11 Unconventional Hedge Ideas for Your Landscape

Why make a hedge? Possibly you’d like to separate your property from a neighbor’s, otherwise you’d like so as to add formal construction to your backyard. Hedges are wonderful for dividing, lining, and designing. They’ve a spread of makes use of:

Your wants will dictate which hedge is greatest for you and your backyard. Evergreen species work properly for creating privateness and safety, whereas deciduous ones provide enticing flowers and fruits. 

Upkeep is one other consideration—you’ll need to use low-maintenance shrubs in case you dislike pruning or lack the time to trim them persistently. It’s also possible to develop a loosely formed hedge as an alternative of a decent, formal one. 

Begin with one in every of these 11 profitable hedge vegetation. They’ll shock you with flowers, fruits, and attention-grabbing leaf shapes. Though they’re unconventional, they’re very good within the house backyard! 

American Holly

American holly is an evergreen, native species that works properly as a decent or loosely trimmed hedge. It has spiny leaves, crimson berries, and white flowers. As a result of it is a U.S. native species, it helps a spread of untamed creatures! 

American holly blooms feed pollinators, and the fruits feed birds, squirrels, and different small mammals. You’ll create year-round privateness and assist the native atmosphere whenever you develop a local holly hedge.

Shear your holly within the spring after it blooms to take care of a decent form. This species reaches epic proportions, and it might develop to 60 toes tall. It’s excellent for big yards with loads of open area. Use it to divide up the backyard or so as to add privateness to an open yard. 

Seaside Rose

Seaside roses are rugged, hardy, and difficult! Their sharp thorns forestall unruly critters from coming into the positioning. Whereas their thorns are unruly, their blooms are completely pleasant. They’re pleasing to the attention and have beautiful aromas. 

Not like most different roses, seaside sorts tolerate shearing after they bloom. Chop them severely for a decent form or loosely for an open one. 

The seaside rose species Rosa rugosa tends to be invasive in jap elements of the U.S. Think about using a range or cultivar of the species that’s much less invasive, like Robusta or Rotes Meer.

Crab Apple

Imagine it or not, you should utilize flowering crab apples in hedges! These ornamental bushes keep shorter in maturity than American hollies, making them excellent for tighter areas. You’ll have pink-white blooms in spring, tiny apples in summer season, and woody stems within the winter. 

Crab apples don’t take kindly to shearing; as an alternative, prune overgrown and crossing branches to take care of the form you want. Create a spherical hedge, or let the bushes develop tall for a residing barrier. 

Crab apples want chilly temperatures within the winter to bloom and fruit correctly. They’re excellent for chilly gardens in temperate zones. 

Escallonia Pink Princess 

Pink Princess escallonia, or ‘Fradesii,’ is an evergreen species for gentle climates. In spring, dozens of pink bloom clusters emerge from its stem suggestions. Allow them to open and flower, then shear your vegetation to take care of the hedge’s form. 

Tolerant of salt spray and humidity, Pink Princess works properly in coastal gardens the place different shrubs battle. Plant many en masse on the border of your property, and shear them recurrently to maintain them tidy and compact. 

It’s also possible to select to have a couple of vegetation spaced out in several shapes. Make spherical balls, sq. blocks, or skinny pencils. 

Forsythia

Forsythias fill spring gardens with vivid yellow blooms. Their flowers emerge earlier than most different shrubs, providing early colour in dreary winter landscapes. They open alongside the bare stems and make a spectacular present.

Like with crab apples, you’ll use pruning cuts to handle forsythias as an alternative of shearing them. Prune the branches laborious after the yellow blooms fade. Keep away from making cuts from summer season by winter, because the shrubs are rising their flower buds for subsequent 12 months.

Forsythias have a tendency to remain below 10 toes, making them supreme for brief areas the place different shrubs fail. ‘Lynwood Gold’ is an distinctive selection that grows upright, whereas ‘Karl Sax’ is a shorter cultivar for small areas. 

Lilly-Pilly Tree

Lilly-pilly tree hails from Australia! It’s unusual within the U.S., although it shouldn’t be. It options white flowers and pink, edible berries within the winter. It’s not frost-hardy, making it a perfect hedge possibility for gardeners in gentle climates. 

Keep away from shearing these bushes to make sure they develop loads of blooms and berries. As an alternative of shearing, prune the rank development because it seems all year long. Lilly-pilly bushes can attain upwards of 20 toes tall in case you allow them to. Maintain them shorter with routine pruning. 

Mexican Orange

Mexican orange is a flowering shrub with blossoms that odor like citrus flowers. It’s native to Mexico and elements of the southern U.S., though it survives in areas with gentle winter frosts. It’ll lose its leaves after harsh frosts and sprout new ones when the climate warms. It’s evergreen in gentle climates.

It’s possible you’ll shear Mexican orange vegetation to take care of their form. Prune them after they bloom in spring. A immediate post-bloom pruning can promote a second spherical of flowers!

Should you stay in a chilly area, you could develop Mexican orange vegetation in pots and transfer them indoors over the winter. They’ll develop properly in sunrooms, greenhouses, and equally vivid places. 

Wild Mockorange

Wild mockorange is one other native shrub that works properly as a hedge! It’ll feed native pollinators and fill your spring backyard with unbelievable aromas. Its white blooms odor like orange flowers, much like Mexican orange vegetation. 

This native shrub works properly in casual hedges with irregular edges. Prune the overgrown stems after their flowers open. Keep away from pruning them late within the rising season so that you don’t chop off subsequent 12 months’s blooms. 

Many species of mockorange are native to the U.S., and some non-native species work properly in hedges. Take into account attempting a species or selection that performs properly in your area.

Osage Orange

This thorny specimen isn’t for the faint of coronary heart! Osage orange fruits are inedible and have poisonous sap regardless of their resemblance to oranges. The stems have spectacular spikes that forestall undesirable animals or trespassers from coming into the backyard.

Originating from the central states of the nation, this plant grows properly in massive swaths exterior of its native vary. It doesn’t want a lot to thrive in a hedge, and it grows properly in poor soils and scorching websites. 

Osage orange tolerates harsh pruning. Maintain it as quick, broad, or tall as you’d prefer it to be.

Portuguese Laurel

This laurel is my favourite variety! It has essentially the most enticing options of the laurels. The Portuguese laurel sprouts white, cherry-like blooms in spring, they usually flip into dangling bunches of small, black fruits. The bushes are additionally evergreen, that means they’ll present year-round safety and privateness.

Portuguese laurels are versatile. They’ll flip into small bushes, they usually’ll work properly as small or medium hedges. Prune them as typically as essential to hold them at an affordable peak and width. Use shears or pruners to chop them. 

These laurels will develop woody and thick in case you allow them to. They’ll want constant pruning to remain in a hedge form. Let your concepts run wild—you’ll be able to form laurels into balls, squares, and sculptures! 

Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon is a hibiscus for chilly areas! It’s a deciduous hibiscus with grey, woody stems. They’ll type a tall, rounded shrub with out pruning, although routine cuts can create smaller, tighter hedges. Use pruners to chop the thick branches.