Hebe hedging: your thoughts please

[Two_Sheds]

choices, choices. I have baby 60 hebe topiara/odora/buxifolia (???) ready to plant, that I grew from cuttings.
Net says they make good hedges, but I can't find more than one example on the web, and that died

edit: I just found a second: see photo

I have 24 baby box too. So, can I alternate the planting: box-hebe-box-hebe, or won't that work? (they seem to have the same growth habit, so this should work).

I can't afford to hedge the whole garden with box (that would be over £100), and I really want to utilise the hebes I spent 2 years growing. I know it does well in my garden, the mother plant's been there for over 5 years. Next door has box, and that's growing OK too.

[WendyC]

Well done for growing on so many plants. Were they from cuttings?
My thought with hebe is that they do tend to gap in the middle after a few years. Some I know you can hard prune, which I have do but they never seem to come back as strongly.
At a recent talk by Monty Don he said he couldn't afford to close plant box at Longmeadow so planted them at, I think he said 1m intervals which is much wider than usually recommended. Patience is needed but as they were wider apart they are not competing have with each other, but has produced a really healthy hedge.
Another thought is to plant one hedge with box and another with hebe, with a view to replacing the hebe with box when you've grown another 100 or so plants from cuttings. Hebes also don't seem to be as long lived as box. Personally I wouldn't alternate them as I think they will inevitably grow at different rates/ habits. I also find it a bit distracting if used as a background, but that's just my view!

[Glutton4...]

Personally, I wouldn't alternate them, I'd keep the species separate, but that's just my preference.

I've planted, and maintained, Hebe hedging before - and it makes a great hedge, providing you keep on top of it - it can grow into a huge straggly hedge with insufficient pruning.

Well done on growing all the little boogers!

[VirginVegGrower]

Personally, I wouldn't alternate them, I'd keep the species separate, but that's just my preference.

I've planted, and maintained, Hebe hedging before - and it makes a great hedge, providing you keep on top of it - it can grow into a huge straggly hedge with insufficient pruning.

Well done on growing all the little boogers!

I wouldn't mix either. I have box formed into knot garden hedging. Maybe do a little parterre in the centre in box, hebe either side. Box once established has extensive roots. If you were nearer you could take a load of cuttings off mine unless I can parcel?!?

[alldigging]

If they need clipping at the same time and grow to the same height then mix, else don't.

Hebe has bee friendly flowers doesn't it?

[mothhawk]

Hebes (and also lavender) have been used along some of the bypasses around Leicester instead of grass verges. They must have been going for 15 to 20 years now. The council trim them to about 2 - 2 1/2 feet high once a year, which makes them look a bit bare at first, but they have a good show of flowers each year, and stand up to all that the traffic throws at them. Don't know the variety.

[Two_Sheds]

I have baby 60 hebe ... that I grew from cuttings.

Well done for growing on so many plants. Were they from cuttings?

Yes
I had about a 50% success rate, with some of them dying off for no reason at all, which is what worries me about planting them as a hedge: and getting a frigging gap in the middle if some died

Monty Don he said he couldn't afford to close plant box at Longmeadow so planted them at, I think he said 1m intervals

Now that's encouraging. Next door has them at the usual 1ft spacing. I think I'll go for 24" apart, possible with the hebe in between just until the box fills out ~ then whip out the hebes

I wouldn't alternate them as I think they will inevitably grow at different rates/ habits.

Yeah, things do, don't they? The mother plant I have in the garden is a sprawling mess, it was never clipped or pruned. It'll be coming out this spring

I wouldn't mix either... Maybe do a little parterre in the centre in box, hebe either side.

That's settled then, I won't mix, not permanently. I'll just do it as a temporary measure, to fill in the gaps until the box grows

If you were nearer you could take a load of cuttings off mine unless I can parcel?

Kind offer, but you aren't *meant* to take cuttings until late summer. Having said that, I've taken a dozen off the new box babies, just to see

Lidl, 6 x 6" plants for a fiver

Hebes (and also lavender) have been used along some of the bypasses around Leicester instead of grass verges.

I tried a low lavender (Munstead) hedge here already: it's a straggly, woody mess which only looks half decent for a couple of weeks in summer



I really, really wanted a flowering hedge, I didn't want to copy my neighbour with his neat box, but I think I shall.

I'm going to make the front garden more formal, less cottagey this year, with a view to it taking less of my time over the years. It's too big, and an awkward shape. I'll see if I can upload my sketch

[Two_Sheds]

The circles are to incorporate the existing planting into the new plan. No thought was given to where the holly, camellia & choisya were put, they just seem to have been plonked randomly.

I'm responsible for the plum (because I bought a bargain and then had nowhere to plant it, doh) and the toe-toe (because the man in the shop said it was small & attractive. It's not, it's a damn pampas grass and is now 5ft wide and 7ft tall)


Eventually, the circles will be low box hedges, and within them, apart from the shrubs, will be bulbs & annual flowers.

At the moment, I only have enough box to plant up the perimeter.

The white gaps will be lawn (if I can bother to get the strimmer in the small gaps), or most likely bark chip mulch