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| I coudn't decide where to post this: trees or shrubs and put it on shrubs. Ken answered and suggested I post here too.
I totally admit that I am enamoured with Brit hedging. Google the word "hedge" and scads of websites of hedging specialists pop up in the .UK. They have traditional formal hedge, tapestry, bird/bee attractive hedges, edible, nod to Brit historics, stock hedging. .. Then just try to find something similar in America where you can buy bundles of bareroot hedging mixes or that has anywhere near the extensive hedge specific inventories the UK companies have... Maybe bundled privet, if that???
Ken said that people don't want to deal with the yearly shaping and trimming or have room to put hedge on McMansion lots. But, what makes the Brits so different that they don't mind the upkeep? And it's not a huge country--people are shoehorned in together but they love their hedge! Who is a trustworthy US company that sell retail/wholesale s tree/shrub liners or bareroot and has a large inventory in the US? Yes, I could search out individual large pots of certain shrubs or trees but would pay much more this way than to go the liner or bareroot route. I can find a few quart pots here, but it can add up in a long hedge... Yes, Musser Forests has some good choices. But it seems like a whole lot more companies are only offering small stock wholesale. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The difference is not about the availability of stock....that is just a symptom. I suspect it's more about living in restricted spaces, a long tradition of cultivated gardens in a certain style, a relatively homogenous climate (vs. US) that favours fast growing green hedging, and green space aesthetics & expectations are much more engrained in the culture. |
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- Posted by strobiculate none (My Page) on Tue, May 15, 12 at 12:16
| suppliers...wholesale only...i can give you quite a list... but again...they are wholesale only. lawyer, bailey, sherman, carleton plants...half the state of oregon and a good part of tennessee. as to why the us is not like the uk...have you tried their beer? of course if i had to eat that food i'd want warm pi--uh, beer as well. really can't answer that one. |
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| Hedging was a necessity before fencing for pasture containment, and the UK has been herding far longer than the U.S. It was done here as well before the advent of barbed wire and I am growing some maclura to start some hedgerow. Americans are not a very private culture. Perhaps it's because interdependence in settling the land was necessary for survival. You won't find anyone in the U.K. or Europe in general asking new acquaintances in and giving them a tour of their house as a common custom. I suppose it also has to do with the great land expanses in the U.S. They are used to seeing open space. They tend, even when living in developments with small lots to expect to borrow the scenic views 'visually' and fences can be the subject of a lot of hard feelings. That being said, you will find in some of the old cities, established before the revolt against the crown, hedging and courtyards, and walls more common. There is also not so much popularity with formal plantings, of which hedges are a major part. I see it becoming more popular, however here and I also see a great push to teach the newer generations in GB how to tend and keep the hedgerows in farm country surviving. They are being lost and some of them are ancient. |
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- Posted by mackel_in_dfw (My Page) on Wed, May 16, 12 at 2:16
| We stopped hedging our beds with the end of feudalism, but we always retained the language of the hedgers, henchmen, and opressors that we came from. That's why we speak good Enflish. The hedge, I hope comes into fashion in America, traditionally, you put up a fence and by the time it falls down all the birds' poopings makes a linear escarpment of assorted bushes and trees. |
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| Hedges popped up at the edges of cultivated fields where the rocks were put. They served as both a livestock fence and as property lines. A side benefit is that they serve as wildlife habitat. The relative age of a hedge can be determined by the variety of species plants inhabiting it. The more, the older. When I first saw the roadside hedges in England, I wondered how they were pruned so tight and high. It didn't take long to realize that buses and lorries did it. You can even see the grooves the mirrors make in the hedges! Our board fences, in some instances, remind me of a frontier fort. Mike
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- Posted by mackel_in_dfw 8a (My Page) on Wed, May 16, 12 at 12:47
| Here in suburbia, we have a two-hundred foot long, evergreen hedge along the back property line, that wards off north winter winds... hedges can really make a backyard private, in order to spend relaxing time with family. Mackel |
