I'm looking to plant a hedge this spring to screen part of my driveway from
my garden and was looking in a gardening book for advice but wonder if any
of you could enlighten me as to what may be the most suitable.

It will need to grow only to about 4ft-5ft but be dense enough to provide a
screen and will be planted in a south facing part of the garden. Also it
should be evergreen and fairly fast growing (but not a leylandii). My one
and only gardening book (my fingers are not green yet) suggests, and shows a
picture of, Lonicera nitida which looks 'suitable' but only describes it as
"excellent for hedging".

Ideally I'd like it to be well established in the first year and a good
height and nearly fully dense by the end of the second year (if this is
achieveable?).

Does anyone have any experience of Lonicera nitida or could they suggest an
alternative?

Thank you, in advance.

Richard.

"Richard" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of Lonicera nitida or could they suggest
an
alternative?

Thank you, in advance.

Richard.


You don't say whether you are looking for a formal
(neat/clipped/rectangular) or informal hedge. My only experience of
L.nitidia is that it is rather too lax in growth to make a good formal hedge
but would be fine for an informal hedge.

My preference is for Yew for a formal hedge. Plants are available at almost
any size - I put a hedge in last week in a London front garden 8# 4ft bushy
rootballed plants at 60cm centres @ £11+vat per plant ex trade nursery.
Instant solid hedge which will grow 6/9" this year.

pk

If your hedge is not too long (expensive) try Pittosporum tenuifolium or
hybrid thereof. It will need clipping in summer, so does any hedge.
Michael Gilmore,
www.winsfordwalledgarden.freeserve.co.uk



"Richard" wrote in message
...
I'm looking to plant a hedge this spring to screen part of my driveway
from
my garden and was looking in a gardening book for advice but wonder if any
of you could enlighten me as to what may be the most suitable.

It will need to grow only to about 4ft-5ft but be dense enough to provide
a
screen and will be planted in a south facing part of the garden. Also it
should be evergreen and fairly fast growing (but not a leylandii). My one
and only gardening book (my fingers are not green yet) suggests, and shows
a
picture of, Lonicera nitida which looks 'suitable' but only describes it
as
"excellent for hedging".

Ideally I'd like it to be well established in the first year and a good
height and nearly fully dense by the end of the second year (if this is
achieveable?).

Does anyone have any experience of Lonicera nitida or could they suggest
an
alternative?

Thank you, in advance.

Richard.

It is for a formal hedge.

I did consider Yew but I understand that it's poisonous and therefore
probably not suitable for my 8month old daugheter when she eventually gets
up on her feet and roaming around the garden. Is this the case?

Thanks for your advice.


"PaulK" wrote in message
...

"Richard" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of Lonicera nitida or could they suggest
an
alternative?

Thank you, in advance.

Richard.


You don't say whether you are looking for a formal
(neat/clipped/rectangular) or informal hedge. My only experience of
L.nitidia is that it is rather too lax in growth to make a good formal
hedge
but would be fine for an informal hedge.

My preference is for Yew for a formal hedge. Plants are available at
almost
any size - I put a hedge in last week in a London front garden 8# 4ft
bushy
rootballed plants at 60cm centres @ £11+vat per plant ex trade nursery.
Instant solid hedge which will grow 6/9" this year.

pk

On Sun, 2 Feb 2003 19:08:15 +0000 (UTC), "Richard"
wrote:

I'm looking to plant a hedge...

Ideally I'd like it to be well established in the first year and a good
height and nearly fully dense by the end of the second year (if this is
achieveable?).

Not unless you buy plants that are already the right size. The
trouble is that anything that grows 4-5 ft in its first year is
going to keep right on growing at that rate for a long time.

However, there is a hope. I noticed yesterday that a neighbour
has a low ledge (4 ft, I'd say) of Portuguese laurel, and another
has a similarly low hedge of western red cedar. At a guess, both
of these hedges are clipped twice a year, but a four-foot hedge
is no great bother to clip. I'm not at all sure how quickly you
will get the requisite thickness, though. Certainly not in just
one year. (The cedar hedge is cut down from one much taller and I
suspect the laurel hedge is too.)


Does anyone have any experience of Lonicera nitida or could they suggest an
alternative?

Give L.n. a good five years to make a decent hedge, even using
the planted-on-its-side trick.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

"Richard" wrote in message
...
It is for a formal hedge.

I did consider Yew but I understand that it's poisonous and therefore
probably not suitable for my 8month old daugheter when she eventually gets
up on her feet and roaming around the garden. Is this the case?

Thanks for your advice.


The red berries are poisonous but I *think* it tends not to fruit when
regularly clipped as a hedge, or while young. Can anyone clarify this?

pk

In article ,
PaulK wrote:

"Richard" wrote in message
...
It is for a formal hedge.

I did consider Yew but I understand that it's poisonous and therefore
probably not suitable for my 8month old daugheter when she eventually gets
up on her feet and roaming around the garden. Is this the case?

The red berries are poisonous but I *think* it tends not to fruit when
regularly clipped as a hedge, or while young. Can anyone clarify this?

