5/6. Soft landscaping Hedges/Shrubs

Question 1

Describe Soft landscaping

Answer 1

• All planted/ living elements

- Consider after hard landscaping

Question 2

What will influence Plant selection

Answer 2

• Soil type/ pH/ drainage
• Aspect
• Local/ Micro climate
• Wind or frost pockets
• Style - formal or informal, cottage, Mediterranean, naturalistic

Question 3

Key uses for Tree’s, shrubs and hedges

Answer 3

• Add height
• Control movement - create boundary
• Create framework/ backdrop
• Focal point
• Low ground cover can link areas
• Ornamental - colour, texture, flower, fruit
• Screen planting - obscure unsightly views
• Habitat for wildlife
• Provide shelter - belts or windbreaks
• Container plants - roof, patio or courtyard gardens

Question 4

Describe Hedging and key uses

Answer 4

• Shrubs or small tree’s planted close together in a row
• Once merged they provide a solid, green, living structure
• Create the backbone of the garden
• Must have a twiggy structure and respond well to pruning/cutting
  Uses
• Boundaries
• Provide shelter
• Backdrop for other plantings
• Create a natural habitat for beneficial organisms

Question 5

Maintenance of Formal and Informal hedging

Answer 5

Formal hedging

• Trimmed regularly to a defined shape
• Best to have small/ medium sized leaves
• Use hedge cutter on these sized plants
• Use secateurs on very small leaves to avoid damage
• For larger leaved hedging trim in a ‘batter’ shape - Wider at base than top to allow light

Informal hedging

• Ornamental - picked for flower, fruit, foliage
• Clipped occasionally to maintain shape/control
• Inexpensive if brought from seed

Question 6

Taxus baccata (Yew)
Evergreen - Hedge

Answer 6

Decor
- Coniferous tree
- Small, dark green leaves which give it a fine texture
- Female plants produce red arils (small open-ended fruits
Use
- Formal hedge
- Create a tall boundary hedge, internal divisions within the garden
- A backdrop to an herbaceous border, as a maze or a beautiful loose sculptural hedge

Question 7

Viburnum tinus

Evergreen - Hedge

Answer 7

Decor
- Compact evergreen shrub with oblong dark green leaves
- Bears small flat heads of white flowers over a long period in winter and early
spring
- Followed by small black fruits
Use
- Informal hedge
- Can be used as a boundary hedge
- Good at screening road noise
- Works well as a hedge in a cottage garden or around a woodland garden

Question 8

Fagus sylvatica (Beech)
Deciduous - Hedge

Answer 8

Decor
- Wavy margined leaves which are very soft, silkyhaired and light green when new, turning glossy dark green
- Leaves turn orange, then brown and stay on the hedge until the buds start to open
Use
- Boundary hedge in an urban or rural setting
- Creating internal divisions within the garden for example around a vegetable garden
- Screening out unwanted views
- Pleached hedge (hedge on legs) to improve privacy in a garden that is overlooked

Question 9

Corylus avellana (Hazel)
Deciduous - Hedge

Answer 9

Decor
- Large, round /heartshaped, toothed leaves with a rough texture that turn yellow in autumn
- Yellow catkins are borne in late winter and early spring
- Small edible nuts are produced in autumn
Uses
- Informal hedge
- Good as a boundary hedge in a rural or cottage garden
- Around a wild flower meadow or wildlife garden

Question 10

Buxus sempervirens

Evergreen - Shrub

Answer 10

Decor 
- Glossy, dark green leaves
- Small, yellowish flowers in clusters, produced in the leaf axils during spring
Uses 
- Wildlife gardens
- Patio and container plants
- Hedging and screens
- Used as an informal hedge within a garden

Question 11

Fatsia japonica

Evergreen - Shrub

Answer 11

Decor
- Very large, leathery, palmate leaves with 7-11 lobes
In autumn, it produces creamy white flowers in branching umbels followed by
small, black fruits
Uses
- Focal point
- Container plant

Question 12

Hebe ‘Midsummer beauty’

Evergreen - Shrub

Answer 12

Decor
- Lance shaped leaves flushed purple when young
- Spikey, long, lilac coloured flowers from mid-summer
Uses
- Summer interest in a mixed/ shrub boarder
- Informal hedging near coast

Question 13

Buddleja davidii ‘Black Knight’ (Butterfly bush)

Deciduous - Shrub

Answer 13

Decor
- Fast growing with long arching shoots and lance-shaped grey/green leaves
- From summer to autumn bears dense panicles long of fragrant dark purple-
blue flowers
Uses
- Very attractive to bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects
- Use in a wildlife garden or a mixed border for summer colour

Question 14

Hydrangea quercifolia

Deciduous - Shrub

Answer 14

Decor
- Clusters of white flowers Mid-summer (stay on even when turned brown)
- Green leaves look like oak’s, turn brown in autumn
Uses
- Mixed boarder
- Edge of woodland garden

