Help required re winter/summer hardy plants please!

[Nicos]

I'm desperate for some help please peeps!

We have a very exposed field ( mostly NE or SW winds)

The soil type is slightly acidic and sandy .

I'm looking for shrubs/plants which will create a low barrier ( preferably perennial) which can cope with temps varying between -18C and wet through to full sun exposure and very little water at 40C - both extreme temperatures for short periods only).

I don't mind a bit of summer watering- but don't want to be messing too much with fleece during the winter.

Not really wanting to put in a traditional hedge- something a bit more pretty/domesticated if poss as it's inside the garden.

Any ideas most welcome!!!!!

Thankyou

[binley100]

gorse? ..........
Gorse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia flowers are edible too ......

[endymion]

Don't know if you could use the postcode of a similar British area and find some native plants you could grow. If so, you could look at the Plant Postcode Database - it's what we used to help choose what to put in a mixed native hedge for our garden.

We ended up with a mix of evergreen and deciduous, some of the deciduous are berry-bearing for the birds.

You wouldn't go far wrong looking at the Viburnums too, there are evergreens and deciduous ones as well as autumn/spring/summer flowering ones. They all respond well to clipping and grow fairly quickly to about 6-8ft tall.

[VirginVegGrower]

Mahonia?!?

[roitelet]

My Mahonia has been cut back by the cold for the last two years. It's the one that produces rosettes of flowers, perhaps the other ones are hardy.

Be nosey and look at other peeps gardens for ideas.

[Nicos]

Be nosey and look at other peeps gardens for ideas.

Ha!!!...good idea but...most peeps seem to be much more sheltered than we are. We're at the head of a valley which doesn't help
Most plants I've seen on the internet seem good with one of the extremes but not the other.


Gorse would certainly work hmmm..me thinks a bit more research is in order Watson!
( do they ALL smell of wee though?????)

[Glutton4...]

Gorse is hardy, as are Rubus - some of which are attractive. I have a customer with an exposed sandy garden, and Hazel seems to do well, and I agree with Endymion on the Viburnums, too. I would suggest a mixture of species, that way you'll see what works and what doesn't, and dig in plenty of manure to the ground beforehand. But you already know that!

[Nicos]

Nice suggestions G4. I have a Hazel tree- but wondered if Witchhazel is as hardy????

Have to say- I do fancy a mixture of low shrubs!

OH has been digging out boulders this pm- so we just need a list - and then somewhere to collect them from! ( vvv poor selection of plants over here)

We're looking at about a 20ft stretch. I'm wondering about beech and copper beech plants too to add a bit of colour.
Winter seems a bit of a prob though! ( ermmm...holly- how hardy is that?????)

[roitelet]

Yes whitch hazel is hardy but will make a large loose shrub. Holly is fine but I would stick to the ordinary species. How about Rhus, Phytonis, Cotoneaster or Rosa rugosa. They have all survived here on quick draining soil and -19C! How about Broom?

There should be some plant fairs coming up in the near future. They would be worth a look.

[Glutton4...]

Waaaabits love Holly!

[endymion]

Have to say- I do fancy a mixture of low shrubs! ..... We're looking at about a 20ft stretch. I'm wondering about beech and copper beech plants too to add a bit of colour.
Winter seems a bit of a prob though! ( ermmm...holly- how hardy is that?????)

I've checked our stretch of mixed 'hedge'. It's been in about 10 years and is on a fairly dry part of the garden - a bank about 3ft high between us and next door. Only one or two of the shrubs need pruning to keep them in check.

There's Viburnum tinus, which is evergreen and just starting to flower; Viburnum opulus (Guelder Rose), which is deciduous 'native' and has red berries in the autumn; Holly - mistake - we should have chosen a variegated one instead of the native plain one which is a bit too vigorous and hasn't yet borne berries; Hawthorn, deciduous; Philadelphus coronaries aureus, meant to have golden leaves but they don't stand out, blossom is lovely; Buddleia, a deep purple one. Choisya ternata, the golden leaved one.

Some things have self-seeded.

Bay - looks brilliant, has lovely flowers too. We've got quite a few dotted around the garden, they look good all year round.

Snowberry has spread from next door. It's a menace.

There are a couple of Quercus ilex seedlings, an evergreen oak, which have arrived from somewhere or other. They grow in southern Europe and will happily withstand drought as well as damp soil. I've seen them clipped to make a decent hedge.

There's also what looks like a Yew seedling, which will be nice. Goldcrests like to nest in it.

The tallish cotoneaster died.

Holly is very hardy.

Beech prefers well drained soil, for wetter soil the alternative is Hornbeam. The advantage of Beech is that leaves on young wood don't fall until the new leaves are ready to grow, so you get a brown leafy hedge through the winter.

Sorry, I've written too much

[VirginVegGrower]

Bays not good with severe frosts/exposed winds. Bigger and better established shrubs will fair better than smaller younger ones.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Escallonia is evergreen and also produces nice flowers so that is one possibility. Also for an acid soil, how about the azalea type thingie with pink/red bracts. Can't remember for the life of me what it's called, this old age takes a bit of coping with

[roitelet]

The frost has cut back Escallonia and Viburnim Tinus to the ground here. When Hornbeam is kept as a hedge it holds its leaves like Beech

[Aberdeenplotter]

Escallonia is evergreen and also produces nice flowers so that is one possibility. Also for an acid soil, how about the azalea type thingie with pink/red bracts. Can't remember for the life of me what it's called, this old age takes a bit of coping with

It's a pieris of course