Purple Beech Hedge

Hi,

Back in February 2009 I planted 18 purple beech hedges (approx 60cm in height). I followed the instructions as I received them from the nursery by planting them with rootgrow in a mixture of compost, topsoil and rotting manure, watering regularly etc.

In their first year all plants developed leaves although some did significantly better than others. Now we are in their second spring I have noticed that those plants that did very well last year have numerous buds on them and are very close to breaking out in leaf. However, the others that did not do so well have started to produce new branches from the bottom of the plant and these have leaves present. These have no leaves at the top and only a handful of buds or none at all. Obviously these plants are still alive but I was wondering if the top half of the plant is dead or am I doing something wrong?

I am very much a novice in gardening and any help you can give would be much appreciated.

 

i put down a hedge of about 70 of these 3 years ago. Over the three years every summer there has been one plant i thought was dead, no buds, no sign of life, andi contemplated digging it up at the end of the season as i planted a few spares and could have moved one in.

however, after been given a bit of time, every one has come back strong and caught up with the others, i still have some very short ones compared to the others, but they are gorwing away

what i suggest is giving them at least this season to see how they do. Plants like this can go into shocki and decide to do nothign for a while. Give them time to adjust and see how they go would be my advice.

If really worries, consider getting a few spares and putting them down at proper time in winter , if you need to move one of the ones out in a years time then you have some spares to move in

 

Never heard of Purple Beech, they are probably what is known in Forestry as Copper Beech (or have they got some new ones out). Copper Beech are ones that develope a problem (probably a failure of the photo synthesis) and instead of being green they are dark red. The nuts from them can grow as normal green Beech.

Never give up on any tree that appears dead, wait until the second year before discarding it.