Bird Friendly Hedge Plants

Bird-Friendly Hedging Plants - Packs of 50 with a 1 Year Guarantee

This Bird Friendly hedge pack is a bundle of 50 wildlife-friendly plants. We try to include all the following in the mix but please be aware that, as with all our hedging packs, we reserve the right to substitute but the mix is generally made up from the following and the pack may change between the time of ordering and the time of despatch:.

• 10 x Hawthorn - Crataegus monogyna - frothy white, may flowers in spring and bright red haws in autumn

The remaining 40 plants are chosen - by us - from the following:

• 5 x Wild Privet - Ligustrum vulgare - white flowers, black berries
• 5 x Hazel - Corylus avellana - catkins in February, fresh green leaves, nuts in autumn
• 5 x Cherry Plum - Prunus cerasifera - white blossom on dark bark
• 5 x Guelder Rose - Viburnum opulus - lace-cap flowers, redcurrant looking berries
• 5 x Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa - fluffy white blossom, black autumn berries
• 5 x Scotch Rose - Rosa pimpinellifolia - single white roses, red rose hips in autumn
• 5 x Elderflower - Sambucus nigra - lacy white flowers, maroon berries
• 5 x Crabapple - Malus sylvestris - stunning pink blossom, crabapples in autumn
• 5 x Wild Pear - Pyrus communis - Lovely blossom followed by bird-friendly (i.e. tart) fruit.
• 5 x Buckthorn Alder - Rhamnus frangula - produces red berries in the spring that mature and darken to almost black in autumn (Thrushes love them).

Each of these plants is chosen for the avian gourmet, either directly by having lots of berries or in the case of something like wild privet by harbouring masses of insects that the birds can then eat. And setting that aside, these are all extremely attractive plants in their own right and at different seasons, so they are also food for the soul. The mix is suitable for pretty much any soil and contains enough thorny plants to deter intruders. It will provide food for birds for a large part of the year and, once it is mature, it will be cat-proof, encouraging many birds happy to build their nests in it. You can order the same plants individually from their respective pages, but you save money by buying the hedge pack. We regret that we cannot accept requests for specific plants to be used in your pack. If you want to be certain of having a particular plant in your hedge mix, please order it separately. In addition, we do reserve the right (rarely exercised) to use appropriate substitutes.

The how and where?

Bird-Friendly hedge packs are only delivered bareroot, during winter (November - April). The plants in this pack will be 40-80 cms tall when we deliver them. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground after planting. The plants you will receive are young saplings, ideal for planting as perimeter hedging around a garden - not too close to paths with all of those thorns - or in woodland projects. The look is not formal but its prettiness makes it entirely suitable for domestic use to enclose a vegetable garden for example or close to fruit trees. Given space, a fairy circle of this hedge with a gap to access it would be a great site for a seat for the twitchers in the family. On a bigger scale, if you look at our blog post you'll be able to see 90 metres of our Bird Friendly Hedging planted on a customer's land in the Yorkshire Dales.

Spacing a Bird-Friendly hedge:

Plant your hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
Alternatively, you can also plant at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row, with 33 cms between each plant along the row and 40cms between the rows. Each pack of 50 plants will make 16.5 metres of single row hedge and 10 metres of double row hedge. Our Bird Friendly Hedging mix is good for hedges up to about 3-4 metres high.

Features

• Size: up to 4 m
• Soil: any
• Use: country/environmental/informal
• Single Row: 3 per metre
• Double Row: 5/m staggered
• Colour: pink, white, red, autumn colours
• Feature: attracts birds, beautiful, intruder proof
• Flowering: white and pink in spring and summer
• Berries: red and black in autumn and winter

What else can I do?

Even if you do not want to plant this particular mix, hedges are incredibly important to wildlife. As more pressure is placed on space needed by humans, then in addition to providing shelter, hedgerows become commuter highways allowing all forms of wildlife to move in relative safety from one area to another. Plant a hedge, especially one with plenty of thorns to keep the cats out, and you will be amazed at the increase in birdlife in your garden when it is mature.