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- Posted by ilovemytrees 5b Western NY (My Page) on Wed, May 16, 12 at 14:35
| I love the look of hedges! However, a lot of people plant trees close together (like i have done 6 feet apart) because not only do we want a border on our property but to create privacy that is high enough to block our neighbors, who when they moved in next door, it was a one story house, and soon after they upgraded their home and made it a tall 2 story house. A formal low hedge wouldn't do the job. We planted European Hornbeam Fastigiatas that are stunning, classy looking and will one day make a sort of formal hedge. We will prune as necessary as the trees, in their maturity, start to widen a bit. No one out in the country where I live has hedges. ALL of them use tall Evergreen trees to block views of their homes. I am the only one in my area who is not going the Evergreen route, and that is because I live next door to a man who has acre after acre of Christmas trees on his property. I am sick of seeing them. Besides, if we planted them on our property I would be concerned a family, at Christmas time when people flood his property, would inadvertently walk onto our property and hack one of our trees. |
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| botann - roadside and field hedge are maintained by annual flailing. This has to be done in the winter (by law) to avoid distrurbing nesting birds. The traditional method is by laying once every 5 - 15 years. I'm afraid the theory that it is done by passing traffic is not true. How would the buses get into the field to do the other side? ; ) There was an interesting discussion some while back on different attitudes to boundaries. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0513461228646.html |
Here is a link that might be useful: hedge flailing
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| Flora, I was talking about the semi-main routes, not the back country roads. I can see where they would need flailng. Our back country road leading to my driveway is flailed twice each summer. Good point about the birds. Mike |
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| I noticed that when I vacationed there in 2001. It is really evident when you look down in an airplane from a distance how there are divided areas everywhere. I am sort of replicating it in my yard with yew and Arborvitae from Lowes. I am going to get some Taxus Baccada and Holly from Oikos. The Taxus I have already are shrub size to about 8-10 ft tall. There are vast areas of dry stacked stone wall in the UK, which MAY be part of Hadrians wall, that is a guess. We have some hedgerows here near my property made of Osage orange and Sassafrass, maybe planted by European settlers many years ago. From what I've read Private (or privit) is not desirable anymore because it is invasive. |
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- Posted by jimbobfeeny 5a (My Page) on Wed, May 16, 12 at 20:22
| In my neck of the woods (Central Indiana) Most properties have hedges - Nothing too pretty, usually just mulberries, hackberries, gray dogwood, and whatever else happens to be in the soil. Farms around here tend to be on the "small" side (Generally less than 200 acres), and the hedges just mark where the property boundaries are. I have noticed people tearing out the hedges to utilize every square inch of farmland lately, due to high grain prices. The hedges do slow down the wind, which seems to blow constantly! (Except in the heat of summer) Of course, if you live in an area with heavy woodlands, hedges are kind of redundant. |
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| sujiwan, been there, done that. According to the link in the 1930's the US Conservation Svce had one species in particular in mind to use as a living fence and they heavily promoted it. It didn't work out very well :( |
Here is a link that might be useful: Living fence
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| poaky - sorry to disappoint you about Hadrian's Wall. Dry stone walling was the traditional way of making boundaries in upland areas and other places where stone was easy to obtain. There are hundreds and hundreds of miles of it. H's Wall was built by the Romans and joins the East and West Coasts in the North. It was designed as a fortification against the wild tribes to the North. In its immediate area, ie within a few hundred yards, it was cannibalised by locals as building material after the Romans left, but it certainly didn't contribute to stone walls anywhere else. Botann - I still have to assure you that any road side hedge is kept cut, wherever it is. They would be an appalling hazard otherwise. There may be places where the odd branch gets hit by a passing bus but that is just coincidence. |
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- Posted by uptightbuyer (My Page) on Fri, May 18, 12 at 13:55
| You obviously have never been to Hollywood! Just drive around there for hedges! Trying seeing J.Lo's house!! The hedges are 10 to 12ft high. They certainly know about hedges there. |
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