Shaping shrubs and using them as a hedge / border.

I was speaking to my father in law today about his front garden which at the moment is just a lawn. His lawn joins his next door neighbours with nothing marking the property boundaries except the evidence that they won't cut each others lawn, they just go up to the line.... Anyway, he says that he wants something to define the border that is also the provider of a bit of colour, with my very limited knowledge, recently aquired from this very forum I suggested winter flowering shrubs and summer flowering shrubs, alternating their planting along the line to increase the colour throughout the year. It has since occured to me that I don't know if you can shape a shrub without harming it. I would presume that, knowing the man, he will want a nice straight line on both sides to keep it looking tidy rather than a nice round bush, so that is my question... What would be a suitable option on this case?

 

I think, in most cases, that if you have a perfectly clipped hedge you will have removed the flowering shoots, and not get much in the way of flowers / berries. If, on the other hand, you clip it tidily once a year, and then let it get shaggy with new growth, that will carry flowers.

There are plants that flower / fruit on last year's growth, but again there will be precious little of that on a tightly clipped hedge.

If you Father is a regimental-rows type person I think it is very hard to beat an evergreen hedge which is absolutely precision cut, and cut often enough that it is always smart. Yew would be my choice but, although not as slow growing as people usually think, it will take a while to be a really tight hedge.

Privet or some sort of conifer (Thuja plicata atrovirens would be my choice) would be quicker, and will still look very smart if tightly clipped.

Or topiary? How about a fox ... followed by a pack of hounds, and then all the horses and huntsmen and women behind? :D (I can;t find the image I remember where they were clipped along the hedge, but here's a different example )

 

You can make a wonderful mixed hedge which would give interest for a lot of the year with
Forsythia
Ceanothus
Berberis thunbergia atropurpurea
Escallonia
choisya
Lonicera nitida Baggessens Gold

As mentioned above it would not respond well to too much trimming, but would be better trimmed by hand at appropriate times

 

There are so many to choose from. How long is it? You could have a mixed hedge with native species, good for wildlife, containing hawthorn as the dominant specie with roses and honeysuckle for colour and flowers. A holly or two mixed in would be nice.

 

LOL, Lovage.....we posted at the same time with similar suggestions.

 

Lonicera nitida Baggessens Gold seems to be made for topiary. I planted one two years ago, and although it's a large ball shape at the moment, I'm undecided on the shape I'd really like. I love that fox and hounds, sheer brilliance.