Cherry Plum Hedging Plants

Prunus cerasifera: Cherry / Myrobalan Plum Hedging Plants

Delivered by Mail Order Direct from our Nursery with a Year Guarantee

The Cherry Plum, Prunus cerasifera is an untidy looking large shrub or small tree with a shaggy canopy that makes an excellent country or urban hedging plant. Prunus cerasifera is one of the first woody plants to flower each spring, starting in February and usually continuing until April. It has a few thorns. Its small, red/purple plums are edible, about an inch wide and are ripe in July. They are sweet and quite tasty, like a greengage with a less intense flavour. It makes an equally good hedge plant and screening tree. When it is grown as a tree, it develops a twiggy, wild looking canopy that is good for blocking sight and tends to attract nesting birds. It will grow on most well drained soils and will reach 6-8 metres if it grows freely as a tree. The plants on this page are young saplings, ideal for planting as hedging or in woodland projects. You can also buy large, ornamental Purple Cherry Plum trees here, which have a much tidier canopy.

See our selection of native hedging plants or view our full range of hedging.

Cherry Plum hedge plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).

Choosing a size:
When you are ordering Cherry Plum plants for a hedge, we generally recommend that you use plants that are graded at 60/80cm. They are cheaper than large plants, easier to handle and they will establish well in poor conditions.
Use the larger, 90/120cm high plants if you want a taller hedge quickly or for instant impact as a specimen tree.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Spacing a Cherry Plum hedge:

Plant Cherry Plum hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33 apart.
You can also plant Cherry Plum at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row, with 33 cm between each plant along the row and 40 between the rows.

Growing Cherry Plum plants:
Cherry Plum will grow well in any well drained soil, including chalk. They are tolerant of partial shade and exposed sites, even on the coast.

Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Cherry Plum are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is exceptionally poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.

Watch our video on how to plant a country hedge for full details. The instruction to cut the plants in half after planting only applies to thorny native hedging and plants in the conservation hedge mix: this isn't necessary for Cherry Plum.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Neudorff WeedFree Plus.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If you are planting in an area with rabbit and/or deer, you will need to use a plastic spiral guard 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.