Beech hedge plants

Common Beech hedges (Fagus sylvatica) description

Beech (Fagus sylvatica) hedging offer a bright and beautiful display of green hues throughout spring and summer, with the medium-sized leaves adopting warm autumn colours and crisping during the colder months. Beech, also known as European Beech or Common Beech, has great wildlife value and is one of the best hedge plants for colourful seasonal interest. Although not officially considered as an evergreen hedge, it offers the privacy of an evergreen variety with dense screening and shelter from wind and noise, as the foliage often lasts year round.

Most popular uses of Beech hedge plants

Classically, these hedges are planted alone to create a formal feature; however, they can also be used in a mixed native hedge to add an element of semi-evergreen interest. Beech hedging also makes a useful windbreak.

Combine Fagus sylvatica with

Green Beech hedging works wonderfully combined with Hornbeam; similar in colour but adding a subtle texture difference to the hedge. Combine Fagus sylvatica with Purple Beech for a powerful colour combination; or to create an intruder deterrent, you could consider mixing Pyracantha for a spikey, interesting hedge.

Where to plant Beech hedges

Fagus sylvatica will thrive in any well-drained soil, preferring a chalky site; however, we recommend avoiding very wet positions. If your soil is wet or heavy clay then Hornbeam hedge plants may prove to be a better option, as this hedging plant, although similar in appearance, can tolerate wetter soils better than our Beech hedging for sale. With the ability to handle windy, exposed sites, Beech hedge plants are a great choice for coastal positions. Although tolerant of harsh conditions, continuous exposure to very extreme weather may cause some of the crisp winter foliage to fall. Full sun or partial shade is our recommended level of exposure to encourage healthy Beech plants.

Growth rate of Beech hedge plants

Fagus sylvatica will reach a final height of 5 metres at maturity,  but due to the fast growth rate of this hedging (about 30-60cm per year), it can be pruned to a relatively low form (1m upwards), without the worry of grow-back taking a long time.

Care advice for Fagus sylvatica hedging

We advise trimming your Beech hedge in late summer or early autumn. Pruning at this time is essential to ensure the brown winter leaves remain on your hedge, providing winter coverage. If you are faced with overgrown Beech hedging, a hard prune can be carried out in February while your hedge plants are still dormant; however, if the weather is especially cold, it is better to delay cutting slightly, so as to avoid any damage to your hedge. For any further information about pruning or caring for your Beech hedge plants, please view our Hedging Care Advice page.

Suggested planting density for Fagus sylvatica

For guidance and specific information on spacing when planting your hedge, please see the product table below. In the 'No. Per Metre' column, you will find our recommended planting density for each individual plant species and root type.

Buying beech hedging

We offer Fagus sylvatica in a range of different root types, including bare root, available November to late April/early May (depending on season); high-quality cell grown and pot grown plants and instant hedging, which is available all year round. All of our Beech hedging for sale, regardless of the root type, is given the utmost care prior to leaving our site to ensure you receive top quality hedge plants.

The vast majority of our Beech hedging plants are UK grown by industry experts, although occasionally it is necessary to source Beech hedges from specialist growers overseas, where we are confident that the quality of care given cannot be faulted. At Best4hedging, our aim is to provide you with the healthiest Beech hedge plants, in the best condition, whilst keeping our prices to a minimum, providing you with reliable quality and service.

Delivery Cost

• Orders £60 & over (ex. VAT) to mainland UK are delivered FREE* (Exceptions apply - see below for Scottish Highlands etc)
• Orders under £60 (ex. VAT) to mainland UK £9.95
• At an additional cost, we can deliver to Scottish Highlands & Islands, which we classify as including AB (Aberdeen) and DD (Dundee) postcodes, as well as Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Isle Man. The exact delivery cost is order specific and will need to be quoted by one of our team, so please contact us on 01257 261 243

*For some plants that are too heavy or too tall to be packed in cardboard boxes we use pallet deliveries. In these circumstances, we require a minimum order value of £200 (ex VAT) for free delivery, or you can make a contribution towards the delivery cost. Look out for the information on product pages which explains this further where applicable and if your order is for less than £200 (ex VAT) please call or email us to agree upon a delivery contribution. This requirement only applies to those plants where it is clearly indicated on the product page

Pallet deliveries are always undertaken on an 18-tonne vehicle (similar in size to a standard refuse vehicle). If for any reason you require a smaller vehicle please contact our sales team who can arrange this for you. There will be an additional surcharge applied for small vehicle deliveries

Delivery Timescales

99% of our orders are dispatched within 3-7 working days of receipt and most the day after the order is placed. We can do “next day delivery” on many of our products but please call before placing your order to check.

We can also deliver on a specified date to suit you. Please indicate the date you would like to receive delivery in the notes section of the checkout (or place your order by phone) and we’ll do our utmost to meet that date.

Occasional hiccups can occur (such as broken down vehicles) and although we are very experienced in logistics we cannot be held liable for costs incurred or inconvenience due to late deliveries - see terms and conditions for more information.

You will receive an email or telephone call confirming the dispatch of your order 24/48 hours before it arrives with you.

Exceptions to our quick turnaround timescale

Pre-orders - if you have placed an order that includes products on pre-order, then they will be dispatched to you as soon as they are available. If your order includes pre-order bare roots or root balls you will be notified once they are being dispatched (root balls from mid to late October and bare roots from early to mid-November).

Root balls - lifting root balls involves the use of complex, heavy machinery, this lifting is carried out twice a week in the root ball season so we do still have a prompt turnaround timescale but if your order has just missed one lifting, it will be a few days before we lift again. We are always happy to confirm when we can deliver to you before you order. The benefit of this method of supplying root balls is that they are always fresh and therefore have a higher success rate than root balls that are stored out of the soil.

Weather conditions can affect dispatch - bare root and root ball plants are not lifted if the ground is too cold (it damages the roots) and the delivery of all plants can be affected if the water supply is frozen (because we water all plants before packing). Extremely hot weather can also be challenging and occasionally we hold back orders for species that are particularly vulnerable. We ask our customers to be mindful of bank holidays when couriers are not active.

We'd like to stress that although there are exceptions, the vast majority of our orders are dispatched extremely quickly and we are proud of our logistics developed over many years of delivering plants to tens of thousands of customers.

Returns

We inspect plants carefully before dispatch but accept that very occasionally things may go wrong. 
You can return your plants (within 14 days) for a refund or replacement (we’ll help with the process of returning). If your plants arrived damaged then returns are free of charge. However, we ask that you inform us as soon as possible. If you’d like to return your plants because of a change of plan or if we do not agree that the plants are significantly damaged (the loss of a few leaves in transit or a loose pot on arrival, for example, wouldn't be harmful to the plants), then we may ask you to pay the full or partial return costs if you still wanted to return them. We’re very reasonable and always aim for complete satisfaction as demonstrated by our amazing Feefo customer reviews which can be viewed here.

Should you wish to return any products that you have over-bought, no longer require or purchased in error you will incur both a return cost (different charges for pallets and Boxes) and the original cost of delivery incurred by Best4hedging. Please contact the Service team for charges and/or to organise a return. Plants will be subject to a quality control check from our Nursery upon return before any refund is authorised and processed.

Please note that in the case of damaged plants, if you have not notified us of a problem within 14 days of delivery, we consider you to have accepted the plants and Best4Hedging has no further liability for them should they fail.

You can read more about our returns policy in our terms and conditions here.

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