Best online retailer of bare root hedging?

Better_Days

We have a 6 foot fence about 6 metres long which faces west. It will also get a bit of sun from the east in the morning from down the side of the house.

Our NDN who moved in last year have cut down all the trees and shrubbery their side (which previously provided effective screening), have laid down hardcore to in effect build a 'road' along the the other side of the fence. Today they have laid concrete on top of some of the hardcore. On the 'road' they have had parked a 3 tonne lorry and a jcb for the past 6 months. Neither are things of beauty and because our plot isn't straight the vehicles are in our sight line from the living room, and the room where I spend most of my time.

So I would like to plant some fast growing hedging along the fence to screen the ugly lorry and jcb. I was thinking maybe beech, but would welcome suggestions. I was thinking about buying bare-root plants about 150 cm high, so that within a year or two will start to screen.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Lube

I use this eller on ebay. Used them for 18 months now on several occasions.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/beechwoodtrees

SailorSam

I've used these and very happy with all the shrubs.

https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/

Better_Days

Many thanks Lube and Sailor Sam.

I've not purchased bare root hedging before and personal recommendation is very helpful.

Davesnave

There's probably no 'best' on-line retailer, because few of us have tried more than a handful of them, and some will be better than others in different areas of production.

Also price / quality is a difficult equation. For example, it's possible to pay £30 or £90 for the same cultivar of grafted tree, but will the £90 one really be 3x better? Would it be preferable to have 3 cheapies or one posh one? Will the cheapies soon catch up? etc

I've used Buckingham Nurseries and found them reliable and good price-wise, but Sailor Sam's recommendation above also gets a thumbs up from me.

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

Beech makes a good dense hedge planted as a double row. Pruned annually, it should hold its dead leaves all winter, especially against a fence, but asking it to go above 1.8 m from a starting point of 1.5m in 1 - 2 years is err....optimistic! This is because to make it into a decent hedge, you'll need to prune to encourage bushiness, so that 1.5m plant won't be so tall by the time you've done that.

Personally, I prefer to buy smaller plants than 1.5m bare root, because they establish better and should be bushier at the base. An honest retailer's web site will tell you that. My beech hedge, planted in 2011, is about 2m tall now and it's thick enough not to be see-through, even in winter. Going higher than that will also involve going a little wider to keep proportion correct.

An evergreen/semi evergreen alternative to beech is cotoneaster lacteus. I planted a 15m row of 1 metre tall plants to hide unsightly vehicles and a commercial yard in two years flat.They're now about three metres tall, but quite leggy, so I'll probably prune them this year. It doesn't matter much because they're in my wild area, not the garden.

If these vehicles are above 1.8m you might consider trees like leylandii, but they require discipline on your part to keep them in bounds, so an annual haircut and far enough back from the fence so you can get all round. You can go to 4m or so and stay about 1m thick at the base. I did it at my last place. More forgiving than leylandii is western red cedar, as it will allow pruning into old wood if you 'forget,' but it's slower.

Better_Days

Hi Dave :beer:
Thanks for all the advice.

After doing a bit more research I was leaning towards Hornbeam as it is better than Beech on clay soil. See what you mean about buying small plants, it makes sense. Was just looking at buying bigger ones as I am so sick of looking at the lorry and the JCB. They are both well over the 6 foot fence line. Hadn't thought about pruning, doh.

Hasn't considered Cotoneaster so will have a look at that too, plus they are evergreen and the berries are pretty. Don't really want Leylandii but I suppose on the plus side they are also evergreen and do grow quickly. Western red Cedar also looks like it would make a nice dense hedge.

Well got a bit more to think about now!

Davesnave

Better_Days wrote: »

After doing a bit more research I was leaning towards Hornbeam as it is better than Beech on clay soil.

I have hornbeam along the same fence line as the cotoneaster, in the part that only needs more modest screening because it's only weeds, not vehicles etc. It has taken well to our soil, which is light at that point, but takes the run-off from the field at this time of year.

I've noticed hornbeam is several weeks earlier into leaf than beech, though both hold at least some of their dead leaves till the new ones are breaking.

The cotoneaster often holds its leaves through winter and changes them in spring. In a hard one, I'd expect all to defoliate more, but I notice individual variations within plants regarding this, and in things like how shiny leaves are. It's likely that my 30 plants, all grown from seed, have hybridised and aren't by any means identical.