I inherited a Forsythia hedge (yellow flowers) at my previous house, but it only flowered for a couple of weeks and I had to prune about three times in the summer because it grew so fast, and too late a pruning loses you the flowers, so I don't recommend that. I've inherited a Viburnum tinus hedge in my current house, the flowers are lovely, but it requires careful management if you are to keep it to size without losing next year's flowers. I also have inherited hedges of beech and laurel (which won't flower), and they are nothing special either.

If I was planting a new hedge of that size in my dry soil, I would probably first choose one of the varieties of rose suitable for hedging. Then you get lots of flowers in the summer, and some of them have interesting stems also. Another thing that would appeal to me would be Leptospermum spp, very small dark heather-like evergreen leaves, very upright (hence thin hedge) and smothered in flowers in midsummer, choice or white, pink or red. They are supposedly a bit tender, but I haven't found them so.

I really like my neighbour's Pyracantha hedge - flowers in spring then holds many red/orange/yellow berries (according to variety) for many months, and very manageable, but may not get to full size immediately.

I rather like the idea of hedges to produce edible goodies. If you are in a mild, damp area of the country with non-alkaline soil, the Chilean cranberry (Queen Victoria's favourite fruit) Ugni molinae (Syn. Myrtus ugni) can be grown as a hedge. Evergreen with small shiny leaves, summer flowers, autumn exceedingly delicious berries (if the birds don't get them first). Won't grow too fast, nor need much pruning, though would take a few years to get to 1.5m.

A more traditional edible hedge accepting a wider range of conditions would be damson or a juneberry (Amelanchier spp), both having nice spring flowers, though these are both deciduous and the leaves are nothing special. Juneberry needs reasonably moist soil and not too hot a location to thrive, and birds can beat you to the delicious berries.

Very unfussy, the worse soil the better, is Eleagnus x ebbingei which produces scented flowers in winter and edible berries (in spring oddly) after a few years, has interesting evergreen leaves (silver or variegated to choice) and prunes to shape well, though I hesitate to suggest it given its common habitat in supermarket car parks. Likewise various Berberis; unfortunately the fruiting form of Berberis buxifolia, the favourite calafate berry of Patagonia, and excellent low hedging, is hard to track down in this country; everyone seems to sell the sterile "nana" cultivar. One of my neighbours has an ever-purple berberis as a hedge, and we rather like that, though I don't think I'd bother with the fruit.

For the go-ahead gardener, in mild, damp, non-alkaline conditions, Desfontainea spinosa would make a novelty hedge: it looks just like holly until you surprise the neighbours with lovely red and yellow waxy tubular flowers about 4cm long, in summer. No red berries though.

I've seen Christmas box (Sarcococca spp) used as lovely hedge, though it would be a bit slow to start with - evergreen, scented winter flowers, black berries in summer, but could be a good idea if this is a shady location.

Some hedges can be livened up by growing some suitable climbers, eg, native honeysuckle, up through them. I've got a rambling rose in my beech hedge.