Evergreens for Hedges and Hedging

How do you go about deciding what the best evergreens are for hedges or screens?

First ask yourself a few basic questions before deciding on what type of evergreen plant or material is best to use for your needs – see this advice list to help you decide:

·         Firstly, it is absolutely essential to make the correct decisions!

·         What is the light like in the planting area – is it full sun or shade?

·         How tall do you want the hedge or screen – keeping in mind that you will have to maintain that height?

·         What are you going to be doing within the hedged or screen area – formal or relaxed use?

·         Planting a new evergreen hedge or screen can be a considerable cost due to the number of plants you have to buy and prices vary according to desirability.

·         If you select different plants to alternate coloring, each plant must have the same growing habits if you want to achieve uniformity.

·         You must plant a complete hedge in one go and not do it piecemeal as it will look odd and not uniform.

·         It’s no good buying dwarf evergreens if you want a tall hedge quickly!

·         The quicker an evergreen plant grows the more open its structure will tend to be and will require more trimming to keep it looking good and compact with plenty of leaf growth.

·         Some evergreens change to an attractive color in winter, but you may not like it, so determine how it will look in each season.

·         Who is going to maintain the evergreen hedge or evergreen screen? It will be expensive to hire someone to do the cutting and trimming twice a year (at least).

·         If you choose to maintain the hedge, you will need the correct tools to do the job right and save you valuable time. Also, you will have to properly dispose of the cuttings or pay for them to be taken away.

·         Will your hedge spread across your neighbours land or encroach on to public land, roads or paths? You will have certain legal responsibilities to fulfil!

·         Also, beware that your lovely evergreen hedge could drain your flower borders of essential water and increase your need for watering.

·         Again, relating to water, a large hedge when plated near to a house or property with concrete foundations could experience land subsidence. The hedge draws so much moisture from under the house that the soil under and around the foundations dries out shrinks. The foundations then shift and can cause wall in the house to crack and even became unsafe. When the season becomes wet, the soil takes up water again and expands and so moves the house foundation up again, leading to more wall and floors cracking. You end up with the foundations going up and down, eventually leading to severe structural damage that’s very expensive to repair, if you are not covered by insurance!

·         Investigate disease resistance of all potential evergreen plant purchases. Once popular but less so these days, the evergreen Leyland Cypress appeared to be the ideal hedging and screening plant as it grew very fast and was the perfect solution for many, and more so because it was cheap. Apart from being difficult to maintain because it grows so fast, it has been hit by a fungal disease called Seridium Canker (Seridium Cardinale) which has devastated many established mature hedges and screens.

Click here for a list of evergreens found to provide suitable hedging and screening:

Evergreens for Hedges and Hedging

How do you go about deciding what the best evergreens are for hedges or screens?