How to Plant an Evergreen Hedge (and the Best Plants to Use)

An evergreen hedge gives you privacy, shelter and a green backdrop all year round. It's softer than a fence, it's good for wildlife, and once it's established it only needs a trim or two a year.

Autumn is the best time to plant one. The soil is still warm and moist, the plants are growing slowly, and the roots have months to settle in before spring.

Here's how to plant an evergreen hedge, and how to choose the right plants for your garden.

Choosing the Right Hedging Plant

The best hedge depends on what you want it to do and where it's going. Here are the evergreens we'd look at first.

For fast screening

• Cherry laurel: fast, dense and fully hardy, with big glossy leaves. It copes with sun or deep shade. It needs at least one trim a year to stay a hedge, and it's best cut with secateurs rather than shears so the large leaves aren't left ragged. Find it in our Prunus collection.
• Privet: a classic fast-growing hedge that's fully hardy and copes with pollution and salt wind. It holds its leaves through a mild winter but can drop many of them in a hard one, and it needs three or four trims a year.
• Elaeagnus: fast, tough and one of the best evergreens for wind and salt spray, with small, powerfully scented flowers in autumn.
• Photinia: bright red new shoots that mature to green. Fully hardy, but give it a spot sheltered from cold wind and late frost, which can scorch the red growth.

For coastal and windy gardens

• Griselinia: one of the very best hedges for salty coastal wind, with fresh apple-green leaves. It's best in milder and coastal areas, as a hard inland winter can damage it, and it needs free-draining soil.
• Elaeagnus, holly, Euonymus and Viburnum tinus all cope well with seaside conditions too.

Browse more in our coastal garden plants.

For a flowering hedge

Viburnum tinus is an evergreen that flowers through winter, with pink buds opening to clusters of white flowers. It makes a lovely informal hedge and is good for pollinators.

For a low, neat hedge

Compact Euonymus, such as Euonymus japonicus 'Microphyllus', makes a tidy low hedge or edging. It's fully hardy and copes with sun, shade and seaside gardens.

For a secure boundary

Holly is one of the toughest evergreens of all, standing wind, cold and clipping, and its prickly leaves make a hedge that's hard to get through. Variegated hollies keep their colour best in full sun. Only female hollies carry berries, and most need a male holly nearby.

For shade

Cherry laurel and Euonymus both cope with full shade, making them good choices for a hedge under trees or along a north-facing boundary.

How to Plant an Evergreen Hedge

1. Prepare the ground

Mark out the line of your hedge with string. Clear a strip about 60cm wide of grass and weeds, then dig it over and mix in some well-rotted organic matter, such as garden compost.

2. Space your plants

Most evergreen hedging plants are planted around 30 to 60cm apart in a single row, closer for small plants or a low hedge. For a thicker, faster screen, plant a staggered double row.

3. Plant at the same depth

Water the plants well in their pots first. Dig a hole for each one, plant it at the same depth it was growing in the pot, and firm the soil gently around the roots.

4. Water and mulch

Water thoroughly after planting, then spread a layer of mulch along the row to hold in moisture and keep weeds down.

Looking After a New Hedge

• Water in dry spells through the first spring and summer, while the roots are establishing.
• Trim lightly in the first year to encourage bushy growth from the base, rather than letting it shoot straight up.
• Clip regularly once established. Fast growers such as privet need several trims a year, while Viburnum tinus, holly and Elaeagnus need much less.
• Check for nesting birds before you cut, especially in spring and summer.

A Note for Pet Owners

Some popular hedging plants are harmful if eaten. Laurel leaves and seeds, privet and Euonymus are all poisonous to pets, so bear this in mind if you have animals that like to chew.

Evergreen Hedging: Your Questions Answered

What is the fastest-growing evergreen hedge?

Cherry laurel, privet, Elaeagnus and Photinia are all fast-growing, and Griselinia is quick in milder and coastal gardens.

When is the best time to plant a hedge?

Autumn is best, from about September to November, as long as the ground isn't frozen or waterlogged. Spring, from March to May, works too, but the plants will need more watering through their first summer.

What is the best evergreen hedge for privacy?

For quick, dense privacy, cherry laurel is hard to beat. For a more colourful screen, try Photinia or Elaeagnus.

Which hedge is best for a coastal garden?

Griselinia is one of the best for salty coastal wind, and Elaeagnus, holly, Euonymus and Viburnum tinus all cope well by the sea.

Plant Now, Enjoy for Years

A hedge planted this autumn will be settled in and growing away by next summer, giving you privacy and shelter for years to come. For more ideas, see our guide to the 10 best evergreen shrubs for UK gardens, or browse all our evergreen shrubs.

Every plant we sell is grown in Britain by growers we know, including the Yorkshire nursery that grows most of our garden plants. We choose them for the quality of what they grow, check every plant by hand before it's packed, and send it out ready for your garden.