Ideas for a hedge please

paddy's_mum

I swear by Escallonia - evergreen, easily available, tolerant of hard clipping, available in different shades (deep red, scarlet, pink, white) and madly attractive to bees etc when in flower.

I let mine flower, then trim about now and often have a second crop of flower during October which I believe gives nectar feeding insects a good feed before winter sets in.

I don't understand why people would choose boring old privet when they could have something even more easy-care as well as unusual and help the wildlife at the same time.

ladylouise62

The garden in my street have Plum Cherry hedge - it's extremely quick (upwards 2-3 ft in a season), has good spikes, and if you don't always trim as much as you should, it's pretty forgiving if you have to do a drastic cut (my health sometimes stops me and I have later had to cut back into old, lichen covered wood and had new shoots). This place has it http://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/garden_hedging/cherry_plum_hedging/ It's not evergreen, but it can be dense, can grow practically as tall as you want it and there's nothing more spring-like than the blossom-covered bare twigs followed by the leaves.