Question 15

Magnolia stellata

Deciduous - Shrub

Answer 15

Decor
- The leaves are long and light green producing some autumn colour
- In early spring, slightly scented, white, narrow-petaled flowers
Uses
- Grow as a specimen shrub under-planted with early flowering plants

Question 16

Shrubs for Winter interest

Answer 16

• Fatsia japonica - Leaves

* Viburnum tinus - Leaves

Question 17

Shrubs for Autumn interest

Answer 17

• Magnolia stellata - Long light green leaves

* Buddlia davidii ‘Black knight’ - Purple flowers

Question 18

Shrubs for Acidic soils

Answer 18

• Cameillia ‘Cornish snow’

* Magnolia stellata

Question 19

Buying Shrubs - considerations

Answer 19

• Mostly bought as container-grown plants but can be bareroot or root-balled (as this is a less expensive way of buying large numbers of plants)
• Check roots, should have healthy white tips
• Container-grown shrubs can be planted at any time of year but Autumn is the best time to plant (soil is warm and moist and the roots can establish well)

Question 20

Planting Shrubs - soil prep

Answer 20

• Weed - Eradicate all weeds either by digging, or using a systemic herbicide e.g glyphosate
• Cultivate - Dig area 3-4 times the width of the root ball. If possible double dig
• Rake - Break up large clumps
• Feed - large quantities of well-rotted organic matter into the top 45cm of soil
• Tilth - Fine tilth

Question 21

Planting shrubs - Planting

Answer 21

• Plan - Choose location
• Pest/disease - Remove any weeds from the surface of the compost
• Water - Soak the container in a bucket of water for about 30 minutes
• Setting out - Make the planting hole twice the width of the root-ball, must be large enough to allow the roots to be spread out fully, The hole must be deep enough to allow the shrub to be planted with the top of the roots at the soil surface
• Plant - Place shrub in hole and back fill with soil. Firm the soil in stages but do not compact a clay soil
• Food - Mulch with 10cm of organic matter over an area about 45cm in diameter (Keep the mulch away from the base of the stem)
• Water – Water the plant well and water regularly through the first growing season

Question 22

Planting shrubs - Maintenance

Answer 22

• Weed - Weed regularly
• Water - If soil becomes dry
• Feed - Feed in spring with a general fertiliser e.g blood, fish and bone or Growmore. Fork it in lightly around the plant
• Support - If req
• Pest/disease - Monitor
• Prune – Remove suckers on grafted shrubs. Dead-head shrubs before they set seed

Question 23

Planting shrubs - Pruning

Answer 23

• Stems with an alternate arrangement of buds- cut above a bud pointing in the desired direction of growth, use an angled cut and slant in the direction of bud growth
• Stems with an opposite arrangement of buds- cut above a pair of buds using a straight cut
• If the cut is too close to the bud or buds, the bud may die and if cut too far away the stem may die back

Question 24

Describe Formative pruning

Answer 24

• Ensures that a shrub has a framework of well-spaced branches
• Remove any dead, damaged or diseased branches
• Remove any spindly growth
• Remove any crossing or rubbing branches that could prevent the movement of light and air
• Any excessive growth should be lightly pruned

Question 25

Describe the 5 Grouping systems for pruning Shrubs

Answer 25

Group 1 = Required very little pruning, restricted to removing dead/damaged/diseased growth
(Magnolia stellata)

Group 2 = Pruned immediately after flowering, shrubs that flower on wood produced the previous year
(Deutzia scabra)

Group 3 = Pruned in late winter – early spring, bear their flowers on the current season’s wood
(Buddleia davidii)

Group 4 = Pruned hard in early spring to obtain the
maximum decorative effect. Each year, the shrub can be pruned back hard to within 10cm of the framework that has been created. Most of the shrubs in this group would flower on wood produced the previous year
(Salix alba)

Group 5 = Many evergreen shrubs require little or no pruning other than to remove spent flowers, and branches that affect the overall shape of the plant. They may also have to be pruned if they outgrow their allotted space
(Lavandula officinalis)

Question 26

Why Prune shrubs?

Answer 26

• Pruning normally stimulates growth. Terminal shoot or
bud of a stem is often dominant, inhibiting the growth
• Hard pruning promotes more vigorous growth than light pruning. Hard cutting back of vigorous growth often encourages even stronger growth
• Increases air flow
• Allows dead/diseased material to be removed

Question 27

Describe Calcifuges and Calcicoles and examples

Answer 27

Calcifuges - a plant which grows best on acidic soil (Ericaceous)
• Cameillia 'Cornish show'
• Magnolia stellata
• Magnolia campbellii
• Nyssa sylvatica

Calcicoles - a plant which grows best on alkaline soil (Lime lovers)
• Clematis ‘Polish spirit’
• Viburnum tinus
• Buddleja davidii