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cherry laurel privacy hedge - buying a few plants and taking cuttings ?

WILLWILL Posts: 2
edited March 2018 in Plants
Hello,

I'm new to gardening.
I've recently purchased a new property with a large garden.

The garden was an overgrown jungle.I've just had a digger in to clear it.

I've been told I will need over 400+ cherry laurel plants to form a boundary hedge between myself and the neighbouring properties.

How realistic would it be to purchase 10 - 20  mature plants and take cuttings from them?

Is this something I could do myself or would you recommend hiring a professional ( i think this would still work out cheaper than £4+ per young plant? £1600

Any suggestions as to the cheapest/easiest way to achieve this?

Many thanks,

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    how long is the boundary? 


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • WILLWILL Posts: 2
    approximately 57m  x 57m x 38m x 31m 
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    That’s a 183m perimeter and you want it all cherry laurel?

    Call it 200m and that’s two laurel every meter which sounds about right, although a cherry laurel will easily grow wider than a meter in a few years.  

    My experience hacking an old overgrown one down would caution you to keep them trimmed religiously.
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    Oh and the berries are poisonous, so think about pets and small children.
  • Garden noobGarden noob Posts: 260
    Can you negotiate? In the link below they start at £2.29 per plant. I might have thought that if you're buying 400 plants it's worth giving them a call to see what they can do. 

    https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Cherry_Laurel_Hedge_Prunus_laurocerasus_Rotundifolia.html

    Personally I would ask for a quote for 200 plants initially, then when you receive the quote you can say that you're thinking of doing the rear boundary too, taking it up to 400 plants. It's any easy way to push them for a further discount. 

    Make it clear that you're talking to a few different suppliers, although it's worth making the decision on things other than price (e.g. their flexibility to meet your preferred timings for the delivery/deliveries etc).

    £2.00 per plant could be a good target, so £800 all in (although they recommend 3+ plants per metre). 

    These plants are pretty small though. Another strategy could be to buy larger plants where you need a screen for privacy (to establish more quickly), and buy these small plants for the rest of the boundary. 
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