Escallonia is a popular evergreen shrub with masses of beautiful, bright flowers that decorate the hardy foliage from June to October. Escallonia hedging plants are fast growing and work wonderfully as a windbreak, particularly in coastal areas, as these plants can tolerate harsh weather conditions.
Escallonia shrubs blossom in an assortment of different colours depending on the variety, showcasing shades of deep crimson, fuchsia pink and ghostly white, against arching branches of small, glossy leaves. This abundance of flowers, along with the delicate honey fragrance that blankets escallonia hedge plants, attracts a number of insects, particularly bees, providing your garden with a buzzing wildlife hub.
Escallonia plants are not only suitable for hedging, but can be grown as a specimen plant or a climber; they can be container grown or left to develop as a bush and they are also well suited to rockery planting.
How to grow an Escallonia hedge
- Where to position your Escallonia hedge plant: They grow best in full sun or partial shade with some shelter, but can also handle exposed positions
- Best soil type for Escallonia hedging: This diverse hedging plant is suited to all but waterlogged soils
- Growth Rate of Escallonia hedges: They grow on average between 20-40cm a year
- Escallonia height and spread: This differs between varieties, but is often between 1.5 – 4m x 2.5 – 4m
Escallonia evergreen hedging should be planted 30 – 40cm apart to give the root systems enough room to spread and develop. After planting, we recommend pruning your Escallonia hedging plant into a pyramid shape, which will enable the sunlight to reach all the leaves, including those at the bottom of the hedge, maintaining the bright, fresh green colour.
We advise pruning your Escallonia plant at least once a year, immediately after flowering in late summer, although it also responds well to regular clipping, which allows a more formal shape to be achieved if required.
Types of Escallonia hedge
Escallonia is the ideal hedging for coastal situations, with Escallonia Apple Blossom being a popular choice, as it is hugely wind tolerant and provides a burst of colourful flowers. Escallonia Rubra is also a great option for exposed areas; resilient enough to provide shelter from strong winds and dense enough to make a good privacy screen.
White Escallonia
Escallonia Donard Radiance has a bushy, compact habit which makes it perfect to use as a rockery shrub. White Escallonia (Escallonia Iveyi) would make a good companion plant for this, as the showy, rose-red flowers of Donard Radiance would be complimented brilliantly by the bright white blossoms of Escallonia Iveyi.
Pink Escallonia
Escallonia Donard Seedling hedging, more commonly known as Escallonia Pink, is a low maintenance shrub, ideal to use in beds and borders to give year-round, colourful interest. When planted with Escallonia Gold Ellen, a wonderful cottage-garden theme can be achieved.
Red Escallonia
Escallonia is a diverse hedging plant with endless attractive features, including: evergreen foliage; robust form; colourful summer flowers and ideal to use as plants for shade. For our full range of Escallonia hedging plants, click here.
