers had risen ten times in the last thirty years, but roads had only increased in length by 10%) we need good roadside hedging.

Tags: laurel

If you will pardon the french, Hawthorn is the dog’s b*****ks of a hedge plant. Most of the hedges near us (be they hawthorn, beech, whatever) come from us – not surprisingly as Ashridge Trees sells over 2 million plants a year of which a large proportion end up in hawthorn hedges.

With the possible exception of yew, no other hedge plant has the dignity and good temper of hawthorn.  It is almost unflappable.

Tags: Hawthorn, Hedging

I have never read in a gardening book anywhere that a lavender hedge is a beautiful thing in winter.  Well, our was yesterday morning.  Like most of you, we had a cracker of a frost the night before last.  Combined with quite dense fog, it left a coating of white on everything – a huge beech at the bottom of the garden was glittering from head to foot.

Tags: lavender