Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
will need clipping more often than the slower
growing so that the separate plants have to be
clipped at varying times. Your maintenance
time will be increased.
successful with species that produce new
growth from old wood, or in informal hedges,
produce new woody stems from the base.
Such species are marked with an asterisk in
Table 4.16. Informal hedging plants that can
produce new stems or respond to decapitation
are marked with an asterisk in Table 4.17 (see
page 96). Many conifers do not respond so
there is little to do except remove the hedge
and replant.
Shaping a formal hedge to a series of curves
or cloudlike forms is also an effective
landscape device. Simply prune to the desired
shape (see 'Topiary', page 98). Again, species
that grow from old wood are the easiest to
manage.
Whether your hedge has become too large for
its space or just straggly, severe renovation can
be needed. This procedure will only be
successful with species that can be cut to old
wood and regenerate. Always renovate in
stages over a few years.
Maintenance
Frequency of clipping is reliant on the level
of formality desired, the species planted and
the climate. The timing of clipping should
be considered carefully in frosty climates as
clipping after the last growth spurt if the
year may promote growth only to be burnt
by frost.
Cut back only one side of the hedge
at the end of
the dormant season to a base of branches.
Keep the hedge well-watered and manured to
speed recovery growth.
Those in relatively frost-free climates can
achieve a crisply neat hedge for several
months by hedging in late autumn. After the
spring flush of growth, the outlines will have
blurred so another clipping will be necessary.
It is very much dependent on the species
making up the hedge.
Shorten back the new growth after the first
burst of growth to promote bushy growth.
Clip the developing hedge as required.
When the renovated side has recovered full
foliage coverage renovation of the other side
can be undertaken. This may not occur for
two to three years.
Extremely formal hedges that are expected
to have a razor sharp outline need to have
string lines set up to guide your clippers.
Keep within these constraints and all will be
well. Those less formal can be done by eye.
Always ensure that the base of the hedge is wider
than the top.
Informalhedges
The difference between screen planting and
an informal hedge is a moot one. Suffice it to
say, a hedge is usually made up of the one
species. They will act as one entity
intertwining their branches so that one shrub
is indistinguishable from another. Again the
golden rule is to have the base of the hedge
wider than the top. A broad-based hedge
Renovatinganolderhedge
Always renovate your hedge, be it formal or
informal, in stages. Renovation is only
