GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

Another John · 07-04-2015, 09:37 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
(Nick Maclaren) wrote:

One thing: after a few years, _any_ hedge will have grown higher than
you thought ... they creep up in height, I've found, because although "I
always take 6" off the top", they actually grow 7" or 8" in the year (if
you see what I mean).

Yes. But that is inevitable ONLY if your hedge is something like
leylandii, which will not regrow from old wood. With plants that
do, you can cut it back to size, either every spring or when it
gets too big for its boots.

Yes - my point was a general one though: you can always chop off the top
of a leylandii, and I regularly have done. The side shoots at the top
then grow vigorously upwards, and form a new top. I just wanted to warn
the OP (if he's new to hedges) that one year you will come to trim your
hedge (whatever the variety), and find that you need ladders to stand
on, instead of the beer crate, to get at the top :-)

The person you mention in the previous paragraph almost certainly
clipped it more than twice a year, and certainly was obsessive
about doing so.

You're correct: he kept at it all year round iirc. (It was only a foot
thick, but it wasn't very beautiful.)

J.