Mahonia Aquifolium Hedging

Mahonia aquifolium, Oregon Grape, is a winter flowering evergreen plant that can be used as an informal hedge, although it isn't suitable for neat, formal hedging. It will grow in any well drained soil and it tolerates shade.
It can be grown as a screening shrub up to about 3 metres high.

Oregon Grape plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).
All of our young trees and shrubs are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

View our selection of coastal hedging plants or see our full range of hedging.

Spacing a Mahonia aquifolium hedge:
Mahonia makes an attractive, solid row of screening plants with a rough, wild look to them.
Plant it at 2 plants per metre, with 50cms between each plant.
For a really bushy hedge, we suggest interplanting Mahonia with Berberis darwinii.

General description of Oregon Grape plants:
Mahonia is a very useful evergreen for bringing colour to your garden. It has profuse yellow flowers in late winter and spring that mature into blue-black berries. Both the flowers and fruit are edible, although the berries contain lots of seeds and not very much flesh. The spiky, glossy green leaves are similar to holly and although they are evergreen, they change colour to deep red in autumn.

Mahonia is a suckering shrub, producing new stems from ground level and, over time, producing a small thicket.

History & uses of Oregon Grape:
This North American shrub was introduced to Britain in the 1890's and can now be found growing wild in many areas. You can harvest the flowers and infuse them with water to make a refreshing drink and the ripe berries are good to add to cereal or to make jam with.

Notes on planting Mahonia aquifolium:
This hardy plant will grow in any well drained soil, including chalk. It can grow on fertile sites near the coast, but it won't do well on very poor, dry, sandy soil. It is shade tolerant and can be grown underneath large trees.
Mahonia is a tough plant, but it tends to look quite sad when it grows in exposed sites with dry soil. It generally looks best when it is grown in a sheltered location.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the area where you intend to plant several months in advance. Destroy the weeds first: nettles, brambles and ground elder are tough and a glyphosate based weed-killer is the best way to remove them. Then dig the soil over; remove rocks, roots and other rubbish. Mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.
If you have a heavy clay soil, it might be too difficult to dig over for most of the year. Heavy clay is fertile soil, so you don't really need to improve it; killing the weeds is still necessary.

Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
If you are planting in an area with rabbit and/or deer, you will need to use a protective plastic spiral for each plant, supported by a bamboo cane.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £6.50 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
We will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

*Surcharges to the Highlands and Islands still apply.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.

Misc	Edible Fruit / Nuts, Shrub
Shade	Full Shade
Area	Coastal Areas
Soil	Acidic, Alkaline/Chalky
Colour	Yellow/Gold
Type	Evergreen, Hedging, Screening
Also Good	Autumn Colour, Berries

	NUMBER OF PLANTS
SIZES	1-9	10-49	50-249	250-999	1000+
30/40 cm Bareroot	Plenty of Stock£3.65	Plenty of Stock£2.62	Plenty of Stock£2.22	Plenty of Stock£1.93	Plenty of Stock£1.65

Bareroot Oregon Grape

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Mahonia Aquifolium Hedging