Native Trees and Shrubs for Heavy Soils

Many native shrubs and trees can be used as hedge plants and can be selected depending on your requirements.

Alder (Alnus glutinosa)

Alder (Alnus glutinosa)This useful, easy, and fast growing neatly shaped tree supports over 90 species. It has colourful yellow catkins in spring and cones in the winter, which attract Goldfinches. It needs moist soil of any type other than acid peats, and is commonly found in wet woods, fens, and streamsides - so numbers have fallen due to drainage and reclamation schemes.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)

Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)These fast growing vaulting domed trees will typically only live up to 200 years. They are distributed throughout Britain, but are shade intolerant and tend to grow on calcerous soils. Ash seeds encourage birds and small mammals.

View more information and Purchase Options
Aspen (Populus tremula)

Aspen (Populus tremula)"The quaking aspen light and thin" only lives for 50 years. Their leaves tremble in the wind and make a noise described as a "rustling whisper". They are common throughout Europe, partly as they regenerate so quickly. They demand light and are wind tolerant - a good pioneer species. They also like heavy damp conditions, so can be used to improve clay soils.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica)The majestic Beech has been here since before we were an island - pollen in Hampshire has been dated back to 6000 BC. It is an antisocial tree, growing best among its own - hilltop beech groves are one of the most beautiful landscape features of Southern chalk downlands. It is adaptable, growing in moist soils and tolerant of shade, but it is vulnerable to dry conditions and grey squirrel damage.

View more information and Purchase Options
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)Blackthorn is a fine hedge plant, slow growing but suckering freely and having needle like spines. Its habit makes it a fabulous refuge for small birds and mammals, who feast on its sloes, and a raft of moth and butterfly caterpillars feed on it. It is tough as old boots, and as a hedging plant lays well and forms a good stockproof - and people proof - barrier. Its prolific white flowers are an important nectar source in spring.

View more information and Purchase Options
Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula)

Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula)Alder Buckhorn is a large shrub with glossy green leaves that turn yellow, contrasting with red berries in the Autumn. It prefers damp, peaty sites, and unlike Purging or Common Buckthorn is thornless. Both Buckthorns are, however, the only foodplants of the Brimstone butterfly.

View more information and Purchase Options
Purging Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)

Purging Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)Common or Purging Buckthorn is an upright, spiny shrub usually found in scrub and hedgerows on chalky soil. Its black berries serve as what Richard Mabey describes as a "fierce" purgative. Both Buckthorns are the only foodplants of the Brimstone butterfly.

View more information and Purchase Options
Bird Cherry (Prunus padus)

Bird Cherry (Prunus padus)Bird Cherry is a small tree found in the north, with pretty white flowers and bittersweet edible cherries which the birds crop. It's a very hardy tree that unlike the Wild Cherry does not sucker, so is often found on its own. Orchard ermine moth larvae feed on it and can strip it in the summer.

View more information and Purchase Options
Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)

Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)The Crab Apple is a small tree of woods and hedges throughout Britain. It's relatively scarce; mostly you will now find cultivated varieties or "wilding" apple trees. The Crab's extended flowering period (pretty pale pink blossom) is helpful for bees as much as it is for cross pollinating other apple trees, and its fruit makes delicious jelly for us and good winter eating for the birds.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)

Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)The Common Dogwood is a large, colourful and versatile shrub. It does well in most conditions and suckers freely, making it a good hedging plant. It has red spring twigs and autumn foliage, delicate white flowers in the spring, and black berries that attract birds.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Elder (Sambucus nigra)

Common Elder (Sambucus nigra)Elder is a very fast growing, short lived, adaptable large shrub/small tree. Its many plates of fragrant white flowers are helpful for insects and cordial makers alike (try them lightly fried, too), and birds and winemakers can split the berries between them. The stems of a coppiced tree are very useful around the garden - hollow and light, but surprisingly strong.

View more information and Purchase Options
Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus)

Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus)In this case, a rose isn't a rose, but the Guelder Rose is, notwithstanding, a very beautiful shrub. It has large lobed leaves which turn well in the autumn, and globes of white flowers in early summer, followed by bright red fruit.

View more information and Purchase Options
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)The Hawthorn or Quickthorn is a fast growing tree, beautiful in flower. Its habit makes it an ideal refuge for small birds, who feast on its red fruit. It is tolerant of most conditions, and as a hedging plant lays well and forms a good stockproof - and people proof - barrier.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Hazel (Corylus avellana)

Common Hazel (Corylus avellana)Hazel is a tremendous wildlife resource; its yellow catkins ("Lamb's tails") are an invaluable source of early pollen for bees, and its nuts, an iron age human staple, are a boon for small mammals. Not only is it an important hedging constituent because of its speed of growth and habit, but it is widely used for all manner of traditional coppice products.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

Common Holly (Ilex aquifolium)Holly is slow growing but tremendously useful, not only as an impenetrable evergreen screen, but also as it is very hardy; it grows in deep shade and on a wide range of well drained soil types. It is a good protective habitat for birds and small mammals, and of course they love the female plant's berries. Iti is the food plant of the Holly Blue. It transplants poorly, and we consequently sell it in containers rather than bare root.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)

Common Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)This large spreading tree looks very similar to Beech, although it's not related and has an attractive fluted and sinewy trunk. It's a useful tree, holding its leaves in winter in a hedge (although not as a tree) and tolerating surpringly deep shade. Its wood is amazingly tough, hence it being known as "Ironwood", and burns well.

