UKC

How long to grow one from scratch?

Advice etc needed.

In reply to Greenbanks:
Plant next month using whips. Stagger planting. Get them from a local nursery rather than a chain garden centre

In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Cheers. Distance apart? (for a hedge, I'd thought maybe 1ft or 18 inches...??)

In reply to Greenbanks:

Lots of information online, not to mention wherever you buy the whips from.

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/product_10130.html

Note the frost pocket warning.

"Native plant with superb foliage, medium green leaves turning rich copper in autumn. Not suitable for heavy or wet soil where Hornbeam is preferable. Shade tolerant. If a Beech hedge is trimmed in late summer, the leaves remain on better during the winter. Do not plant Beech in a frost pocket as it will get damaged.
HEDGE Retains copper foliage throughout the winter. Trim July or August. For hedges 3ft (90cm) upwards. Plant 9-18ins (23-45cm) apart or for a denser or stock-proof hedge plant in a staggered double row with 15ins (38cm) between rows and 18ins (45cm) between plants.
TREE 35ft x 20ft (11m x 6m) in 20 years, ultimate height 100ft (30m)."

In reply to Greenbanks:

Be warned, they get terrible white fly!

In reply to Greenbanks: Many years ago, I planted a beech hedge (not copper). Here are my top tips:

I did it as a staggered double row. I planted it in the winter and watered it quite a bit the following summer. Second the advice given above to buy from a specialist supplier, not a chain garden centre. Buy bare-rooted, and plant a few spares somewhere else to transplant into the hedge in case of failures. My failure rate was about 2% I guess. Resist the temptation to allow it to grow straight up to the desired height - prune diligently to get a good dense hedge. Whitefly were a problem some years. I think I sprayed against them in the early years, but not subsequently.

Though I say it myself, it looked superb after 5 years, and the whole exercise was very satisfying. Go for it!

In reply to Cats:

Not all that native - the copper species tend to be ornamental varieties and beech is only realy native to bits of the south - Downland hangers and similar.

Having said that, don't let that alone put you off, beech hedges are beautiful.

A young tree in good soil camn manage a metre a year, but it will slow down as it gets older.Late Frost can really hammer them. Trim them regulalry, but NOT heavily

If you have heavy clay soils, plant something else, If you keep it low, wind won't be a problem, but they shallow root, so big ones will go over quickly in a blow if they are unprotected, you'll also need to protect them if you have voles or rabbits.

Mostly from memory and Planting Native Trees and Shrubs by K&G Beckett - out of print, but worth tracking down excellent advice on all things arbo.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Thanks all - this sounds like great advice. There is, btw, a story behind this request: our builder 'mistakenly' took out our joint hedge (neighbours away at present & know nothing about it); we think it might be a test of a beautiful friendship.

I'll keep you posted!

In reply to Greenbanks:

For an eventually stockproof 'conservation' hedge (hawthorne + other spp) we recommend 4-6 whips/m in a staggered row.

In reply to Greenbanks:

I planted a hornbeam hedge last winter (and mixed native species too) because it's quite wet area. Then we had a draught. However, the bare-rooted whips have all survived, whilst some larger (2m) beeches moved at the same time didn't.

I think by the time I've pruned them down this winter and they've put on another year's growth, it will be a reasonable hedge.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

When's the best time to prune? My (4 year old) hedge is starting to need some sort of trim, and/or encouragement to grow thick - but I would have thought early spring best for this?

Nic

In reply to Nic:

For beech hedging summer is best so that new buds get a chance to establish over the winter. For most trees buds form late summer/early autumn so trimming would just remove the new growth needed to fill the gaps.

So it depends on what you have.

In reply to Lone Rider:

it's a mixture of yew and hawthorne, with some holly thrown in for good measure (although that's still too small to warrant any trimming).

Nic

(still coming to terms with posting here about hedging ffs!)

In reply to Nic:


Know what you mean - but one of the great things about this site. I feel like I'm a Copper Beech expert now, unlike 24 hours ago

In reply to Greenbanks:

Yes, I've learnt that I should be pruning as soon as possible! After I've finished giving the ivy on the house a trim (which is as close as I'm likely to get to climbing until the end of the month).

In reply to Nic: Defra guidelines suggest late winter/ early spring for agricultural hedges - these means the fruit / berries/ haws are left over winter as a food sourse, but that the hedges are still cut outside breeding season. If its a long hedge, consider cutting half every other year. Not sure about the yew though, not something I've ever worked with

In reply to Greenbanks:

About 200 years for a decent one...........
http://www.nothingtoseehere.net/2006/07/meikelour_beech_hedge_perthshi.html

In reply to toadwork:

There's plenty of other food around for the little birdies, so that's not an issue...I guess I'll leave it till early spring as then it is primed for growth (or "reculer pour mieux sauter" as a short, crazed French military leader once said)

Nic

I've got four horse chestnuts, in pots, all one year old or thereabouts. Their leaves have all turned a uniform shade of brown, about two weeks ago. The mature chestnuts from which they came are still green. So does autumn come early to the little ones or have they got some kind of brown spot illness ?

When the mature ones turn, they do so gradually and in a riot of colour, so the fact that the little ones all turned a uniform shade of dark brown all at once makes me suspicious.