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Help- Hawthorn bare root pruning advice

starryskystarrysky Posts: 24
in Problem solving
I want to grow a hawthorn hedge for privacy and for wildlife, so I want it to be bushy but also I want to get it to 6 ft height as soon as really. I am keen to buy bare root plans, but have read very conflicting advice about pruning after this.. any experts?

Posts

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    edited November 2018
    The planting spec we use in work says:

    Native mixed hedges:
    Plant new hedging in species groups of 5-7no as double staggered row (400mm between rows, 450mm along rows) at 5 plants/lin m, bare root transplants, 600-900mm high.
    All transplants protected by 400mm high plastic spiral rabbit guard support by 750mm stake. Provide post and wire fencing as boundary until hedge has grown in.

    Maintenance:
    Allow for 5 years maintenance to all planting areas to ensure establishment.
    Keep each plant weed free, ideally by hand weeding and mulching. Any plant failures within the 5 years are to be replaced with same species/size no later than the following planting season. Allow for all new native hedges to grow on for first 3 years before pruning.

    If the hedge is to be for wildlife though you could consider mixing more species in as well as adding honeysuckle and rambling roses like dog rose (rosa canina). You'd have to see what works locally to decide what species to use but hazel and holly are good for wildlife, especially if you coppice the hazel at several year intervals rather than cutting it every year.


    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • starryskystarrysky Posts: 24
    edited November 2018
    Thanks Wild! I had read that about having to prune by 50% in the first year and I thought it sounds quite drastic! I will be planting just a single row as it runs along a short fence and the garden isn't huge! I love the idea of dog rose and honeysuckle! Will it still get bushy if left for 3 years before pruning? I have cats and don't want them to be able to get at any birds if I can prevent that.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    It should get quite bushy but the plants will grow into trees if you leave them to it. Let them gain some height then cut the tops and it should bush out below. I planted a similar hedge along my back fence and it's a bit too bushy now with a couple of trees dotted along there. Any large prunings get snipped off and woven back into the hedge at lower levels to fill in gaps with the thorny twigs until it bushes out by itself. If you get big gaps you can either plant more bare roots or let some plants get taller and lay them in later on.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    We planted a bare root hawthorn hedge as a windbreak in our last garden.   OH  prepared a planting trench with added compost to improve the soil and then I put in a single row of single stemmed hawthorn whips at about 18" intervals.  I then cut them all back to 9".  This was in late November, early December.

    The next year they all grew 6' talla nd we then cut them back to 3' in autumn and this encouraged them to thicken.   We kept them cut back to 6' every autun and ended up with a lovely, thick, impenetrable hedge that became a source of shelter and food to a wide range of insects, small mammals and a flock of sparrows who used it as a conference centre for family chats or to hide when the sparrowhawk was about.


    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    We have a short 10m long hawthorn hedge to fill a gap in our boundary screening.

    I dug (and improved) a planting trench about 2' wide along the length to be planted. I then used whips planted quite densely (about 5 plants per metre) in a zig zag pattern so the final planting had a width of about 15". After watering the area was heavily mulched.

    At the end of seasons one and two I reduced the height of the hedge to about 3' and it bushed out really quickly. Five years on and it is a thick established hedge maintained at about 1.5m.

    We haven't had any birds nesting in it yet. I suspect it is too short a run, there's a chain link fence in the middle of it which would restrict access from both sides and I'm often working next to it.

    We did have birds nesting in a much larger hawthorn hedge at our previous property - but not as many as nest in our beech hedge. I wonder if the hawthorn is perhaps a little dense for some birds? Small birds are fine but larger birds such as blackbirds seem to prefer the larger pockets created in the beech - can often hear them making their way from one end of the hedge to the other - all under cover.


    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • starryskystarrysky Posts: 24
    Wow all great info thanks!
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    Just reviving this thread to ask for advice. I planted a mixed wildlife hedge last autumn, all bare root plants and all doing very well despite heatwaves and downpours. The Hawthorns have all sent up very tall leaders, should I wait 'till Autumn to prune them and is there anymore pruning I should do to them this year?
  • richard.coxlCxVqC9lrichard.coxlCxVqC9l Posts: 1
    What about when you have plastic guards around the whips, do these not prevent them branching out at a low level? I planted 1' whips last Winter. They have grown to about 2' high in their first season. If I prune them they will be beneath the top of the guards again. Should I wait until they are taller before pruning back?

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