Best native hedge plants: choose the right hedges

Thinking of planting a native hedge? It could be one of the best decisions you'll ever make, with benefits ranging from year-round beauty to boosting biodiversity.

Autumn and winter are the best times to plant a hedge. To get you started, here are our recommendations for nine of the best native hedge plants and the amazing benefits they'll bring.

Beech is a majestic species, perfectly suited to life as a hedgerow. Its glossy green leaves have wavy edges that turn a coppery-bronze and remain on the tree throughout autumn and winter. It's also fast growing so perfect for screening and privacy.

This species is a haven for wildlife. It supports around 100 different insects including caterpillars of the barred hook-tip, clay triple-lines and olive crescent moths. The seeds are eaten by mice, voles, squirrels and birds.

Growing tips

• Grows on a range of free-draining soils but avoid waterlogged or very thin dry soils.
• It's tolerant of both shade and full sun.

Type: deciduous

Buy beech from our shop.

This spiny, densely branched shrub is great for hedging. You'll get a frothy mass of white blossom early in the spring (March) followed by purple-black fruits (sloes) later in the summer.

Blackthorn is a superb tree for wildlife as it provides food for over 100 insect species including black and brown hairstreak butterflies and many moths including lackey, magpie and swallowtail. Because it flowers so early in the year, it's a good source of nectar for solitary bees and other pollinators. Its fruit is important for birds and small mammals in autumn and winter while the thorny cover provides a habitat for nesting and roosting birds.

Take care: while blackthorn is brilliant for biodiversity, its suckering nature may make it less suitable for gardens, more formal spaces or places where you want a neat aesthetic. Weigh up your priorities: do you want a wild haven or sculpted space? Consider your needs and space carefully before choosing this rustic, eco-friendly option.

Growing tips

• Grows on moist, well-drained soil.
• Prefers full sunlight.

Type: deciduous

Buy blackthorn from our shop.

Use box to create low-level hedges or borders. It can also be clipped and trained into elaborate topiary shapes if you're creative. It's slow growing with dense, evergreen foliage.

In April and May, box produced small yellow flowers that offer a food source for bees as well as providing a dense, sheltered habitat for small birds, mammals and invertebrates.

Growing tips

• Box can withstand very dry soils and grows well under trees or beneath pleached hedgerows.
• Shade tolerant but can also be planted in full sun.
• Plant box saplings closer together than most other hedge plants - around 20cm apart.

Type: evergreen

A hedgerow that includes dogwood will give your garden a beautiful, crimson-red glow as its twigs turn red in winter. In spring you'll get creamy white flowers.

If you want to attract wildlife to your garden, dogwood is a winner with around 65 species of insect feeding on it. Its leaves are food for the caterpillars of green hairstreak and holly blue butterflies and its spring blossom attracts many pollinators. Later in the summer, dogwood berries are favoured by birds such as starlings, thrushes and robins.

Growing tips

• Grows well on a variety of soils from heavy to well-drained.
• Prefers open, sunny spots.

Type: deciduous

Buy dogwood from our shop.

A hardy, resilient hedgerow classic and one of the prettiest native trees. In May you'll get clouds of creamy or pink-tinged blossom followed by bright red berries later in the summer.

Hawthorn supports hundreds of wildlife species. The fruit is important for birds, especially thrushes into the winter and its dense, thorny growth provides cover for nesting and roosting. Its flowers and leaves are a food source for insects.

Growing tips

• Suitable for most soils.
• Flowers best in full sun.
• Can tolerate exposed and open areas.

Type: deciduous

Buy hawthorn from our shop.

If you want security, a holly hedge makes a great choice!  It's bushy and evergreen and has leaves that are prickly enough to deter unwanted visitors from entering your garden.

It's also a great choice for wildlife. Holly flowers appear in clusters between April and May, providing a nectar source. Its berries are eaten by birds including thrushes, woodpigeons, finches and robins and its dense, twiggy growth is perfect as a bird roost and for sheltering invertebrates. The deep leaf litter that accumulates beneath a holly hedge is used by hibernating hedgehogs and other mammals.

Growing tips

• Suitable for most soils but thrives best in well-drained areas.
• Tolerates deep shade.
• Fairly slow-growing.
• Only female holly trees produce flowers and berries. 

Type: evergreen

Buy holly from our shop.

