FORESTRY PLANTS

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Forestry plants are normally a lot cheaper than garden shrubs or trees. Cheap in this case does not mean second class. There are a lot of attractive forestry plants which are very often hardier than the type of shrub to be seen in a garden centre. The reason they don’t cost so much is that most of them are grown from seed. This cuts out the expense of grafting or growing from cuttings, both of which are labour intensive.

For farm or countryside hedging , which is really what this is about, then blackthorn and whitethorn will probably be the mainstay. Blackthorn is the slower growing of the two. It flowers in March and before global warming used to be accompanied by about three weeks of East wind. My first boss used to call this a blackthorn Winter. “ That’ll never rain, nor this wind change while that flower is around” he’d say. Of course one night the wind would go around to the West bringing rain which would knock the flower off.

Blackthorn is a tough plant and when old can be poisonous. A thorn piercing a knuckle can give pain for a month. An overgrown hedge of blackthorn laid over with a chain saw will make a barricade that nothing gets through. If its got to the overgrown stage then there’s probably a lot of growth away from the hedge as well. The best thing about blackthorn is the fruit, the sloes. Sloe gin is a treat!

Whitethorn or Quickthorn is also known as “the May.” I prefer it to blackthorn. It comes into leaf with a colour light green. It’s May flower is not so noticeable as other trees and shrubs flower at the same time. Whitethorn makes a good hedge and if you like a continuous flowering, then mix both black and white. Maybe one type will eventually take over.

Hazel is another popular plant. It can do what few other plants do and that is it can grow under trees. If on your journeys you take a look at the trees in a hedgerow, you will not see much hedge underneath them. So plant hazel there. It should do alright and the long wands bind well. Hazel grown into a tree will fruit. But if you want nuts a grafted Kentish cob nut will make a better tree for fruit.

The last of my chosen four is Green Beech. Green beech plants at fifty or sixty pence each will make a very attractive hedge, so why buy Leylandiis at two pounds. Plant the beech two or three to a metre and you will have a good hedge for a farm lane. Beech keeps it’s dead leaf for most of the Winter, so does not look bare. Beech likes sandy loam. If your soil is heavy clay, then hornbeam may do better

There are many other plants for your hedge and I’ll just tell you of some of them. Lilac makes a huge shrub, twelve foot high, five foot wide or thereabouts. It has a lovely blue flower in June to follow on from the May.
Elder is another shrub with it’s white flower for wine making. Also a June flower to follow the lilac. After the flower has gone then the colour comes from the berry bearers. Mountain Ash or Rowan is the best of these. Try and plant about three together for making more of a show. The Rowan is a quick grower, although in common with Lilac and Elder is not worth putting in a hedge that you intend trimming each year.

Holly is very accommodating. It will mix in with thorns for yearly trimming or let it grow into a tree. Trouble is it is so slow growing. I think its best when it’s pot grown and planted out about two feet in height. As a tree the birds love the berries. Cut the berry branches in November before the birds get hungry. I wonder if they could then be stored in my redundant bulk milk tank. Holly is something to be considered when a child is born. A corner of a field planted up with five or six different varieties of holly, may come in useful when pocket money is needed. There are some attractive hollies around which can be pruned for the ladies floral arrangements.
Back in Kent which used to be known as the “garden of England,” farmers would plant an acre of cherries when a child was born to the farm. They reconded it took twenty one years for the cherries to bear fruit. A nice twenty first birthday present. Nowadays of course cherries are even grown in polytunnels, fruiting in a couple of years.

Yew makes a good garden hedge, but for my money is better off in churchyards. I used to work at Yew Tree Farm, Emerydown, near Lyndhurst. One Sunday night, coming back from a rare weekend off I was met with long faces. The Ayrshire heifers had eaten some of the yew hedge trimmings. These had only wilted for a couple of days, but it was enough to poison and kill four of them. Not my fault, but it has put me off growing yew.

This is just a rough guide. I’m always learning so any email comments will be appreciated.

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