Hedging

Root ball hedging for sale

Field-grown hedging plants from 40cm to 2m, lifted while they're dormant and delivered on a pallet from November to March.

A root ball plant is grown in the field rather than in a pot. In winter, when it's dormant, the nursery lifts it with a ball of soil around the roots and wraps it in hessian. You get a much bigger plant for your money than with pot-grown hedging, and because the roots have never been confined to a pot, they settle into the ground quickly. If you want a decent-sized hedge in one season, this is the way we'd do it.

We sell root ball hedging in packs. Each product page has a table showing how many plants you need per metre at each height, so you can work out how many packs your hedge will take.

Which hedge should I choose?

For quick privacy, most people go for cherry laurel. 'Rotundifolia' is the classic laurel hedge, with big, glossy leaves, while 'Caucasica' and 'Novita' are very hardy and grow more upright. If you'd rather have a conifer, leylandii, Thuja 'Brabant' and western red cedar all grow fast. Leylandii is the quickest of the lot, but it needs trimming two or three times a year to keep it in check.

For a formal hedge, it's hard to look past English yew. It grows more slowly, but it clips to a crisp finish, and unlike most conifers it will regrow if you cut back into old wood. Portuguese laurel gives a similarly smart look in less time, and box is still the plant for low edging and parterres.

Beech and hornbeam are native hedges and good for wildlife. If you clip them in late summer, both hold on to their brown leaves through winter, so they screen better than you'd expect from a deciduous hedge. Copper beech does the same in deep purple. Hornbeam copes with heavy clay and wet ground, and beech doesn't, so if your soil stays wet, choose hornbeam.

Where space is tight, cherry laurel 'Genolia' and Thuja 'Smaragd' grow narrow and upright and need very little trimming to stay that way. By the coast, Elaeagnus ebbingei and Phillyrea latifolia cope with salty wind that would scorch most hedges. And if you want colour, Photinia 'Red Robin' puts out bright red new growth through spring and summer.

Planting root ball hedging

Plant your hedge within a few days of delivery. Until then, stand the root balls somewhere sheltered, keep them moist and don't let them freeze. Dig a trench about twice the width of the root balls and the same depth. Loosen the hessian at the top but leave the rest in place, as it rots down in the soil. Firm the plants in, water them well and keep watering through the first spring and summer, especially in dry spells. A layer of mulch helps hold the moisture in.

Delivery

Your hedge is lifted to order at the nursery and delivered on a pallet, usually within two weeks. There's one delivery charge per order however many plants you buy, and every order comes with free plant food. Top Topiary is based at Meadow Farm near Lymington, in the New Forest. If you'd like help choosing a hedge or working out how many plants you need, get in touch.