Photinia Red Robin

Photinia Red Robin Hedging

Photinia Red Robin is a colourful, vigorous hedging plant or large ornamental shrub. It has bright red young leaves in spring that change to green by midsummer. Suitable for formal garden hedges.
Photinia Red Robin is good for hedges up to about 5 metres high.

Photinia Red Robin hedge plants are only delivered pot-grown, year round.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

See our selection of hedge shrub plants or view our full range of hedging.

Spacing a Photinia Red Robin hedge:

Plant Photinia Red Robin hedging at 2 plants per metre, 50cms apart.

General description of Photinia Red Robin plants:

Photinia x fraseri Red Robin makes one of the most exciting evergreen hedges and is also a fine specimen plant. It clips easily and can be hard pruned, which is ideal for both formal hedging and low maintenance borders. Red Robin gets its name from the bright red young leaves which appear each spring on the the tips of every twig and stem, creating a superb show of colour that few other evergreens can compete with. The leaves gradually change, in a sort of reverse autumn display, through a muddle of oranges and bronzes to a lush, glossy green during the summer.
As long as Photinia gets plenty of sun, the new foliage will be followed in late spring by branching clusters of little white flowers with pale purple stems. These become little round, red (inedible for humans) fruit in autumn. All in all, Red Robin is dressed to impress for most of the year.

Red Robin does need sun to flower well (and so produce berries) but will still grow well in quite shady spots at the back of a shrub border. It is not hardy enough for exposed Northern sites.
It will grow in just about any well drained soil type. Heavy clay is alright if it is on a slope, ridge or other site that does not trap water; waterlogged roots will kill your plants and excess humidity in the air can cause unsightly leaf spot.

Give your Red Robin plants a little trim in early spring to bring on a strong flush of bright young leaves. As these begin to lose their glow, lightly trim them again to encourage another wave; you can do this about 3 times a year, with the last trim in July. Regular trimming also helps to prevent leaf spot.
Always clean up the fallen leaves from under your plants.

Photinia has an upright growth habit, so it naturally holds its shape when used as a hedge plant. You can also grow it as a tree with a domed canopy, about 5 metres high.

History & uses of Photinia x fraseri Red Robin:

Also known as Red-tip photinia, the original Photinia x fraseri is a cross between Photinia glabra and Photinia serratifolia. Red Robin was bred in New Zealand. It has won the RHS Award of Garden Merit and the Award of Merit for displays of its cut stems.