I’m thinking red Robin may not be the best hedge after all as much as it will do the job quickly as far as a screen hedge I’m wondering if I’d be better with an alternative? any suggestions?
If it grows well in your garden/surrounding gardens and you like it, these are both important deciding factors. I haven't grown Photinia since the last one I had in another garden always looked unwell. It had a recurring black leaf spot which I noticed on plants in nearby gardens, indicating unsuitable soil or conditions.
Other shrubs which I grow as either specimen plants or hedges include Portuguese laurel, Griselinia littoralis, Thuja plicata and Laurus nobilis, chosen because they are all evergreen and grow well here.
If you have a good garden centre or nursery nearby, it's worth going to have a look at the shrubs in their hedging section to decide whether you like them and check whether they will grow well in your soil and location (help available here too!).
I have recently noticed a lot of Photinia "red robin". This year a lot of flowers. The flowers are not white, not off-white, but dirty. The act of flowering seems to reduce the volume of leaves and theit depth of colour.
Most observed from a moving car. I will now, cautiously, try to smell. (I might like it. Ilike the smell of may blossom and privet.)
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I think you need to decide what you actually want the border to do in terms of appearance and use @juliehawley1967fhSAvUKd. There's no point putting a hedge along the back unless you can also maintain the front of it. If you want a screen, there are better ways of doing it - an actual screen with climbers, and there's loads of options with the screen and the climbers, or just individual shrubs and/or larger perennials, and maybe a specimen tree, central or at one end etc. Shrubs need maintenance, but it's not like hedging, as they only need it occasionally, and not all at the same time depending on what you choose. If you still want a hedge, pick one that can be clipped tight like hornbeam or beech, and they really only need done once a year. There would then be room for a little path in front for that trimming, especially if you make the border deeper.
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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as much as it will do the job quickly as far as a screen hedge I’m wondering if I’d be better with an alternative?
any suggestions?
Other shrubs which I grow as either specimen plants or hedges include Portuguese laurel, Griselinia littoralis, Thuja plicata and Laurus nobilis, chosen because they are all evergreen and grow well here.
If you have a good garden centre or nursery nearby, it's worth going to have a look at the shrubs in their hedging section to decide whether you like them and check whether they will grow well in your soil and location (help available here too!).
Most observed from a moving car. I will now, cautiously, try to smell. (I might like it. Ilike the smell of may blossom and privet.)
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
There's no point putting a hedge along the back unless you can also maintain the front of it.
If you want a screen, there are better ways of doing it - an actual screen with climbers, and there's loads of options with the screen and the climbers, or just individual shrubs and/or larger perennials, and maybe a specimen tree, central or at one end etc. Shrubs need maintenance, but it's not like hedging, as they only need it occasionally, and not all at the same time depending on what you choose.
If you still want a hedge, pick one that can be clipped tight like hornbeam or beech, and they really only need done once a year. There would then be room for a little path in front for that trimming, especially if you make the border deeper.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...