Rabbits are a complete pain if you happen to grow hedging and trees and fruit for a living. Cute looking they may be (edible, more like - Ed), but they have a horrid habit of hacking branches straight through (usually close to the stem) and of tearing leaves off plants they don't bite...

We have a standing out area at Ashridge Nurseries where we have a fair number of potted hedge plants - escallonia, griselinia, pyracantha, photinia and so on.

I walked out there this morning to find that a rabbit or rabbits had bitten through the electrified rabbit proof fence (yes, bitten and no sign of a dead one) and plundered the plants. Actually they had plundered the Elaeagnusebbingei Limelight with barely a glance at the rest.

I guess the silver lining is that we know that Elaeagnus is not a good idea as a hedge plant when rabbits are about. I must tell Frances .....