Copper / Purple Beech Hedging Plants

Fagus sylvatica purpurea: Bareroot Hedging

Copper beech, when properly clipped, will bush out to form a waterfall of purple leaves from tip to toe that look superb for the entire growing season.

In Autumn, the leaves turn ruddy-copper before drying and, like green beech, remain on the branches. Anyone blessed with the space to grow a copper beech tree as a feature should certainly invest in one; they are magnificent trees that draw the eye to some distant part of the garden or neighbouring field. Most of us are not that lucky, however, so a hedge of copper beech adds panache and a sense of theatre to a garden full of greens and silvers.

Browse our range of beech hedging, or all of our hedging.

Delivery season: Purple beech plants are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small plants are cheaper and overall better for hedge use, unless instant impact is your priority. If you are only buying a few plants for ornamental use, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features

• Size sold: 40-175 cm
• Height: 1m to very tall
• Soil: well-drained, likes full sun
• Use: Formal/Native
• Colour: copper - purple
• Dramatic backdrop

Growing Purple Beech

It needs full sun to thrive and won't tolerate wet sites.

Beech cannot stand wet feet or more than a bit of shade, but given good drainage and close to full sun, they will handle pretty much any soil, be it poor or chalky. Even if it didn't need it, you would want to plant it in full sun anyway for the effect of the light shining through the leaves in Spring and Winter.

Spacing a Copper Beech hedge: Like most formal hedging, plant at 3 per metre, 33cm apart in a single row.

Copper Beech in Your Garden Design

The density of leaves means that your privacy is guaranteed if you grow it as a boundary or perimeter hedge. Being 'everciduous', if you trim the trees in mid-summer they will hold onto their leaves throughout the winter, maintaining the privacy and year round structure in your garden.

A copper beech hedge is a perfect tool for dividing and defining space in a garden and provides a fantastic opportunity for colour combining; silver foliage and really bright colours stand out so well against it. Imagine a herbaceous border full of hot colours enveloped by a rich purple hedge, rather like a photo frame containing and focusing attention on the picture within.

If a solid copper beech hedge feels like overkill, take inspiration from a garden like Hidcote, where they have a famous tapestry hedge of copper beech interspersed with holly. Alternatively, mix up some green, common beech with the purple variety to ring the changes.

Did You Know?

Considerable energy is expended on naming plants accurately, taxonomists gotta eat too, y'know, and this flavour of Fagus sylvatica has been listed as atropurpurea, cuprea, and atropunicea in addition to purpurea: they are all the same thing. At the time of writing, the fashion is for Fagus sylvatica Atropurpurea Group.

Fagus is the Latin word for Beech, and also a god of babies. Ginger people were favoured by Fagus, and were a shoo-in for his priesthood.

The colour of the purple leaf comes from pigments called anthocyanins that mask the bright green of the chlorophyll pigment that the plant uses to photosynthesise. It is these same anthocyanins that give fruits like blueberries their colour and make them so healthy.