Informally yours
Who says hedges need to be formal? Try a fragrant and informal flowering hedge and do away with the need for constant clipping. These beauties are easy on the eye and easy on the gardener!
How about a hedge that’s green and leafy all the time, and then covers itself in flowers for several weeks every year? There are lots of options for flowering hedges, but only a few add fragrance to the mix. Like the densely branched and easy-care Fairy Magnolias®. At around 3 metres tall, Fairy Magnolias® make an excellent privacy barrier, without appearing too ‘imposing’.
When a shorter visual barrier is called for or a small border hedge to define a pathway or garden edge, the multi-branched Daphne ‘Perfume Princess’ ™ is perfect for planting close together in a row. And it’s perfume is a knockout for passersby. The late winter and spring flowering gives way to a mass of lush green leaves on a compact shrub just a metre tall, making a worthy plant choice either as breathtaking hedge effect or a shapely stand-alone shrub.
Informal hedging tips:
- Mark out your hedge using a string line for a straight hedge or a garden hose for a curved shape.
- Measure and calculate the number of plants needed. For reliable fast results, the distance between plants should be less than the total width of the plant as you want them to intertwine. A 60cm spacing works well for a shrub like Perfume Princess which grows about 1 metre wide. For Fairy Magnolias® 80-100cm spacing is recommended.
- Make sure you chosen hedge plant is suitable for the soil and location (eg sun versus shade and soil moisture levels).
- Ideally, for even growth the soil should be the same quality along the total length of your hedge. Avoid planting too close to large shrubs or trees which will rob your hedge plants of water and nutrients.
- Avoid planting in hot dry weather. Autumn winter or spring planting is best.
- The night before planting thoroughly soak the plants in their pots.
- Keep hedges well watering during the first year or two while its roots are establishing.
- Mulch to conserve moisture and suppress weeds until your hedge can fend for itself.
- As the need arises, lightly prune any wayward plant tips on the front and back edges of your hedge, but not in between plants as you want them to grow together.
For further information and more inspirational planting ideas, visit www.tesselaar.com
1-Sep-2019
Fairy Magnolia White as an established privacy hedge
Fragrant Daphne 'Perfume Princess'
Fairy Magnolia White produces multiple fragrant blooms
Plants for . . .
