Instant Hedges FAQ

Planting a hedge along a boundary instead of a fence will offer many benefits to your garden. A hedge will not only provide privacy, but it will also bring additional colour and texture to your outside space. It also offers a safe home to many different types of wildlife.

Alongside providing security, hedges also help to suppress noise. This can be a huge benefit if you live close to a road. Although the finical investment may be greater than that of a fence, a hedge will outlive multiple fence replacements, making it a sounds investment.

Because of all of this, large hedges have been known to increase property value on many houses.

There is a hedge for every location and for every requirement; to provide privacy, creating boundaries around or within a garden area, making wildlife havens or giving shelter from winds. Hedges can be low and neat such as box or lavender, flowering species such as hawthorn or viburnum, or narrow and formal like beech, privet or yew. Western red cedar and Leyland cypress are popular conifers used for tall hedges.

If your hedge is a species that flowers and you wish to let the hedge bloom, then you can only trim the hedge once per annum which will be straight after the hedge has flowered. This is also the case for wildlife hedges such as native species mixed hedges. Only once per annum or once every 2nd year to maximize the amount of food available for the wildlife. For formal, neat and tidy hedges this will usually be twice per annum. Hedges that are shaped or topiarized or wanted to be densely flat faced and formal, will require the most trimming by pruning off new growth shortly after it appears. Fast growing species will also need more trimming than normal to keep them from growing long branches and allowing the hedge to become loose, leggy and gappy.

See our hedge pruning guide for more detailed information…

In horticulture heavy shade is a planting location that sees hardly any light during the day, and to expect a hedge to grow in heavy shade is hopeful.

For an example, along with a few other species, a holly hedge will survive being planted in a lot of shade, but they will not produce as much leaf and will therefore grow leggy stems and branches that reach out for the light. They can become unruly, gappy and see through.

Partial shade is a different matter and there are many species of hedge that will happily grow in partial shaded locations.

See our hedges section for more detailed information.

Most hedge species produce flowers but they are rarely seen because the trimming of a hedge usually takes place when flower buds would be growing.

If you want to have a hedge that flowers, you will need to be prepared to let the hedge grow naturally and not be tempted to tidy it up with a prune. Leave your hedge to grow until it flowers and if you like the effect, then you can trim and tidy the hedge once the flowering has finished. You must then leave the hedge alone until the same time next year and repeat again.

Some popular flowering hedges are berberis, hawthorn, native mixture, Osmanthus and Photinia ‘Red Robin’

To begin, look to establish what hedges grow well in your area.

There are many species of hedge available, and choosing the right one will depend on some different factors. How tall do you want the hedge to grow? Does it need to be evergreen or deciduous? A flowering, formal or informal hedge? What is the soil type where the new hedge will be planted into? Do you need the hedge to define a boundary, do you need it for privacy or to screen an unsightly view or a neighbours window?

Once you have the answers to these questions you can use our online hedge filter feature to chose the right type for you, or you can give us a call to discuss.

YES!

We offer instant hedges as plants in pots or in troughs. These fully grown hedges are completely grown finished hedges that offer instant impact. We offer these exceptional hedges in seven evergreen species and seven deciduous species. They are available in the following heights; 1.2 metres, 1.5m, 1.8m and 2.0 metres tall.