[Virtus]

Hi there, new member of the forums here,

We have a had a couple of hedges die back over the last couple of years and I was hoping to replant them this summer. Its my mam's place and I have never planted a hedge before.

One of the hedges was a griselinea and was badly affected by the harsh winters a couple of years back and is half dead at his stage. The soil around it tends to be quite wet from what I remember from cutting the grass. I was thinking of replanting it with a Laurel hedge. Would anyone recommend any particular variety?

I'm not too sure what the other was but I think it may have been a hawthorne variety. I think it was also affected badly by the weather and its pretty much overgrown with briars. This also acts as a border hedge so I was thinking of putting down hawthorne again and mixing in some blackthorne for some variety.

Would anyone recommend anything different? I'd be open to trying different varieties but seeing as I haven't done it before I'd be nervous about experimenting. I'd be aiming for reasonably fast growing hedges around 2 metres in height eventually.

Also I know its not going to be the best time for planting but mid May to mid July is pretty much the only time I'll have available to do it due to college so I'll probably be using potted plans.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[tippben]

Hello! How long are the hedges? Can you give us a picture of the one you think is hawthorn? You will definitely need to use container grown plants. Common Laurel is Prunus laurocerasus. There are different cultivars, but any will do fine. Don't get confused with Aucuba japonica, the spotted laurel with yellow variegation. That's a completely different plant, and won't work well. Plant at 2-3 foot centres, but dig over the ground, removing any roots and weeds along the hedge line (a metre wide strip is ideal). Add lots of compost and a bit of slow release fertilizer. We can advise on the other hedge when there's a bit more information.

[Virtus]

Hi there,
Thanks for the advice. I have attached a few pictures of whats remaining of the hedges. The garden has been neglected very badly over the last number of years and it's shameful how bad they have gotten. A few trees also fell over into the garden over last winter which caused further damage. They are both around 20 metres long and were there for about 20 to 25 years each.

I asked around about the other hedge but no one can remember what the name of it was. It is definitely not hawthorne, but from what I remember it had small dark coloured leaves, was full of thorns, and would produce pink flowers. It doesn't really matter I suppose as whatever it was it's completely dead now.

I was advised by a couple of people to just take out the dead griselinia and plant new ones in their place, and to hope the others would come back. From what I understand many people are having trouble with them, so it might be best to just to take everything out and start again with a hardier variety.

[kindredspirit]

Just go for common Laurel.

It'd be much, much cheaper to plant bare root ones in the autumn. It's going to take you quite a while digging out what's there anyway.