The original green walls - Oregon Association of Nurseries

CURT KIPP
The original
green walls
Emerald green arborvitae is among the most popular hedging options. It can form an attractive backdrop for any well-designed garden. This garden designed
by Cynthia Gage was featured on the recent Association of Northwest Landscape Designers’ Behind-the-Scenes Garden Tour.
Whether formal or
more natural looking,
these hedging options
can denote property
lines and provide
necessary screening
By Elizabeth Petersen
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AUGUST 2010
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DIGGER FARWEST EDITION
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Hedges are essential buffers in
today’s cities and suburbs. Tall, narrow, evergreen walls separate neighbors and define property boundaries.
They hide fences, enclose pets and
provide privacy.
Everywhere you look, hedges are
built into the framework of our communities, lining the lanes of modern living,
directing traffic and beautifying spaces.
Hedges solve all sorts of problems,
and demand for them fuels the market
for dense, upright plants, which Oregon
growers turn out by the millions.
Although there is increased interest
in hedgerows — mixed stands of shrubs
and trees that enhance bio-diversity —
plants for traditional, sculpted hedges
continue to be in high demand.
Tall walls
Peter Eastman works in inside sales
for Fairdale Nursery and Countryside
Nursery, two related enterprises based
in Wilsonville, Ore.
“Although mixed plantings make
excellent living screens, most people
don’t have enough space for a thicket,”
he said. “Instead, (they) want reliable
plants that make a tight, living wall and
take well to pruning.
“By far the top seller for hedges
in the industry is emerald green arborvitae. It’s the best all-around choice,
because it stays dense and narrow on
its own and doesn’t go bronzy in winter like some others. Plus, it can grow
in most zones from the Bay Area to
Massachusetts.”
A & R Spada Farms LLC, based in
St. Paul, Ore., is the largest grower in
Oregon of the widely used emerald
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HEDGING OPTIONS
Plants to use in mixed hedges
Debbie Brooks of Creative Garden Spaces has several favorite cultivars she
enjoys using in mixed hedges. “It really depends on the site and how much
room I have to work with,” she said. Many of her favorites are listed below:
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18995 ARBOR GROVE RD. NE
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FAX (503) 678-3247
kwilmes@kgfarmsinc.com
(503) 678-3245
AUGUST 2010
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DIGGER FARWEST EDITION
For medium height screening
Cupressocyparis leylandii ‘Emerald Isle’
Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’
Cuprocyparis leylandii ‘Castlewellan’
Ceanothus ‘Julia Phelps’
Ribes sanguineum
Sambucus ‘Black Lace’
Acer circinatum
Cornus nuttallii
Parrotia persica ‘Vanessa’
Choisya ternata ‘Aztec Pearl’
Spiraea japonica ‘Neon Flash’
Cornus alba ‘Variegata’
Tsuga Canadensis ‘Gentsch White’
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Templehof’
Styrax japonicus
Hamamelis
green (Thuja occidentalis ‘Smaragd’).
According to Sales Manager Vinny
Grasso, East Coast states are the biggest consumers, but they’re not alone.
“Emerald green hedges are popular in at least half the U.S. They perform
well across the heart of the country
from east to west, and demand is
strong,” he said. “Unlike some plants,
people buy multiples of arborvitae, so
they consume more. We have production scheduled to fulfill customer needs
spring, summer and fall.”
What makes an arborvitae hedge
so popular?
“People like the formal yet natural look, the simplicity, easy care and
bird habitat provided by an arborvitae
hedge. Plus, it is an easy, do-it-yourself
project,” Grasso said. “We include
instructions on how to dig a hole, but
there is not much more to it than that,
and consumers get a lot of satisfaction
out of doing it themselves. Demand
is contagious. Someone in a housing
development will put in a hedge and
others see it, like it, and do the same.
According to Grasso, the 5-foot
emerald green is the most popular size
sold by Spada Farms. “People want
instant hedges and don’t want to wait
for the plants to grow,” he said.
