Hedging Plants - Hornbeam

Name – botanical; Carpinus betulus

This hardy native plant looks very similar to the common beech tree. As a hedging plant it retains its foliage through the winter, although the green leaves turn rich brown, to encourage leaf retention prune in late summer to take off extended growth that might be wind stripped. It can be used to make a hedge whose final height is 90 centimetres or more as a tree it makes six metres in twenty years and reaches an ultimate height of twenty four metres.

Description and uses – Hornbeam prefers low lying rich soils or clays and is shade tolerant – it is tolerate of pruning, or pleaching and can also be coppiced or pollarded. It bears green catkins from late spring to autumn, which become clusters of winged fruit providing food for wildlife. The tree has a natural distribution in South East England, Thames Valley and South Wales and Somerset so may not be ideal for colder regents although it is frost hardy. It provides good firewood and was used for producing charcoal, cogwheels and butcher’s chopping blocks. In nature seeds lie dormant on the soil for eighteen months which means it may be better to buy plants that to try and raise it from seed. Not normally damaged by Grey Squirrels.

Maintenance and problems – The hedges should be cut back in late summer and the hornbeam is free of pests and diseases.

Hedging hornbeam photograph by apium, used under a creative commons attribution licence

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