Planting a lonicera nitida hedge

Posts

• AnniD Posts: 12,585

  November 2022 edited November 2022

  I think the best thing would be to give it it's first trim in late Spring/early Summer (weather permitting) to encourage it to bush out. That's just my instinct though, which has proved to be wrong on occasion 

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  November 2022

  They'll naturally bush out anyway as they grow, so you can wait until they're nearer the size you want.
  It'll be sometime next year before they get going though as they're very small plants, but they're quick growing, so you'll have your hedge within a couple of years or so, assuming the conditions are half decent. They're very straightforward hedging plants 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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• GardenerSuze Posts: 5,692

  November 2022

  I think you will have a lot of regular pruning to do if you want to keep it in shape.

  I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.

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• Allotment Boy Posts: 6,774

  November 2022

  We prune ours 3 times a year, not too demanding. 

  AB Still learning
  
  

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• KeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831

  November 2022

  Only one prune for ours this year, due to the extreme heat/dryness of Summer. 

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• LunarSea Posts: 1,923

  November 2022

  KeenOnGreen said:

  Only one prune for ours this year, due to the extreme heat/dryness of Summer. 

  
  And ours. But they're pretty bomb-proof. Ours is 5' tall and runs along the road boundary. I hadn't really anticipated just how much it would bush out but when it got to the stage of taking up half the pavement it got a very serious prune right back into brown twigs. It looked awful for a year but it came back green again.
  
  I remember when I planted it as 18" plants. I hadn't realised there was a badger run at one end and got up the next morning to find one plant 'surgically' removed!
  
  One thing I have learned though is they're not really suitable for tall hedging. Wish I'd planted Yew.

  Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 
  
  I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  

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• cork gardener Posts: 85

  November 2022

  thanks everyone for that advice. I’ll leave it alone until next summer and think about pruning it then. It’s replacing an ilex crenata hedge that never grew at all so fingers crossed

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• GardenerSuze Posts: 5,692

  November 2022

  It can grow some thick stems which can look ugly when cut. I have never grown this shrub. I did look after one for many years and found a regular prune avoided cutting into the thicker stems,

  I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.

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• JennyJ Posts: 10,576

  November 2022 edited November 2022

  I have L. nitida "Baggesen's Gold" as very dwarf hedges edging beds. I originally bought one plant and grew the rest from cuttings (they were quite quick). I generally trim it around 3 or 4 times over the spring/summer, but only twice this year because it didn't grow much, to keep it very short and narrow, about 8 or 9 inches high and maybe 5 to 6 inches wide. 1 to 2 feet tall should be easily manageable.

  My dad had one of my cuttings and it got to about a metre tall and wide, clipped into a ball/blob. I agree with @LunarSea , it's probably better as a low hedge than as a high one.

  Edit: forgot to actually answer your question - I would prune it before it gets to the final height and width that you want, to make it bush out. In particular shorten any long shoots.
  

  Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  

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• cork gardener Posts: 85

  November 2022

  thanks Jenny - good to hear it can be kept easily to a small size 

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