The red part is actually edible, but all other parts of yew are seriously
poisonous.

However, I don't know where this hysteria about exposing children to
it came from, and it is complete nonsense. There are dozens of equally
poisonous plants, many much more common and likely to be eaten. Even
unclipped yew is not a significant danger to children in the UK.
Despite what our degenerate educational bureaucracy thinks, Hamlet
is not a reliable guide to yew's toxicity.

Before worrying about yew, make sure that you have no laurel, laburnum,
potatoes and so on. And I don't advise having any house plants, as
many of them are even worse.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679

In article , Richard
writes
It is for a formal hedge.

I did consider Yew but I understand that it's poisonous and therefore
probably not suitable for my 8month old daugheter when she eventually gets
up on her feet and roaming around the garden. Is this the case?


Many of us with gardens that contain ponds, monks hood, laburnum, yew
and a host of other deadly objects, manage to bring up children quite
successfully. You are better of giving your child rusks to chew on and
teaching it not to eat stuff willy nilly, than trying to keep your
garden free of things that may be harmful.
One day she will fly your nest and if she doesn't know the difference
between what is good for her and what isn't, she is going to come a
cropper Do you intend to prevent her from ever going out into the
big, bad, wild, world?
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

"PaulK" wrote in message
...

"Richard" wrote in message
...
It is for a formal hedge.

I did consider Yew but I understand that it's poisonous and therefore
probably not suitable for my 8month old daugheter when she eventually
gets
up on her feet and roaming around the garden. Is this the case?

Thanks for your advice.


The red berries are poisonous but I *think* it tends not to fruit when
regularly clipped as a hedge, or while young. Can anyone clarify this?

pk

All parts of the yew are nasty "except" the red part of the fruit, birds are
able to eat them and poo out the poionous seed. When my two were of a young
age it was never a problem as yew itself is not attractive for small
children (unlike laburnum seed pods) to avoid the red berries buy male
plants.
I can understand caution but if you avoid planting anything poionous you
will have an empty garden!:~)
--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

Rodger Whitlock wrote:


Give L.n. a good five years to make a decent hedge, even using
the planted-on-its-side trick.


and be prepared to clip it at least twice a year to keep it in shape.
Personally I think it looks rather boring.
Anita

I have Lonicera N. growing as a hedge to around 10ft, to give it added
strength I intereplanted with privet, Around the field I have mixed it with
Hawthorn so I have evergreen and barrier as well.
And there's a good golden form Of L.n. though slower growing


--
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Tue, 04 Feb 2003 16:11:38 GMT, Pam
wrote:

...I have gardened for years with both small
children and assorted pets and with all sorts of 'poisonous' plants - daphne,
sarcococca, yew, etc.- and have never encountered a problem.

The thing I find so distasteful about the "poisonous plant"
hysteria which surfaces from time to time -- in the UK as well as
in the PacNW, I'm sure -- is that it obscures the existence of
the few plants that are seriously poisonous. I used to think that
/Aconitum ferox/ sounded attractive, but then found out that it
was so poisonous that the director of Kew (or some equivalently
highly placed horticultural poobah) wouldn't have it in his
garden. Some Burmese tribesmen use(d) it for poisoning their
arrows...

I've lately had /Eurphorbia characias/ dug up and deported. It
was in an awkward spot and experience had showed me that I
couldn't work around it without getting the latex on me once in a
while.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Jane etc,

Thank you for your useful comments.

I should add that whilst I may have come across as an overly concerned
parent (re. my comment about Yew) I was simply asking whether Yew should be
avoided for this reason,

I don't know a great deal (yet) about gardening but when you read (in the
one gardening book that I own!) that Yew is "highly poisonous" you do
immediately think whether it should be your first choice or last choice as a
hedge. Funnily enough I have a Yew tree in the garden already but it is very
big and the branches would take some reaching and therefore has never
concerned me.

I shall remember the hot teacup and bitter aloes suggestion though.......

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Richard
writes
It is for a formal hedge.

I did consider Yew but I understand that it's poisonous and therefore
probably not suitable for my 8month old daugheter when she eventually
gets
up on her feet and roaming around the garden. Is this the case?


Many of us with gardens that contain ponds, monks hood, laburnum, yew
and a host of other deadly objects, manage to bring up children quite
successfully. You are better of giving your child rusks to chew on and
teaching it not to eat stuff willy nilly, than trying to keep your
garden free of things that may be harmful.
One day she will fly your nest and if she doesn't know the difference
between what is good for her and what isn't, she is going to come a
cropper Do you intend to prevent her from ever going out into the
big, bad, wild, world?
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

In article , david david@abacusnurse
ries.freeserve.co.uk writes
Always thought French Beans had fibrous roots.....now Runner beans form a
tuber and used to be lifted stored, then planted early to give a light crop
of early beans.

French bean roots have nitrogen fixing nodules which make them look
tuberous.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/garden/

In article , david david@abacusnurse
ries.freeserve.co.uk writes
Always thought French Beans had fibrous roots.....now Runner beans form a
tuber and used to be lifted stored, then planted early to give a light crop
of early beans.

They were beans of some sort ))
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com