Copper Beech Hedge

Hi. I planted around 40 copper beech whips in January this year. We're now in mid-may & so far only 1 of them has come into leaf! The first buds burst 10 days ago & through the course of last week all the leaves came out. There's no sign of any other buds bursting on the others yet though.
Is it possible that they may take longer to burst than more established plants because it's their first year? I am worried that they may have dried out & died during the warm spell in April although i did give them a good watering about 3 weeks into it. I've scratched a few of the stems with my nail, some are green, others not. Is it possible that the buds have dried up even though the plants are alive? All help & advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Hi Maggsy

Wait a little longer mine only opened up last week and I remember when they were only 12 inches I thought they had died in the first year , January was freezing how come you never waited as it wasnt ideal time to plant I would of waited till the weather broke .

How long did you leave them before you planted them ??

Spruce

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I guess i'll have to be patient a while longer.
Spruce - I planted them a couple of days after picking them up from the garden centre. We only decided in the new year to go down the hedge route & i was led to believe that late autumn/winter was the time to plant them. They did at least miss the worst of the cold snap around christmas. I'll let you know if they pull through.

 

Me too. My Copper Beach hedge has only been in leaf a couple of weeks, they tend to be one of the last trees into leaf anyway, and newly planted will be even later.

However, with this dry weather they will need watering. We have leaky-hose along our newly planted hedges and water them once a week. Make sure you give them a good soaking, less frequently (rather than little-and-often) so the water soaks down as that will encourage the plants to grow roots downwards.

Digging a little hole, with a trowel, will enable you to poke a finger into the soil to see whether it is very dry, or not, at the depth where the roots are.

if the plants were in pots (rather than bare rooted) then be sure to water close to the plants, as all their roots will be in the rootball that was in the original pot, and that will be susceptible to drying out.

last check: it is very important that they were not planted any deeper than the original level of the soil. So the level of the soil in the pot should not be the same as the soil level. If they have been planted "deep" you need to scrape the extra soil away. (If they were planted "high" that's OK, but will tend to make them dry out faster until they get established, but plating "deep" will kill them :( )