Other sizes sell well too. As liners,
in containers for retail and B&B for the
landscape trade, the popular evergreen
pillar (10-15’ tall by 3-4’ wide, Zone 4)
“makes an outstanding hedge, border,
privacy screen, or windbreak, and you
can either prune it or leave it natural,”
Grasso said.
In northern markets with severe
winter weather, Eastman said, the preferred hedge plants have a wider, more
tapered shape that is less susceptible
to damage by heavy snow loads. Both
Eastman and Grasso suggested better
arborvitae for areas such as Minnesota
and Montana: T. o. ‘Nigra’ (Dark
American Arborvitae) and T. o. Techny
(Mission Arborvitae) have broadly,
pyramidal, symmetrical growth and
good hardiness (Zone 4).
“‘Techney’ is a popular selection in
northern markets,” Grasso said, “because
it retains its green well into winter and
the foliage resists winter burn.”
There are of course, many hedge
options aside from arborvitae.
“Holly hedges, pruned or left
natural, make attractive, impenetrable
screens and windbreaks,” Grasso
said. The top seller for Spada Farms,
columnar ‘Dragon Lady’ (Ilex x
meschick ‘Dragon Lady’), “combines
beauty and function: it has great evergreen foliage, berries for winter color
and bird food, and it is easy to grow
and low maintenance.”
“Many broadleaf evergreens can be
sheared into a nice hedge,” Eastman
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HEDGING OPTIONS
CURT KIPP
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skip
laurel
hedge
(Prunus7/8/2010
laurocerasus
‘Schipkaensis’) provides lush, year-round screening that
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9:34:54 AM
isolates the backyard of this home from the busy four-lane road on the other side. It serves as a nice
landscape foundation besides. Note that it has held up well in the shade.
said. At Fairdale and Countryside
Nurseries, the hardier, smaller leaved
Ilex crenata ‘Convexa,’ which is easily sheared, is the most popular holly.
Eastman recommended blue holly (Ilex
meserveae). He said it is another great
choice for “northern climates and near
the shore, where regular English holly
is not an option.”
The duo of I. m. ‘Blue Princess’
and ‘Blue Prince’ (Zones 5-7) is
frequently used in areas such as
Philadelphia and Long Island, at a ratio
of one male for 20 females, he said.
The taller, more upright male plants,
and the shorter, more rounded females,
quickly form upright hedges of shiny
evergreen foliage that can be sheared
into almost any shape.
Another popular option for a tall
hedge – “the third biggest seller,”
CURT KIPP
according to Eastman – is skip laurel
(Prunus laurocerasus ‘Schipkaensis’).
According to Grasso, it is “one of the
hardiest cultivars.” It is particularly
useful in coastal areas, both east and
west, because it tolerates salt spray
and shade.
The tall and fairly narrow selection was found growing at about 4,000
feet elevation in Bulgaria, Eastman said.
It grows very fast, reaching 8 feet in
only four years. It gets big, though, and
requires ongoing maintenance to keep
it from outgrowing its bounds.
How the other half hedges
There is definitely a place for hedges “to direct attention to a focal point or
along a formal walkway,” said designer
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Small walls for borders and walks
Shorter hedges edge beds and
create formal lines in garden designs.
Oregon growers supply plants for those
needs too. Boxwood (Buxus spp.), the
“second-most grown and spec’d for
hedging,” is so popular because it is
very resistant to deer, said Eastman.
“Boxwood sales are terrific,” Grasso
said, “and there are lots of great choices
for different regions.”
Buxus x ‘Green Velvet’ is “popular
for cold climates, because of its uniform
habit, hardiness and great name,” said
Grasso. The “most commonly used”
boxwood is the dwarf Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’, and markets from
central California to Atlanta choose the
straight species Buxus sempervirens.
Eastman recommends ‘Green Mountain,’
a hardier choice that gets taller.
This sheared convexa Japanese holly (Ilex crenata
‘Convexa’) provides an appropriately formal
look at the gated entrance of this high-end
sub-community.
