Sizing Guide for Plants & Trees

We strongly suggest that you buy the smallest sized plants for large projects, and/or where watering and mulching your new hedge will be a challenge (note: if this is the case, you really must use mulch fabric). Little 40/60cms plants are much more likely to succeed in tough conditions than large 100/120cms ones. 
If you are planting into good conditions, and can easily water and mulch your plants, and/or if instant impact is your priority, then we recommend bigger plants.

Ornamental Tree Sizes:

Larger bareroot trees are called Standards, referring to the standard 'waist measurement' of their girth in centimetres at 1 metre above ground level. 

A 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk that is between 6 and 8 centimetres in circumference, one metre from the ground.
As a rough average for most trees, a 6/8 standard is over 2 metres tall, and an 8/10 standard is between 3 and 4 metres, but it depends on the tree. 

Fruit Tree Sizes:

Most of our fruit trees are sold bareroot, in 3 sizes.

• The half-standard is the largest, has a straight trunk of about 1.20 metres, a branched head, and will mature into a tree about 4 metres high.
• The bush is like a half-standard, with a trunk about 60cms tall that then splits into the main branches. This matures into a more compact tree, about 3 metres high.
• The maiden is the smallest, youngest fruit tree you can buy. It has not formed significant branches yet. If you want to grow fans or espaliers, which we don't deliver, you need to begin with a maiden.

Suitable apple & pear varieties are also sold as ready-made cordons: as long as it is a spur bearing variety, you can turn any maiden into a cordon very easily. 

Dwarf fruit trees & Wonder trees: A small selection of fruit trees are available in dwarf forms that are ideal for growing in large pots and small gardens. A wonder tree is a specific style of dwarf tree that uses both a dwarfing rootstock and a high graft point to create a tree form that is small, very low maintenance, and aesthetically pleasing. Dwarf & wonder trees are sold in pots. 

You can read about the rootstocks we use for our fruit trees here. 

Soft Fruit Sizes:

Berry bushes aren't measured by height: some of them need to be chopped back before delivery, and some are just very small by nature.

• Raspberries: Bareroot canes, pruned to 40 cms.
• Strawberries: Last year's rooted runners.
• All other soft fruit: 1-2 year old plants, graded by pot size unless sold bareroot.

Rose Sizes:

All of our named rose cultivars were budded or grafted 2 years before you receive them. Both bareroot and pot grown roses are pruned down to about 30cm high before we deliver them.