hi, iam new to this site and would like some information,Iam looking for a good thick fast growing hedge my neighbours have planted some type of willow which i think is being taken from clippings????but its not evergreen:dh: are clippings easy to take of willow??? but of coarse since we have reasonable sized gardens i would like some information on a good fast growing hedge preferably evergreen and cheap to buy,any ideas atb mark the novice gardener,
Hi Mark, I have to be honest I'm not up on hedges but there is a plant finder on BBC which might help http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/ Unfortunately it doesn't let you search by 'growing speed' but it's a start. I would suggest perhaps investigating privet as an option? I'm not sure that it's favoured by everybody but there's enough of it about. This is a good source of info on willow http://www.kingsbarnfarm.co.uk
Hi Mark and welcome to the forum. Barthelemy's nursery in Dorset (search for it) do a good mail order service in hedging plants. I'm sure you'll find some good information there.
Willow cuttings are very easy to root, in fact if you take a cutting and leave it lying on the ground there's a good chance it will throw out roots! You can take 6 or 7 foot long cuttings, shove them about 9 inches into the soil and they'll root. Leyland cypress is very fast growing hedging, but you really need to keep on top of the trimming or it will turn into a monster before you know it. Looks quite expensive at present, at least from what I've seen on the internet. A local nursery might be a cheaper source. We put in one 'bought' leyland hedge and then put in a second one from cuttings from the first. I ripped out both a couple of years ago as I was having to spend too much time trimming them, and we now have ranch fencing that I only have to repaint every few years.