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HEDGING OPTIONS
Debbie Brooks, owner of Creative
Garden Spaces. But “the maintenance
of pruning and shaping once or twice a
year takes a lot of time and effort, and
in a typical hedge, if one or two plants
in the middle die, then what?
“For screening views or creating
barriers, I like to use a combination of
plant materials that provide interest with
color and textures. I steer away from
monoculture, because I believe using
diverse plant materials, ones that
provide shelter for safety, berries for
food and twigs for nesting materials,
attract more diverse wildlife.”
Designer Jane Luthy of Coombs and
Luthy Landscape Design recently taught
a well-attended class on “Screening for
privacy with plants,” and said that interest in the subject was very high.
“People wanted to know what
plants to use for privacy and to soften
the edges of fences and other barriers,”
she said. “Everybody has some view
they want to screen.”
But they want choices beyond the
standard options.
“People don’t have the time, inclination or funds to keep hedges maintained,” Luthy said. She recommended
a combination of “layers of plants,
including trees, shrubs and ground covers, which soften physical screens, like
wood or steel panels. Berming adds
height and barrier, too.”
Deb Rossi, owner of Deb Rossi
Design, isn’t a big fan of traditional
hedges, either. “Hedges are not my
favorites,” she said. “As a designer
I most often come across existing
hedges that are all wrong ... in plant
selection and/or plants not being well
maintained. The classics in this area
are laurel, which get way too big, and
arborvitae, which are too big, old and
not taken care of.
The hidden garden
At his property, Peter Eastman planted dozens of #1 emerald greens
to conceal the garden from a busy street. Planted on 2’ centers on top
of a 4’ retaining wall, the plants grew quickly and now completely hide
the garden from the sidewalk.
Pruning and regular maintenance are necessary to keep the hedge
looking good, though, and Eastman said he hires help to shear the
hedge annually to keep it growing vigorously and shaped well. Kept at
8’ tall, the hedge doesn’t shade much of the garden and it is less likely
to be splayed by loads of snow or ice.
PETER EASTMAN
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AUGUST 2010
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DIGGER FARWEST EDITION
“My first step in renovating a garden is often to remove these eyesores. I
usually try to replace them with a variety of deciduous and evergreen plants
and stay away from the ‘monoculture’
typical hedge.”
Rossi has been able to use hedges
as formal elements in gardens in a few
instances. “The plants used are typically boxwood for parterre and knot
gardens and lavender as a border in
classic French and Mediterranean gardens,” she said.
“These clients are interested in a
very specific look and are interested in
using the expected plant material.
“To use hedgerows or native
plantings for wildlife, you need a
large garden, a ‘buffer zone’ where
wildlife can interact within the borders of the garden in a controlled
manner, as an attraction.
For those, natives like Vaccinium
ovatum and other plants with fruit
and berries, like viburnums, are good
choices.”
For tall screening, Rossi likes to
use fastigiate trees, such as Carpinus
betulus ‘Fastigiata’, Acer ‘Bowhall’ or
‘Armstrong’ along with Taxus baccata
‘Fastigiata’ and Calocedrus decurrens.
Interest in sustainable farming
methods led Jude Hobbs, farm and
landscape designer with Agro-Ecology
Northwest, and Dan McGrath, Oregon
State University Extension horticulture agent, to write a resource (OSU
Bulletin EM: 8721) called “A Guide
To Multi-Functional Hedgerows In
Western Oregon.”
It discusses the benefits, costs
and plants appropriate for hedgerows
to “enhance wildlife habitat, diversify farm income, reduce soil erosion,
decrease wind damage, conserve water
and create boundary borders and privacy screens.”
Elizabeth Petersen writes for gardeners
and garden businesses, coaches students and writers, and tends a one-acre
garden in West Linn, Ore. She can be
reached at gardenwrite@comcast.net.
18598 Advent Road
Pitt Meadows, BC
Canada, V3Y 2G8
Toll Free 1-800-471-4448
Phone: 604-465-7122
Fax: 604-465-8100
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