Introduction
Here’s a guide to help you figure out how to choose the right hedging plants for your garden.
There are so many options that making the decision can seem overwhelming, so that’s why I’ve written this comprehensive guide to stop you from pulling your hair out or purchasing the wrong hedges for your needs.
So fear not, gardening friend!
Read on to learn how to choose the right hedging plants for your garden, whatever function you need your hedge to fulfil.
- Introduction
- What is the Purpose of Your Hedge?
- Soil and Light Conditions
- Consider How Much Light Comes Into Your Garden
- Hedge Maintenance
- Apply Leaf Mulch at least Annually
- Choose the Right Hedging Plants For Your Budget
- Choosing the Right Hedging Plants To Create a Boundary
- Best Evergreen Hedging Plants
- Best Hedging for Keeping Out Intruders
- Best Choices for Aesthetically Pleasing Hedges
- Best Floral Hedging Plants
- Best Formal Hedging Plants
- Best Native Wildlife-Friendly Hedging Plants
- Best Hedging Plants to Create a Windbreak
- Conclusion
- Suggested reading
What is the Purpose of Your Hedge?
When you’re trying to figure out how to choose the right hedging plants, your first step is to clarify what you want your hedge for.

Let me explain- a hedge can serve many purposes:
- simply marking a boundary around your home
- to keep out intruders
- to be aesthetically pleasing
- a haven for wildlife
- to absorb noise from a busy road
- to act as a windbreak
Soil and Light Conditions
The next factors to consider are the soil and light conditions of your planting site.
Different soil types are suited to different kinds of plants, so you’ll need to identify what kind of soil you have to choose the right hedges.
If you’re unsure, you can buy a soil testing kit and find out quickly. Knowing whether your soil is acid or alkali will immediately narrow down the variety of hedging plants available to you, and make the decision-making process easier.
Some hedges, such as rhododendrons, will thrive in acid soils and struggle to grow in poorly drained heavy clay soil.
Therefore testing your soil can save you a lot of money, time and frustration.
Consider How Much Light Comes Into Your Garden

Similarly, it’s important to analyze the amount of sunlight coming into the site where you’re planning to grow your hedge.
Some hedging plants will grow happily in full sun, whereas others prefer more shady conditions.
If your planting site is shady- under large trees, for example, you may wish to choose to plant a laurel hedge as that is very shade-tolerant.
Alternatively, if your site is very sunny then one of the species of berberis could be a good choice.
Hedge Maintenance
All hedges are going to need some maintenance, but some definitely need more than others.
If you choose the box hedging option, then expect to spend many a happy hour out in the garden with your clippers, avoiding the children.
At the very least, all hedges are going to require you to head out there to clip them back once or twice a year.
Privet hedges, in particular, grow very quickly during the summer and require frequent trimming to keep them neat.
Therefore when you’re trying to choose the right hedging plants think realistically about the amount of time you are prepared to devote to maintaining them before you commit to buying anything.
Apply Leaf Mulch at least Annually
All hedging will benefit greatly from the application of well-rotted leaf mulch every year around the base of the plants.
This improves the quality of the soil, giving your hedge a lovely boost of nutrients.
Just remember not to bank the mulch up too high around the root ball, as this can cause your hedges to rot.
Apply mulch to a depth of around four inches, leaving the area immediately around the roots empty.
If you have planted acid-loving hedging, such as rhododendrons, they will benefit from an annual application of ericaceous compost to maintain the acidity of the soil.
Choose the Right Hedging Plants For Your Budget
Planting a new hedge can be a costly business, depending on the number of plants you need.
Your most budget-friendly options generally include native species, such as laurel, gorse, privet and holly. Most evergreens will need to be around 60-100 cm apart, which is about 2-3 feet.
Using that as a general rule of thumb should help you calculate how many plants you’re going to need for your project.
Choosing the Right Hedging Plants To Create a Boundary
Probably the most common reason to plant a hedge is to create and mark out a boundary around a property.
Obviously, you could just whack up a big old fence, but the beauty of hedging is that it is more naturally pleasing to the eye.
It changes with the seasons, it can produce fruit, fragrance, and flowers and provide food and shelter for wildlife.

