Yeah, you don't want to buy the Japanese stuff, this is the kind you'll see in every other garden in the country and of very little wildlife benefit.
By the way, my Wild Privet are still completely green with the mild winter we've had. They come very easily from hardwood cuttings too if you want to be frugal, or stool them, plant your plants a couple of inches deeper than the nurser, then dig them up next year and divide them up.
Good question, if it isn't labeled of course you don't know, but if you buy in winter, the ones with the leaves are probably the ones you want if you want evergreen. Any native shrub is going to be good, some are better but if it's native and produces berries, you can be sure something will eat it otherwise there's no point in the plant putting resources into making berries. You really don't need to look up Callicarpa to know they aren't native. Personally I think they look like tacky Christmas decorations but if you like them it's your garden. There's loads of good websites listing the best plants for wildlife. You can't go wrong with Hawthorn and Ivy growing through it, mix in some blackberries and raspberries and you've got a great wildlife hedge. Everything else is your choice and taste.
Do you mean where a plant is native to or where it was grown Ahmad? Anything that comes bare rooted from a hedging supplier will have been grown in this country.
From a garden centre with a fancy label and price to match, probably Holland
We don't have a lot of native evergreens, you won't find them in a wildlife hedge collection, scots pine, yew, holly, juniper. maybe box, not sure about that one.
you could grow ivy through it. that's good for wildlife. Not good for a formal hedge but fine in it's place
Will scrub around the Callicarpa and stick with native shrubs. I am not found of ivy even though they are good for wildlife because it over takes a garden and is one of the causes that have contributed towards trees being blown down during recent storms. Saying that I do have an ivy growing over a low brick wall which is easy to keep under control
Have looked at my neighbours fence and figured out how I can connect wire to it so will order the clematis. Would also like a rambling roses but find them too hard and time consuming to prune.
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As Jim said earlier, make sure you get the right species. You're much more likely to find the hedging privet at a GC
In the sticks near Peterborough
Yeah, you don't want to buy the Japanese stuff, this is the kind you'll see in every other garden in the country and of very little wildlife benefit.
By the way, my Wild Privet are still completely green with the mild winter we've had. They come very easily from hardwood cuttings too if you want to be frugal, or stool them, plant your plants a couple of inches deeper than the nurser, then dig them up next year and divide them up.
How do you determine where a plant came from if it is not tagged, which most of them are not.
Talking about wildlife, my hedge has not one evergreen shrub, only the Hawthorn are starting to leaf up.
Incidentally, are Cornus alba and Callicarpa any good for birds to feed on?
Good question, if it isn't labeled of course you don't know, but if you buy in winter, the ones with the leaves are probably the ones you want if you want evergreen. Any native shrub is going to be good, some are better but if it's native and produces berries, you can be sure something will eat it otherwise there's no point in the plant putting resources into making berries. You really don't need to look up Callicarpa to know they aren't native. Personally I think they look like tacky Christmas decorations but if you like them it's your garden. There's loads of good websites listing the best plants for wildlife. You can't go wrong with Hawthorn and Ivy growing through it, mix in some blackberries and raspberries and you've got a great wildlife hedge. Everything else is your choice and taste.
Do you mean where a plant is native to or where it was grown Ahmad? Anything that comes bare rooted from a hedging supplier will have been grown in this country.
From a garden centre with a fancy label and price to match, probably Holland
We don't have a lot of native evergreens, you won't find them in a wildlife hedge collection, scots pine, yew, holly, juniper. maybe box, not sure about that one.
you could grow ivy through it. that's good for wildlife. Not good for a formal hedge but fine in it's place
In the sticks near Peterborough
Will scrub around the Callicarpa and stick with native shrubs. I am not found of ivy even though they are good for wildlife because it over takes a garden and is one of the causes that have contributed towards trees being blown down during recent storms. Saying that I do have an ivy growing over a low brick wall which is easy to keep under control
Have looked at my neighbours fence and figured out how I can connect wire to it so will order the clematis. Would also like a rambling roses but find them too hard and time consuming to prune.