In article , Martin Brown |||newspam|
writes
Kay wrote:


Fast growing and thorny is a double edged sword. You have to keep on top
of pruning it or else!

And you have to make sure you collect all the prunings and not leave any
lying on the lawn or lurking amongst your flowers. But the OP did want
security ;-)

Lots of other hedging plants with berries and
with/without thorns exist with variable growth rates.

Hawthorn and blackthorne do look a bit bare in midwinter (ie now).

Blackthorn, yes, but hawthorn is so densely twiggy that, although it is
leafless, it is dense enough not to look bare. Personally, I prefer the
look of the dense mass of hawthorn twigs to the dead leaves that persist
through winter on beech, but that's just a personal opinion - others, I
know, feel differently.

If I ever come into an inheritance, I shall replace our hawthorn hedge
by a big tall yorkshire stone wall which needs no pruning ;-)

If you're interested in wildlife, you are better to have a mixture, and
with 42 feet you have the space to do so. A mixture will also provide
you with more variety to look at, and something of interest for a
greater part of the year.

I prefer to have blocks all the same species for about 10 feet at a time
(and mostly things with leaves on in the winter). My hedges include
beech, cotoneaster (2 varieties), pyracantha, wild rose and box. There
is some honeysuckle in there too.

How keen are the birds on cotoneaster? All our native berries -
whitebeam, rowan, rose hips, holly, elderberry - are long since gone,
but our birds are yet to start on the pyracantha, viburnum will be later
than that, and Cotoneaster (the nasty little horizontal thing), skimmia
and pernettya will probably remain untouched.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"