Wondering how to choose the best hedging plants for a boundary? Look for plants that can withstand the ravages of the weather.
Also, choose plants that are resistant to pests and diseases.
Look out for plants that will grow to form a dense screen to provide privacy.
A boundary hedge needs to be tall enough to create a sense of enclosure, but not so tall that it becomes difficult to manage or blocks out too much light from your garden- or your neighbours’ gardens, for that matter.
Best Evergreen Hedging Plants
Leyland Cypress ( x Cupressocyparis leylandii) This is a very popular choice for several reasons: it is fast growing, gaining- over a metre per year- and it forms a dense hedge that is easy to cut into shape with a decent quality electric hedge-trimmer.
The fact that they are evergreen also means that you have density and colour all year round, and thick foliage provides good nesting sites for birds.
In my view, the only disadvantage of Leylandii is that they grow so quickly that you may find yourself having to spend more time than you’d wish out in the garden keeping them under control.
Portuguese Laurel ( Prunus lusitanica) is another popular choice for gardeners wishing to grow a boundary hedge quickly.
This evergreen choice will grow up to 60 centimetres per year, so establishes itself quickly.
The laurel doesn’t form such a dense hedge as the Leylandii, so has the advantage of not blocking out so much light from your garden.
This is a favourite of mine for its abundance of dark, green leaves and plum-coloured stems.
Laurel Hedging is a Popular Choice
The English Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) will also produce a great boundary hedge quickly.
Just like its Portuguese counterpart, the English laurel hedging will grow around 60 centimetres per year and will eventually reach heights over six metres if left to its own devices.
You could also consider other varieties of laurel, such as the cherry laurel.
Privet ( Ligustrum spp.) is a good choice for a fasting-growing boundary hedge. It’s another evergreen shrub, so will remain leafy and green throughout the seasons, and it can grow up to 60 centimetres per year. It is a hardy choice, and easy to maintain.
You’ll need to give it a good pruning two or three times during the growing season with the electric hedge trimmers if you want to keep it tidy. If you’re looking to grow a high hedge, then privet will grow up to heights of over five metres.
Photinia ‘Red Robin’ (Photinia x fraseri) is a beautiful choice for an evergreen boundary hedge.
This shrub is loved for its glossy leaves, which are red in the spring and summer and mature to dark green in the later months of the year.
This easily-maintained hedge is suitable for planting into clay, chalk or normal soils and will tolerate full sun or dappled shade.
It grows more slowly than my previous suggestions, at around 20-40 centimetres per year.
Red Robin can withstand the frosty conditions of autumn and winter, so presents a hardy choice for a resilient hedge.

Best Hedging for Keeping Out Intruders
Are you trying to figure out how to choose the best hedging plants to keep out intruders?
Generally speaking, the best security hedging plants are the thorny, pricky ones.
Your security hedge can be grown around the boundary of a property, or even under windows to create natural-looking barriers.
Much more attractive than wire fencing! Security hedges can enhance the appearance of a property whilst protecting it.
Here are some suggestions for choices of security hedging plants:
Holly: (nIlex aquifoliium) It’s certainly prickly, and forms a dense hedge.
Not only that, it produces beautiful red berries in late autumn into winter, which the birds love, and make the whole hedge look very attractive.
It’s important to know that you need both male and female plants to achieve cross-pollination if you want those berries to appear.

Holly hedging plants need to be set around one metre apart, and they will need attention to get started in their early months.
Prune in late spring or early summer to achieve a thick, dense hedge.
Note that holly is s slow-growing plant, only growing around ten-fifteen centimetres each year, so you’ll need to buy established plants which are already a few years old.
They will grow in full sun or partial shade and are suitable for all soil types.
Hawthorn,(Crataegus monogyna) or Quickthorn, is a great choice of native hedging for security purposes, as it really lives up to its name by being super-thorny!
It grows fairly quickly, at around 40-60 centimetres a year, and will thrive in pretty much any kind of soil. Hawthorn will grow into a stout, resilient hedge, up to five metres in height.
Not only is it a great deterrent to intruders, but a hawthorn hedge is a beautiful feature for your garden as it changes over the seasons: blooming with delicate white flowers in the spring and then shiny, raw haws in the autumn- perfect for birds and other wildlife.
Other options for the right hedging plants to keep out intruders:
Pyracantha coccinea, or Firethorn, makes a very effective and attractive security hedge. Its branches are covered in thorns whilst the plant is adorned with clusters of bright berries in a range of colours: red, orange and bright yellow.
The berries add a bright pop of colour during the dark months of autumn and winter, when most other plants are dormant.
Pyracantha is very hardy and able to withstand poor-quality soil conditions and very dry weather.
Therefore it’s an extremely versatile and easily maintained option for a hedge designed to deter intruders.