View more information and Purchase Options
Large Leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos)

Large Leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos)Now very rarely found in the wild, but often planted as a handsome large specimen tree, or in clumps in parkland. Unlike the Small Leaved Lime and Common Lime does not sprout side shoots from its base. Its flowers, produced in May/June, are a magnet for bees, and its nectar makes lovely honey. Needs moist, deep soil.

View more information and Purchase Options
Small Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata)

Small Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata)More commonly found in the wild than Large Leaved Lime, and in Neolithic times about the most common tree in the country. When coppiced, leaving huge stools, can live to an extraordinary age - arguably at least 2,000 years. Its fragrant flowers, produced in May/June, are a magnet for bees, and its nectar makes lovely honey.

View more information and Purchase Options
Field Maple (Acer campestre)

Field Maple (Acer campestre)A beautiful medium sized but fast growing tree, often found in mixed hedges and mixed woodland. Its leaves turn bright yellow, then orange brown in the autumn. In spring it has small yellow flowers, succeeded by red fruit.

View more information and Purchase Options
Common Oak (Quercus robur)

Common Oak (Quercus robur)The Pedunculate, Common, or English oak prefers heavier soils and will tolerate flooding, even by seawater. Its masses of acorns are very helpful feed for the pigs - and a host of small mammals. Its wood has, of course, been used for a vast array of products - ships, barrels, buildings - since time immemorial. It is the supreme native hardwood. The tree's cultural, ecological, and economic significance give it a unique place in British history.

View more information and Purchase Options
Wild Pear (Pyrus pyraster)

Wild Pear (Pyrus pyraster)Like the Crab Apple, the Wild Pear is distinct from feral pears from pips. It is a slow growing small tree, tolerant of most well drained soils. Pretty white blossom, but then its fruit is hard and inedible to humans - not, however, to a myriad of small mammals.

View more information and Purchase Options
Dog Rose (Rosa canina)

Dog Rose (Rosa canina)Of the 14 native species of rose, the Dog Rose is the most common. It carries sweet-scented pink or white blooms and red hips in the autumn. It's a good plant for wildlife, offering a protective habitat and food supply for birds and small mammals, nectar for insects and bees, and a foodplant for several moths and butterflies.

View more information and Purchase Options
Field Rose (Rosa arvensis)

Field Rose (Rosa arvensis)The Field Rose has white flowers with golden anthers and a heady scent. It is a scrambler with arching stems, less tall than the Dog Rose. It's a great plant for hedges, offering a protective habitat and food supply for birds and small mammals, nectar for insects and bees, and a foodplant for several moths and butterflies.

View more information and Purchase Options
Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis)

Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis)Distinct from the Service Tree Sorbus Domesticus, the Wild Service Tree, also known as the "Chequer Tree", is now one of our rarest native trees, concentrated in the southern Weald. At a distance it could be mistaken for an Acer in the autumn when its leaves turn bright red and copper. It flowers beautifully, however, in May.

View more information and Purchase Options
Spindle (Euonymus europaeus)

Spindle (Euonymus europaeus)Spindle, or Spindleberry, is a very pretty shrub/small tree, with tiny flowers in Spring followed by dayglow pink berries enclosing orange seeds. In the unlikely event you don't spot them, you will see its beautiful Autumn foliage. It is found in ancient woods in hedgerows in the South. Beware - it is known to herbalists as a strong purgative.

View more information and Purchase Options
Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana)

Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana)Another Viburnum, like the Guelder Rose, which is widely distributed in the south on chalk. It has creamy white lily scented flowers in May - June which attract bees and butterflies, and are followed by red berries that turn black as they ripen.

View more information and Purchase Options
Goat Willow (Salix caprea)

Goat Willow (Salix caprea)The odd one out - Goat Willow (or Pussy Willow, or Sallow) doesn't necessarily need wet. In the female form it has silver catkins. We have a beautiful old tree in the village that is covered with our bees as soon as it comes into flower. Useful for the church flowers, too.

View more information and Purchase Options
Yew (Taxus baccata)

Yew (Taxus baccata)Although the foliage is poisonous to livestock, birds and small mammals love the berries and the trees - or hedging - as a habitat. It doesn't seem to be grown much now as a specimen tree; when looking for a yew people tend to go more for the Irish variety, with its more fastigiate and tidy habit.

View more information and Purchase Options