Colourful hedging recommendations?

gaiscioch

I've two questions.

1. I've a Golden Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium Aureum) hedge on one side of my front garden already. There is nothing on the other two sides. The privet looks OK and I could buy new ones and put them on the other two sides. That's the straightforward thing to do. If I were to do this, where do people in the know get good prices for hedges? I'll need to cover almost 13 metres so I'm not sure how much I should be paying. There seems to be a huge disparity in prices so where's the Lidl of hedge retailers?

2. However, the colour is very common so would anybody have other suggestions? I'd like some sort of orange hedge - perhaps something like this. At €8 each it's some €3 more than the above Privet. But I'm not sure how many I'd need to buy to cover 13 metres. Would anybody have any suggestions for colourful hedges for an urban housing estate that would stand out but will not cost the earth?

Thanks a million.

Lumen

That links tells you to plant 45cm apart, so you'll need 29 for 13m.

Hedging.ie is a good place to start for common options, has pricing and spacing. He recommends 30cm spacing for Berberis. You can see the prices are much lower because he's selling bareroot, but it's now too late to be planting bareroot, so if you really must plant it now you need to buy potted.

Spacing doesn't matter that much. Most hedging shrubs will spread to well over 1m eventually if given space, so more density just gives you a quicker dense hedge. Taller hedges have wider spacing.

8 euros is normal garden centre pricing for potted shrub, futureforests.ie is same price for smaller pot.

Photonia is lovely but needs sun and doesn't make for a very dense hedge so is best against a sunny fence.

Loads of less conventional alternatives too.

_Brian

gaiscioch wrote: »

I've two questions.

1. I've a Golden Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium Aureum) hedge on one side of my front garden already. There is nothing on the other two sides. The privet looks OK and I could buy new ones and put them on the other two sides. That's the straightforward thing to do. If I were to do this, where do people in the know get good prices for hedges? I'll need to cover almost 13 metres so I'm not sure how much I should be paying. There seems to be a huge disparity in prices so where's the Lidl of hedge retailers?

2. However, the colour is very common so would anybody have other suggestions? I'd like some sort of orange hedge - perhaps something like this. At €8 each it's some €3 more than the above Privet. But I'm not sure how many I'd need to buy to cover 13 metres. Would anybody have any suggestions for colourful hedges for an urban housing estate that would stand out but will not cost the earth?

Thanks a million.

That Berberis has thorns like nothing else I’ve encountered, it’s also quite slow growing. We had one growing in our last garden and pruning always resulted in getting shredded.

Ruga Rosa makes a nice informal hedge, grows in most soils and you can get both white and pink flowering. Not for trimming into a meat hedge though.
https://www.google.ie/search?q=rugosa+rose+hedge&rlz=1CDGOYI_enIE772IE772&hl=en-GB&prmd=ismvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8sNadrevaAhUDbVAKHZsSCTgQ_AUIESgB&biw=375&bih=591

macraignil

gaiscioch wrote: »

I've two questions.

1. I've a Golden Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium Aureum) hedge on one side of my front garden already. There is nothing on the other two sides. The privet looks OK and I could buy new ones and put them on the other two sides. That's the straightforward thing to do. If I were to do this, where do people in the know get good prices for hedges? I'll need to cover almost 13 metres so I'm not sure how much I should be paying. There seems to be a huge disparity in prices so where's the Lidl of hedge retailers?

2. However, the colour is very common so would anybody have other suggestions? I'd like some sort of orange hedge - perhaps something like this. At €8 each it's some €3 more than the above Privet. But I'm not sure how many I'd need to buy to cover 13 metres. Would anybody have any suggestions for colourful hedges for an urban housing estate that would stand out but will not cost the earth?

Thanks a million.

Where to get cheap hedging conveniently would depend on where you are in the country but there are nurseries that would be better value than normal garden centres. They are usually just a bit more out of the way than the typical garden centre.

Here is a link to a video of a single berberis I got from a self sown seed I found about five years back. The first couple of years would have led to it being about 30cm tall which I guess is the size it would be sold commercially at. I think you could definitely go a bit further apart than 30cm with these. I would also say the photinia red robin is a nice colourful option. Viburnum tinus has nice flowers in the winter months but the leaf does not have much distinctive colour. Hypericum hidcote and Holly (?variegated) might also be worth considering. I'd be more inclined to have a border with mixed shrubs myself if you want something to be distinctive and here is a link to some videos of shrubs in my garden in case it helps get some ideas.