Berberis: This is an excellent choice as a security hedging plant.
Not only is it super thorny, but it also produces flowers and bright berries in a variety of colours, so it keeps our wildlife pals happy too.
Berberis produce food for birds and insects well into the chilly weather when other food sources are scarce.
There is a wide variety of Berberis hedging plants to choose from, with different coloured flowers and berries. They need to be planted into well-drained soil but will thrive in either sun or shade in your garden.
Flowers will bloom from March through to May and your Berberis will produce fruits from August through to October.
Best Choices for Aesthetically Pleasing Hedges
When you’re considering how to choose the best hedging plants to create an aesthetically pleasing hedge there are several factors to consider.
Do you want colourful leaves?
Maybe you’d like plants which produce flowers, fruit or berries.
Or perhaps you’re looking for hedges which respond well to being trimmed into attractive designs, such as box hedging, for example.
This could prove to be a very long list, but I am going to share some of my favourites with you.
Best Floral Hedging Plants
Portuguese Laurel: not only a great plant for a boundary hedge, but it produces white flowers in the spring and berries in the wintertime.
Golden Privet: this produces small creamy-white flowers during the summer. Berries follow in the winter, providing welcome nutrition for birds.
The leaves of the golden privet are very attractive: yellow in colour, with green markings in the centre.
If you’re looking for a hedging plant which can be clipped into attractive shapes and topiaries, then Golden Privet is a great choice.
You can repeatedly clip during the summer to achieve the design you want. Then prune hard during the late winter or early spring before the growing season.
Flowering Currant ( Ribes Sanguineum): this is another favourite of mine: this one is a deciduous hedging plant.
It will flower in the spring with very pretty, pendulous crimson flowers which are a highly-scented magnet for bees. In the autumn blue-black currant-like fruits appear, which the birds love, and we can eat them, too.
The Flowering Currant with grow in most soils other than very alkaline, and it will thrive in most sites, including coastal ones.
It is a hardy plant and will perform well in full sun or partial shade. Many gardeners choose to grow the flowering currant as a feature of a mixed hedge.
Another Beautiful Option for a Flowering Hedge
Fuschia Magellanica, or hardy Fuschia- makes a stunning choice for an ornamental flowering hedge.
Few can fail to appreciate the delicate pink and purple pendant-shaped bell-like flowers that bloom during the summer months.
Fuschia will attract bees and other pollinating insects into your garden. This versatile shrub can be grown as an attractive feature plant in a mixed hedge or as an addition to mixed borders and flowerbeds.

Fuschia Magellanica grows around 20-40 cm a year and can achieve a height of three metres if desired.
It’s a resilient plant which can grow in any normal, moist soil type, and is particularly well-suited to coastal positions.
After the flowers have died away, it’s a good idea to carry out some hard pruning to keep it in a neat shape around 1.5-2 metres in height.
Great Hedging Plant Choice for Coastal Areas
Escallonia rubra Macrantha is another example of a beautiful flowering hedge plant.
An evergreen, this shrub flowers from June through to October, producing masses of bright red-pink delicate flowers.
It grows quite quickly- around 30-45 cm each year, and should be pruned after flowering to keep it in a neat shape.
This flowering hedge plant is suited for most soils and positions and particularly likes growing by the coast. It doesn’t thrive in very cold places, nor does it grow well in the shade.
Therefore you need to think carefully about its suitability for your garden. if you’re not a fan of the red flowers, escallonias also come in pink and white shades.
Choose St John’s Wort for Masses of Bright Yellow Flowers

Hypericum, or St John’s Wort is a lovely choice of flowering hedge plants if you like the idea of a mass of bright yellow five-petalled flowers all along your hedge from May through to August.
Bees and butterflies love these flowers, so you will certainly be doing your bit for nature by growing a Hypericum hedge!
Don’t choose this flowering hedge plant if you’re looking to grow a high hedge or a dense boundary, as this ornamental hedge will generally not grow much higher than a metre.
It will also lose some of its foliage during the winter and is often classed as semi-green.
Although you can grow Hypericum in a shaded position in your garden it’s more suited to being in the sunshine, where it will grow more vigorously and reward you with more flowers.
Its favourite happy place is in a coastal garden with its roots in any well-drained soil.
Forsythia: whilst on the theme of yellow-flowering hedge plants I couldn’t fail to mention one of my old favourites- Forsythia.
Each spring this plant bursts into a golden sunray of plentiful bright, yellow flowers- I love them!

