Griselinia hedging

ganger

Would this be a good idea for a hedge,any experience or advice with this hedging please let me know.

Oldtree

It can be a lovley hedge but a lot of it got killed off in the early 2000's during the winter, so it really depends on your site and exposure. IMO it is now a very risky plant to use in as long term hedge in this country.

Rancid

Griselinia can form a lovely sturdy hedge fairly quickly, it's evergreen so gives protection all the year around.
Mine (in a smallish urban garden) didn't suffer from the low temps but they are mature 20 + year old specimens.
If you opt for it, trim it regularly, keep it hedge-like, if you skip a few years you'll end up with a tree instead of a hedge!

Glebee

Had a lovely mature Griselinia hedge bordering my house, maybe about 30m in length. Used to keep it trimed once a year. Cold spell in late 2010 and early 2011 completely decimated it. Had to take the whole thing out and replace with a wall.:(

Id be guessing that if you were in a coastal location you might be ok if we ever got that cold lengthy spell of weather again.

homer911

I have a smallish hedge that I trim regularly, but I still ended up with a lot of dead wood in the middle of it which was inhibiting new growth - had to go through it with a secateurs and prune it out

Supercell

I have griselinia and cotoneaster and have to say, for me overall, cotoneaster is nicer especially with its red and orange berries this time of year. If the OP lives near the coast then frost shouldn't be a major problem. The griselinia around my house has been there since it was built in 1981 and there has been a few pretty bad winters since which haven't done it any harm due to the coastal location probably.
The griselinia is a nice hedge and easy to keep neat and tidy, whereas the cotoneaster can look pretty scruffy if not kept tidy, the griselinia is easier to grow tall neatly imho too.

Oldtree

I have grubbed out a number of dead griselinia hedges, both by the seaside in Galway and inland near castlebar. My best estimation of what happened is that the bark, the cambium and some wood froze quickly, while still functioning to some degree, in very cold weather. then that cold spell was immediately followed by a rapid rise in temperature which seems to have blasted the bark off by the water expanding, effectively ringbarking the plants. Some have grown back from the roots but where they were hit but maby only 25%. There is no denying that you are taking a chance with this plant esp as the same thing happened twice in the last decade.

My preference is for a beech hedge, separate lines of green and purple.:D

macraignil

My parents have a mature griselinia hedge that was almost completely killed by the cold winters a few years back. It still has not recovered and only self seeded ivy growing up the dead griselinia currently provides some form of screen at the edge of their garden. The privet that they had in the same hedge is still growing without problems. Griselinia looks very nice as a small tree but I also found when dealing with a house planning application recently that it was listed with lelandii as a plant not to be used in County Cork. I guess this is because it has been used too much in landscaping house gardens in the county already.
Laurel is a good alternative and if you do not need to worry about poisoning grazing animals the native yew is a slower growing but much nicer hedge. If you have a coastal location fuscia is a wonderful hedge plant. My own preference is for a more natural mixed hedge with hawthorn, guelder rose and black thorn, but the thorns make this a bit more awkward to maintain. I think cotoneaster grows too irregularly to form a nice hedge and do not like the brown colour of the common beech hedge in winter.

Oldtree

macraignil wrote: »

Laurel is a good alternative and if you do not need to worry about poisoning grazing animals the native yew is a slower growing but much nicer hedge.

laurel is poisonous to stock too, so care needed with their planting.

Squiggle

I have about 100 metres of griselinia none of which was lost during the two recent very cold winters. I don't know why I didn't loose any hedging, maybe it's because I'm in the south east so not as cold as other areas? The hedge was sown in 2000 and so was well established and this also might have helped. Also I only trim the hedge once a year, generally in July, thus giving the hedge plenty of time to recover before the winter. It's a great hedge for giving privacy which you will not get from beech, hornbeam or any semi deciduous hedge, during the winter months.

Oldtree

That is an advantage of a deciduous hedge in that it allows extra light into the garden during the winter and privacy during the spring/summer when privacy is most needed. Privit is a very good one for privacy during the winter being semi-evergreen, but saying that the last 2 years has seem all the leaves off mine, but they are still retained at the moment.

The Garden Shop

If you live in the Midlands then I would advise against planting griselinia- due to its lack of tolerance to frost

Dublin and other coastal areas however would be fine.
Its a lovely hedge. Brighter and more compact than laurel.
But can look a bit rough after being trimmed back.

Oldtree

Another lovely hedge that suffered a similar fate, one that my granddad had and I love the smell of, is escallonia.

lazybones32

It has its' strengths and weaknesses (like all plants)

I tend gardens where it was wiped out by the harsh winters and I tend gardens where it survived. The gardens that it survived in all were on a slope or of higher elevation. Cold air sinks and collects...
Then again, those bad winters might have just been an abnormal weather-cycle and we haven't had it every year, so we could be past it... no-one knows.

Griselinia needs a lot of attention to be kept looking at its' best; so I wouldn't have it in my own garden but I like it when clients have some...