Bare Root Mixed Native Farm Hedging Summary

Britain has over 1 million km of farm hedging, all originally planted as mixed native bare root hedging plants.  Sadly many of these hedgerows are not in the best of shape and need "gapping up" and our plants are just as suitable for this purpose as for the establishment of new hedgerows.  All the plants sold in this section are grown by us in Herefordshire starting with seed sowing, and are grown to the highest quality standards and they are all suitable for growing in all soils (other than waterlogged areas), in full sun or partial shade (every situation other than the deepest shade).  If you have challenging soil conditions or situation, please feel free to call us for advice on 01989 552028.

Species in our packs

We offer Hawthorn based mixed native bare root hedging packs and Blackthorn based mixed native bare root hedging packs.  The Hawthorn based packs contain 50% Hawthorn, 30% Blackthorn and 5% each of 4 additional species - hazel, field maple, crab apple, and dog rose.  The Blackthorn based packs contain 50% Blackthorn, 30% Hawthorn and 5% each of the additional 4 species.  We recommend the Blackthorn based packs for damper soils and where very early flowering is required (Blackthorn flowers before Hawthorn).  Both packs are very economical and are all discounted off the normal prices if you were to add the same plants to your shopping basket on this website.   All species used are reliable, easy to grow in almost all soils and situations and take well to hedge laying or being trimmed by flail.  All species are livestock friendly but we do not recommend blackthorn for horse paddocks.

All of the plants in our mixed native bare root packs are grown by us in Herefordshire.  We cannot adjust the species in these mixed packs but if our pre selected mixture doesnt suit you, you can order your own choice of plants on our website.

How to attract more wildlife

You can make a hedgerow even more wildlife friendly by adding additional species of hedging plant to the basic mix – and to an extent this will happen gradually as birds and wind deposit seeds of other species into a new hedge.  The varieties we recommend if you are looking to increase the number of plant species would be elder, holly, wild cherry or bird cherry, purging buckthorn, alder buckthorn, spindle, common dogwood, wild privet, guelder rose and cherry plum. 

Cheaper hedging options

You can make a hedgerow cheaper by buying the discounted mixed hedgerow packs and then adding more of the cheaper constituents (Hawthorn and Blackthorn) so that the proportion of Hawthorn and Blackthorn is increased compared with the more expensive plant species.  The additional four species are all more expensive than the Hawthorn and Blackthorn (due to cost of seed and germination rates) so you can reduce the additional species and increase the Hawthorn and/or Blackthorn to save quite a bit, but for each species that you drop you will miss out on some flowering/berrying/wildlife value so it's a balancing act. We would recommend that you do not plant more than 80% Hawthorn or Blackthorn if you want to attract a wide variety of wildlife and 70% is the limit for a single species under the ELMS grant scheme.

What else is needed for planting mixed native hedging?

We strongly recommend planting with Easywrap guards (unless you are absolutely positive that you do not have rabbits or voles in the area) which will need a cane to pin them in place, and we find that planting with Rootgrow (a friendly fungi which stimulates root development) increases the success rate and establishment of bare root plants.

Claiming a Countryside Stewardship Grant for new hedgerows or gapping up (BN7 or BN11)

The grant rules specify that you must use 1+1 transplants (those are 2 years' old rather than 1 year old whips) and they must be a minimum of 45-60cm in height.  As far as we are aware, we are the only wholesale grower who grades to this specification - everyone else will either tell you to "risk it" and buy 40/60cm height (but then you risk your grant audit going badly!) or you have to trade up to 60/80cm height which are taller than you need and therefore more expensive. Be very careful to ensure you are buying 1+1 transplants because younger plants are not eligible.

Why buy from R J Trees and Hedging Ltd

One of the objectives of the new ELMS farm grant schemes is to increase the quality and quantity of British farm hedgerows and RJ Trees and Hedging is a specialist trade nursery you can rely on to supply you with quality British grown wholesale-priced bare root seedlings (whips) and transplants.  Ray Jenkins has been growing and selling mixed native farm hedging for over 35 years and is considered an “industry veteran” by Horticulture Week.  We are familiar with the Countryside Stewardship grant scheme and our 1+1 packs comply with the BN7 and BN11 requirements.