Hornbeam hedges form a dense barrier with plenty of year-round interest with their lush foliage, catkins (bearing clusters of tiny flowers) in spring, and winged fruits (known as samaras) that develop later in the summer. It's a fantastic, extra-tough alternative to a beech hedge in exposed areas.

Hornbeam supports over 170 species of insects, some of which are hornbeam specialists including the caterpillars of some micromoths. Finches, tits and small mammals eat the seeds in autumn and since it can retain its brown leaves through winter, it provides shelter, roosting, nesting and foraging options for birds.

Growing tips

• Hardy and able to withstand severe weather.
• Grows in almost any well-drained soil and light levels. 

Type: deciduous

Buy hornbeam from our shop.

Rowan (mountain ash) is a great choice for a hedge. It is fast-growing, dense, and attractive, and supports a wide range of wildlife.

Rowan's flowers, fruit, and dense, feather-like foliage provide food and shelter for insects, birds, and mammals. It's also a hardy plant that can tolerate a variety of conditions, making it a good choice for gardens in both urban and rural areas.

Its five-petaled flowers are creamy-white and grow in clusters in May and June. They turn into crimson-red berries in late summer, and the foliage turns fiery rich in autumn.

Growing tips

• Grow well in most soils but prefers light, well-drained, humus-rich soil.
• Can tolerate exposed and open areas.
• Great for both urban and rural locations.

Type: deciduous

Buy rowan from our shop.

A perfect ornamental plant for informal hedging, the wayfaring tree was often planted along waysides and paths (hence its name). It's a fast-growing plant so if you're looking to grow a hedge quickly, this species will help you out.

Wayfaring tree supports over 30 species of insect including the impressive orange-tailed clearwing moth which spends two years as larvae in the stems. The early spring flowers are a food source for beetles and bees, and from mid-summer, the fruits are enjoyed by birds and small mammals.

Growing tips

• Suitable for well-drained soil.
• Hardy tree that grows well in most conditions but flowers best in sunnier spots. 

Type: deciduous

Buy wayfaring tree from our shop.

Yew is an evergreen with needle-like leaves and seeds that are enclosed in a red, fleshy berry-like structure. It brings structure and interest all year but especially in winter. It can be clipped and shaped into hedges and it makes a gorgeous backdrop to flower beds or when layered with other hedges like hornbeam and box.

The fleshy red seed coverings (arils) are eaten by many birds including robins, starlings, fieldfares, blackbirds, and mammals such as squirrels and dormice. Its seed is eaten by greenfinch, bullfinch and hawfinch and its leaves are a food source for some caterpillars. Its dense, evergreen growth provides important cover for roosting birds and invertebrates.

Growing tips

• Shade tolerant.
• A tough plant that can withstand severe weather, it is a good plant for areas of the garden where other species struggle.
• Male and female flowers are on different plants.
• Note: most parts of the yew tree (except for the bright red arils) are poisonous to mammals when ingested.

Type: evergreen

Buy yew from our shop.

Reasons to plant a native hedge

1. Year-round beauty, structure and interest in your garden
   A hedge looks stunning whatever the season, from the structural beauty of bare winter twigs and clouds of blossom in spring to lush foliage in summer and gold and jewel colours in autumn.
2. Privacy and natural screening
   Native hedge plants provide cheap and easy screening. If you want privacy all-year-round plant evergreens like box or yew - and some deciduous species like beech and hornbeam retain their leaves well into the autumn.
3. Increase security
   A traditional mixed hedge is excellent for security. They've kept livestock out for centuries so they'll discourage people too. Hawthorn and blackthorn are fast-growing and make impenetrable barriers, and holly provides a spiky, evergreen option.
4. Incredible for wildlife
   During the 20th century an estimated half of all hedgerows were lost from the countryside, yet hedgerows offer a lifeline for wildlife. Bats use them for navigation and they provide food, shelter and nesting places for birds, mammals and invertebrates. A hedge of mixed native species is especially valuable. 
5. Climate change
   Hedgerows capture and store harmful atmospheric carbon dioxide, locking it away for the lifetime of the hedge (which can be decades). Hedges and trees also help to mitigate the effects of climate change.
6. Help reduce pollution
   Hedgerows purify the air around you, producing oxygen and helping capture harmful particulates – especially important in urban areas where levels of atmospheric pollutants are high.
7. Useful for foragers
   If you love cooking, a native hedgerow can provide all sorts of exciting ingredients. Use the fruits to make classic sloe gin, flavoured vodkas and hedgerow jams, jellies and preserves.