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Very narrow space for hedge + Planting bulbs between golden privet whilst it establishes

squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
edited April 2021 in Plants
Hi,
I have two questions I would be grateful for some help with:

1) I have a very narrow space to plant against my fence that can’t be widened further. It’s around 30 cm depth/narrow and around 1.5m long. I would like to plant a narrow hedge to cover the fence. I’m thinking of golden privet - is this a good idea, in terms of room to grow and pruning etc? Or should I just grow a climber against the fence?

2) If I go for the hedge, can I plant bulbs (gladioli) in between the individual privet plants to fill out the space between until they fill in the gaps.

thanks for reading!
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Posts

  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    In this situation I’d suggest that a shrub grown as a wall plant or else a covering evergreen climber will work better, and take up less width. Options could include things like Pyracantha, which can be clipped fairly tight to the fence, Hedera (‘Sulphur Heart’ is an interesting form), or Trachelospermum japonicum. For the ivy and trachelospermum, give them a good shear back to within 15cm of the support every year—March for the ivy and May for the trachelospermum—and feed at the same time.

    Yes, you could plant bulbs at the base but these would fairly quickly become shaded out and die. You could always experiment though with some low-growing plants like sweet violet, primroses and so on that establish naturally at the base of hedges.
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    Privet grows very quickly, so probably best avoided in that situation.  Pyracantha is better for wildlife, due to it's blossom and berries, so a good suggestion (although it is very spikey).  We underplanted our Pyracantha hedge with species Tulips, Crocus and Chionodoxa.  The base of the hedge gets full sun, and all of those bulbs still flower, although they have diminished over time.  Eventually I imagine they will, as @Cambridgerose12 says, disappear.
     
    We have numerous Pittosporums, and some are several metres high, so suitable for hedging.  There are many cultivars, with attractive foliage, and they don't grow too quickly.  They are not fully hardy everywhere in the UK, but a nice plant to consider if hardiness isn't a problem in your location.
  • squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
    Thank you both! So can I take it the main objection to privet is that it’s fast growing and will be difficult to maintain a narrow shape? I have no problem with it growing out of its space onto the path slightly 

    @Cambridgerose12 thank you for suggesting star jasmine - it looks beautiful!

    @KeenOnGreen thanks for the Pittosporums suggestion though I saw a lovely one the other day called “silver queen” and it seemed far bushier than the golden privet so I’m a little surprised by this suggestion? It’s hardy where I live in London

    thank you both very much for replying - I was meant to post this in the “Problems” category but couldn’t figure out how to delete this post after accidentally   posting in “Plants”...!


  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2021
    It doesn’t matter where you put it, the regulars will find it as we all tend to use ‘Recent Discussions’. 😊 

    I know of a cotoneaster horizontalis grown against a wall in a similar space ... it is about 1.5m tall and protrudes about 9” max from the wall with only the lightest of annual trims. The bees love the little flowers, in winter it’s covered with berries and in most winters it’s evergreen and covered with leaves from ground level to the top. Perfect for what you want. Not sure how many plants you’d need to cover that width but others will know .., my guesstimate us that three would be ample. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    Dovefromabove said:
    It doesn’t matter where you put it, the regulars will find it as we all tend to use ‘Recent Discussions’. 😊 

    I know of a cotoneaster horizontalis grown against a wall in a similar space ... it is about 1.5m tall and protrudes about 9” max from the wall with only the lightest of annual trims. The bees love the little flowers, in winter it’s covered with berries and in most winters it’s evergreen and covered with leaves from ground level to the top. Perfect for what you want. Not sure how many plants you’d need to cover that width but others will know .., my guesstimate us that three would be ample. 
    Where I am they lose their leaves but turn glorious red in autumn, and have a beautiful tracery of branches that can catch the frost well. 

    What I particularly recall about the last time I grew this, though, was that in the spring bluetits used to feed their chicks on caterpillars that were on the shrub, which was very nice.

  • squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
    Thank you!

    I just googled cotoneaster horizontalis and I have a rooted cutting of this! My dad had rooted a cutting from our old house a year ago... so that’s perfect! I’m pretty sure it stays evergreen here in London where I’m based.

    Would you recommend I train it on a trellis? I have some old dead branches I can make into a trellis 
  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    Actually it will scale up nicely without support.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Cambridgerose12 said:
    Actually it will scale up nicely without support.
    Yes just grow it up against the fence/wall ... it’ll grow up and out against it and you can skip off any shoots that head outwards towards you. 😊 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    @squirral87k4-WvGwT  The Pittosporum Silver Queen may have looked bushier than the Golden Privet, but that's probably just down to those particular plants being of different ages.

    If you planted an identically size Privet (of any variety), and a Pittosporum (of any variety), and left them in the ground for a few years, the Privet would end up much bigger than the Pittosporum.  Privet's fast growth rate means that people tend not to grown them in small spaces, or pots.

    Just to contradict myself: We have a variegated Privet (Ligustrum argentium) in a trough, which is 15 inches wide, and 36 inches long.  We trim it several times per year.  It has been in that trough for 3 years or so, and if we hadn't kept cutting the top of the plant, it would be about 5 foot high by now.  It wasn't intended to look phallic!



    So you could plant Privet in your space if you wanted, but just be prepared to keep it watered regularly for the first year, and to do 2-3 trimmings per year.

  • squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
    edited April 2021
    Thank you @KeenOnGreen for explaining this simply yet comprehensively. I don’t think I’m prepared to trim it 2-3 times a year so i’ll opt out of the privet. Glad I posted and asked before purchasing!

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