Growing my own hedgways / trees from cuttings?

Chrissie · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

Hi all,
Looking for advice from you greenfingered experts!

We're about to start a new build, in which we have to plant new site boundaries on 2 sides of our site.

Plants to be included are:-
thorn
beech
oak
hazel
sycamore
holly

In reality, I want to plant your normal garden hedge (sorry, I'm not good with plant names at all, but you know the ones that start off as little christmas tree type bushes, that eventually grow into each other & you then start trimming them like a solid hedge)
& along one boundary, I would plant a few of the above named trees, probably about 4 in total, interspersed through the hedge.

Oh, & I'd like to plant 2 cherry blossom trees also, in the same manner.

Would anyone be able to tell me roughly what these type of plants typically cost in a garden centre?

I'm trying to figure out if a) it's possible, & b) if there's much of a saving to be made from growing these myself.

It will be a year before I'll be planting these on site, so I was wondering if that would be plenty of time to grow these plants in pots from cuttings for the year before they're planted on site.
Or, how does one grow a bush / tree from scratch.

By the time you take compost time & effort etc into account, would there be much savings to be made?

The site is roughly 1 square acre, with 2 sides (& another small section) to be planted.

Any advice greatly appreciated. I'd quite like the experience of doing it, especially if it were to save me a decent sum of money.

Thanks,
Chrissie

Sive · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:34 pm Post subject:

Oh dear, it sounds like you are planning a leylandii hedge? Do think carefully before you commit yourself to a lot of work keeping it trimmed. I'm sure a more experienced person could direct you to a thread here on this site where the problems of this type of hedging are fully explored.
If you are in the countryside, your garden will blend in much better if you stick to native mixed hedging.....
And if you want to save money, go straight to a nursery, rather than a garden centre, such as http://www.vanderwel.ie/
in Aughrim in Wicklow. You can pre-order in places like that and also buy younger,cheaper plants.
Don't know where you are, but there are similar nurseries all over the country, I imagine.
I'm no good at taking cuttings, so I really can't comment on that idea!