Forsythia is easy to maintain at a height of around 1- 3 metres and will grow in normal, chalk or clay soils. It will thrive in full sun or dappled shade in exposed, coastal or sheltered gardens and will grow around 20-40 cm per year.
To care for your Forsythia, trim it back in the spring when the blooms have begun to fade, and remove any dead wood.
The branches of the Forsythia are naturally arching, so work with the flowing nature of the plant when you’re trimming it, to keep it producing plenty of flowers for the next season.
Philadelphus ‘Belle Etoile‘ is my final suggestion for the choice of the right plants for a flowering hedge.
This plant is commonly known as the ‘mock orange’ because of the orangey fragrance produced by the plentiful delicate white flowers.
It creates a beautiful informal hedge as it becomes covered with large white single flowers from June right through the summer and well into September if conditions are mild enough.
This plant is deciduous, so it will lose its foliage in the autumn.
It will grow around 20-40 cms per year to a height of around 1.2-1.5 metres. Philadelphus can be planted in full sun or partial shade in most soil types. It will thrive in sheltered or exposed positions in your garden, in coastal areas or inland.
Lavender: I couldn’t possibly miss lavender off the list of the best floral hedging plants!
Lavender will create a beautiful, scented and profusely flowering low hedge for you, and for the bees in your life!
Properly cared for, lavender will flower right through the summer and into a mild September and will be a haven for bees and other pollinating insects.
When choosing lavender to grow as a low hedge in your garden, bear in mind that the English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)is more hardy than the French and Spanish varieties, and more attractive to bees.
It also tends to last longer.

You’ll need to plant your lavender in full sun and well-drained soil, planting the young plants around 25 cm apart.
The half-hardy and tender varieties, such as Lavendula stoechas grow best in a sheltered area in your garden.
After the plants have finished flowering, cut back hard to prevent the stems from becoming woody.
During the growing season you’ll be able to harvest your lavender for lavender soap or whatever you want, just don’t remove more than one-third of the plant.
Grow lavender in full sun in well-drained soil.
Half-hardy and tender lavenders, such as Lavendula stoechas, should be grown in a sheltered spot. Cut back after flowering to prevent stems from becoming woody.
Best Formal Hedging Plants
Box hedging (Buxus sempervirens.)If you’re looking to create a low, formal hedge for your garden, then box hedging is an excellent choice.

This dense, compact plant grows slowly- only 10-15 cm per year- and is easy to shape and maintain.
These evergreen hedging plants are extremely hardy and will grow in tough conditions, including poor and dry soil.
They are ideal if you wish to create a hedge of between 0.5-1.5 metres in height. Their density also makes them highly suited to act as a windbreak or a privacy screen.
Spindle (euonymus vegetus,) is a hardy evergreen which has become a popular alternative to the more traditional box hedging.
This plant has a slow rate of growth, which makes it ideal for trimming into elegant and attractive formal hedges. Spindle will thrive in almost all growing situations.
Japanese holly: in recent years the Japanese holly has frequently been used to replace box hedging in many formal gardens as it is impervious to a disease called ‘box blight’, which has affected many box hedges.
The name ‘Japanese holly’ is deceptive, as it doesn’t actually look anything like a holly: its small oval leaves make it look very much like a traditional box hedging plant.
Berberis: look out for the species called berberis frikartii and berberis frikartii ‘Telstar’ as they have been cultivated specially for creating hedges.
Berberis are well-suited for formal hedges, as, not only are they slow-growing and therefore easy to keep in neat shape, but they also produce attractive coloured berries.

Best Native Wildlife-Friendly Hedging Plants
If you’re looking to create a wildlife-friendly hedge, then look out for packs of mixed native hedging packs.
These contain a prickly mixture of native hedging plants known to be beneficial to nature.
The plants selected have a mixture of berries, flowers, nuts, sloes, hips and haws.
Their prickly branches provide suitable nesting sites for birds whilst deterring predators.
Remember, too, that the bases of all hedges can provide a safe corridor for small mammals such as hedgehogs.

Best Hedging Plants to Create a Windbreak
If your garden is exposed to strong winds, such as beside open, flat fields of farmland or right on the coast, you may well be looking to plant a hedge as a windbreak to provide some shelter.
Similarly, your garden may be adjacent to a noisy road so you’re looking for hedging plants which will absorb some of the noise from the traffic.
Here are some suggestions for hedging plants which will act as a windbreak and dampen down the unwanted sound of traffic:
- Alders. These can quickly grow to a good height and will become established quickly. They also keep their foliage late into the season and are resistant to most pests and diseases.
- Lombardy Poplar: these are frequently to be seen lining fields to reduce the effects of strong winds. it is advisable to space your trees out when planting them- you don’t want a solid wall that can be blown down in the strong winds- better to allow the wind to filter through the trees.
Other hedging plants which make great windbreaks are:
- Leylandii Gold Hedging. …
- Leylandii Green Hedging. …
- Monterey Cypress Hedging (Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’) …
- Privet Golden Hedging. …
- Common Privet Hedging (Ligustrum Ovalifolium Hedging) …
- Thuja Plicata Atrovirens Hedging. …
- Thuja Smaragd Hedging. …
- English Yew Hedging – Taxus Baccata.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it:I hope my comprehensive guide helps you to figure out how to choose the right hedging plants for your needs.
Happy gardening!
Suggested reading
Top 8 Materials To Create Attractive and Productive Raised Beds
What is the Best Soil for Raised Beds?
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