R J Trees and Hedging Ltd Registered office The School, The Green, Biddestone, SN14 7DG, United Kingdom, Registered in GB
Company Registration Number 13563017 VAT no. 392152401
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Buckthorn - Purging (Rhamnus cathartica)
£0.99
10% off Orders over £1000+VAT
15% off Orders over £2000+VAT
Minimum order value (all plants) is £300+VAT
Free Delivery over £300+VAT excl Highlands and Islands
Please order plants in multiples of 25
Key Features
Purging buckthorn (Rhanmus cathartica) is
- Suitable as a hedge plant, woodland shrub or hedgerow tree
- Native
- Deciduous
- Flowering
- Thorny
- Safe to plant near livestock (non-toxic) but not advised for horse paddocks - see blog.
Grown on our farm in Herefordshire. Buy with confidence - read our customer reviews.
The specifications shown below are our normal range but we often have additional options. If there is something that you are looking for, it's often worth contacting us.
Please contact us if you would prefer to order on the phone or have any questions or to discuss a discount for larger quantities.
Full Product Description
Our range of Purging buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) bare root plants
We have bare root Rhamnus cathartica plants in several sizes. The 1U1 2 year old specification plants are seedlings (often called whips) which were grown from seed in the spring and instead of being sold in the following November to April period they are kept in situ in the field and grown on for a further year or longer which makes a strong bushy plant. We trim their roots underground with a specialised machine which helps to develop a fibrous root system.
We always have several batches of seed of Rhamnus cathartica including UK provenance and the highest quality imported seed so if the seed provenance is particularly important to you, please give us a call so that we can allocate plants from the most appropriate batch.
Purging Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) Summary
A spiny small tree or large shrub, named after the purging affect of the berries (beware!). This is a native shrub similar in appearance to dogwood or alder buckthorn (it prefers drier soils to alder buckthorn) but with spiny branches and with leaves held opposite rather than alternate. It’s a great choice for shade or sunlight and its leaves are the main food stuff for the brimstone butterfly as well as providing pollen and nectar for pollinating insects. It makes a really good addition to a mixed hedge because its spiny branches provide good nesting sites, it has wildlife friendly flowers and berries and will be covered in brimstone butterflies if planted into a south facing hedgerow.
This blog summarises the differences between Purging Buckthorn and Alder Buckthorn.
Soil and Situation
Purging buckthorn is a tough, hardy tree/shrub and will grow in virtually all soils in sun or shade, beside streams in soils that retail some moisture in dry seasons.
Leaves, flowers and fruit of Purging buckthorn
The leaves of are quite distinctive with curved veins which come together at the tip. They are quite large (up to 9cm), matt green in summer, turning yellow in autumn and are finely toothed.
Flowers are small, yellow-green, and are pollinated by insects and it comes into flower later than many other native species of hedgerow plants – during May and June – which extends the flowering season.
Fruit (called drupes) are black berries the size of blackcurrants, with a strong purging, laxative affect if eaten by humans, cattle and horses but are popular with birds.
The bark is pale grey-brown, fissured on older plants.
Eventual height and growth rate
Maximum height is about 10m (a small tree) but Purging buckthorn can also be trimmed as a hedge. Growth rate is average at about 30cm pa.
Rhamnaceae family.
Delivery Information
Free Delivery
For deliveries of orders over £300 + VAT, (which is our minimum order value) we have free delivery to all mainland areas nationwide. If you are in the Scottish Highlands or any of the Islands, please email us or call us and we will quote you a delivery charge which we will subsidise.
All orders are despatched on pallets and will be delivered to the kerbside. We will email you to tell you when your order has been despatched and that email will contain a link so that you can track your delivery.
You can request a specific delivery date when you place your order and we will do our very best to accommodate that date but cannot be held responsible if we do not meet it.
Collections from Ross-on-Wye
You can collect your plants by arrangement with our office team. Please ring us on 01989 552028 to agree a collection date. The postcode for collections is HR9 7TF.
As a trade nursery, we normally despatch stock unbagged (packed horizontally on pallets) but we can offer two bagging options.
Bagging Options
We have two options for despatching plants in bags (you do not need to have them bagged but it is advisable if there is any delay in planting and where you have large quantities, delay in planting some is inevitable).
- Very heavy duty black bags - normally used by farmers, landowners, landscapers etc
- Co-extruded bags which are white on the outside, to reflect sunlight, and black inside, to retain moisture on the roots - normally used by foresters.
In both cases, there is a considerable labour cost to us in putting stock into bags, and then the air in the bags takes up a considerable amount of space on the pallet which means that we get many fewer plants onto a pallet compared with unbagged stock eg for 1+0 seedlings instead of approx. 10,000 plants per pallet of unbagged stock, we'd only get approx. 5,000 plants per pallet if they are bagged. There's also a significant labour cost in putting plants into bags compared with loose packing on a pallet (which is the normal method for nursery to nursery sales). Given that we pay the delivery cost on most orders, supplying stock in bags is a significant extra cost for us for some customers and hence we make a modest charge.
You can specifically request black or white bags on the website after you add plants to your shopping basket. Here is a link to the page Bagging Service for bare root plants for farms and forestry – rjtreesandhedging. Please order the same quantity as the number of plants you are buying - the pricing for bagging is per plant rather than per bag.