Gardening advice

[sjj278]

I want to put up a hedge in my garden and was advised that with regular maintenance a Leylandii (thinks thats how you spell it) would be the best option due to its quick growing properties........Thing is we live in caithness and on most garden centre websites they dont recommend them for windy/exposed areas............. Do any orgers have any experience, both good or bad, of these plants in our somewhat erratic weather system ?

[Scunner]

have a brilliant leylandi hedge. with regular pruning it makes a super hedge. the birds love it for nesting. excellent for privacy

[Bill Fernie]

although Leylandi hedging make a huge hedge I suspect it is easily burnt by wind. You might notice that ornamental conifers also do not do well in exposed Caithness gardens and they have similar leaves.

Have you thought about a beech hedge. Possibly more expensive to buy the plants required but they do well all over Caithness and around many farms and estates. If the plants are too expensiver why not go along and ask to take cuttings from one of the existing hedges. It may take longer to grow until the cuttings take but you could save a lot of money especially if the hedge is long.

Privet makes a good hedge but there do not seem to be very many in Caithness. Maybe they also suffer from wind burn.

but don't grow leylandi if you have neighbours. check the web and you will find there are almost war sitations with neighbours over leylandi hedges.

[wifie]

Hate Leylandii - grows fast, looks good for a bit but we were told maintenance should be done on an annual basis in July/Aug and it just started to look awful - all brown underneath - eventually we scrapped it. We did have a beautiful privet at the front tho - it grew and grew - I loved to trim it with shears (gives a much better look than electric hedge trimmers but I can appreciate if you want a large hedge this might be off putting). I have taken cuttings of privet and they did root but it does take an awful long time. Was ok in the wind and one year of severe frost all the leaves dropped off but come the spring they were back and it looked gorgeous. No experience of beech except I think it looks great.

[sweetpea]

I've ended up with a mixed hedge of beech and flowering current, not sure how I did that but right now the beech is a beautiful colour.

[Tilter]

although Leylandi hedging make a huge hedge I suspect it is easily burnt by wind. You might notice that ornamental conifers also do not do well in exposed Caithness gardens and they have similar leaves.
Have you thought about a beech hedge.
Excellent advice Bill. We have a Leylandii hedge we inherited. It is very difficult to trim now it's high (we could really do with scaffolding for the job), it needs trimming at least once a year and, while it's a good windbreak, it looks very scabby and brown outside the garden. Also as it grows it becomes more bare at the bottom.

One of our neighbours has a beautiful beech hedge. The fact that it's bare in winter is more than made up for by its beauty in summer and anyway, you're not out so much in winter to see it. We have a flowering currant hedge too which is pretty.

Go with the beech.

[gardeninginagale]

although Leylandi hedging make a huge hedge I suspect it is easily burnt by wind. You might notice that ornamental conifers also do not do well in exposed Caithness gardens and they have similar leaves.

Have you thought about a beech hedge. Possibly more expensive to buy the plants required but they do well all over Caithness and around many farms and estates. If the plants are too expensiver why not go along and ask to take cuttings from one of the existing hedges. It may take longer to grow until the cuttings take but you could save a lot of money especially if the hedge is long.

Privet makes a good hedge but there do not seem to be very many in Caithness. Maybe they also suffer from wind burn.

but don't grow leylandi if you have neighbours. check the web and you will find there are almost war sitations with neighbours over leylandi hedges.

The Leyland Cypress does not tolerate salt or wind, and will only establish where shelter already exists. If you can get it to grow, it will always be burnt on the seaward/windward side. And I agree with Bill - the court cases over Leylandii are myriad. Not only that, but it is sterile. It offers nothing to wildlife, because it is an alien species. It is fortunate that it will rarely grow here, because we don't want it.

Having just agreed with Bill, I now have to disagree. You cannot propagate beech from cuttings, unless you have a laboratory and are skilled in tissue culture. Beech is only grown from seed. But bare root plants from a forestry nursery should cost less than 50p each, in season - Nov-March. Contrast that with the fact that you cannot buy bare-root Leylandii, or at least you should not be able to, and any seller offering bare-root Leylandii should not be touched with a barge pole, because they do not transplant successfully, so you can only buy pot-grown specimens for 4 or 5 quid each.

The down side is that most beech is grown in Holland, and imported. So even if you buy from a Scottish nursery, you'll probably get Dutch stock. And it won't survive. It is all about genetics and provenance, which is worth a book if anyone was interested enough to read it. But in summary, no plant will thrive in less favourable conditions than those in which its parents are growing. If you can find a nursery supplying beech from certified, north of Scotland seed, go for it.

Having disagreed with Bill, I'm now going to agree with him again. Privet is much maligned by southern gardeners, because it is greedy and rampant and uncontrollable in Sussex. When I say Sussex, I mean no disrespect. Sussex is a just I word I use to describe anywhere south of Carlisle. But give privet harder conditions, and it knows its place. One garden I look after on the outskirts of Castletown has a thriving privet hedge. It will tolerate salt and wind. Do not despise privet, because it will do a job for you.

[Scunner]

I have a beech hedge and also a leylandi hedge. Both growing happily in an exposed area of central Caithness. I have 2 beech trees growing from seed gathered locally, and have some more planted. Also have several oak trees growing from acorns. Perseverence is the key. Just for anyone interested I have also grown rhubarb from seed. Happy gardening and dont give up.

[gardeninginagale]

I have a beech hedge and also a leylandi hedge. Both growing happily in an exposed area of central Caithness. I have 2 beech trees growing from seed gathered locally, and have some more planted. Also have several oak trees growing from acorns. Perseverence is the key. Just for anyone interested I have also grown rhubarb from seed. Happy gardening and dont give up.

Although I have a personal hatred of Leylandii, that is only for the plant, and doesn't extend to those who grow it! I think the key words in your post are "central Caithness". Salt is the killer of Leylandii, and beech doesn't like it much either.

But I totally agree that perseverance is the key. Keep trying, don't give up. I am just a hop and skip from Dunnet Bay, with nothing to break the salt-laden north-westerlies. But my Monkey Puzzle is now six foot high.

Keep believing.

[ak1]

hi i have a lovely rugosa rose hedging (not sure if spelt right) grows very fast, spreads and very hardy.

[Kenn]

Just a thought, what about a fuchsia hedge? Have seen quite a few fuchsias growing around the county and they seem to thrive quite well.
I am close to the sea and have found that once established magelanicas do very well, they can stand a hard prune and are salt tolerant although they take a while to establish, having done so they are prolific growers.

[poppett]

Agree with Lizz about the fuschia bush........they are so easy to grow and take cuttings from to replant to fill in the bare bits at the bottom.

[Scunner]

thought this might be of interest for a windbreak - pollarded sycamore (in winter)

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa265/jeanforbes/leaves3.jpg