Beech hedging
Browse our selection of the best beech hedging plants, otherwise known as Fagus sylvatica, including the ever popular green beech and purple beech. Beech are a popular British native hedging variety with an excellent display of light, crisp foliage that flutters in the breeze and takes on brilliant shades of coppery orange and brown before falling in the autumn. Beech are iconic, stately specimens that define the British landscape in both hedge and tree forms. The emergence of their rich green or purple foliage in April is a sure sign that spring has arrived. They have smooth, thin, grey bark, often with subtle horizontal etchings and torpedo-shaped, maroon leaf buds produced in an alternate pattern along short stalks. Their browned leaves remain on the plants over winter if you prune in midsummer, providing an interesting, rustic appearance emblematic of the British countryside. This helps provide some cover for wildlife all year round, who also love their bristly seed pods containing pyramid-shaped nuts in the autumn. Admittedly, you won’t get quite the same level of privacy with a deciduous hedge compared to their evergreen counterparts, especially from late autumn to early spring, so if year-round privacy is top priority, consider our range of evergreen hedging plants instead.