Beech

Often used for hedging and screening. Young leaves are pale green, turning glossy dark green, then yellow to orange-brown in autumn. Foliage on juvenile growth (e.g. on a hedge) is retained in winter until new foliage emerges in spring. Roots can be shallow and very widely-spreading. Will tolerate most moist but free-draining soils, including chalk – will not tolerate waterlogged conditions. Although “everbrown” (the dead leaves are retained during winter on juvenile growth, i.e. when regularly clipped as a hedge), and thereby giving winter cover as an evergreen would, this is still strictly speaking a deciduous plant and as such is exempt from the rules which can potentially limit the allowed height of evergreen hedges.

Advanced Beech hedging sizes

Containerised stock: each hedge plant is in a 77 litre pot manageable by two people (or one person using a sack trolley). These plants will take a year or so of trimming to thicken up to make a solid hedge. Plant one every 2ft (60cm) for maximum density.

Rootballed stock from the fields: each hedge plant is supplied as a wire-wrapped soil rootball dug from our fields, which is heavy but manageable by two people using a sack trolley. These plants will give pretty much instant density when planted one every 2ft (60cm).