Hornbeam hedge plants

Carpinus betulus is a hardy, native plant with glossy, crinkly leaves that turn to copper brown in the autumn and then hang on to the branches long into winter, providing year-round cover and seasonal interest. Hornbeam hedge plants boast green catkins which develop into fruits that wildlife, such as birds, adore. As a native species, Hornbeam hedging provides a wonderful habitat for wildlife, giving this stunning hedge additional interest. Carpinus betulus is a great choice for positions struggling with poor soils such as clay and chalk. Whilst similar in many ways to Beech hedging, Hornbeam hedge plants are better suited to wetter soils and its winter leaves display a wider variety of dark, attractive tones. The name ‘Hornbeam’ is derived from Old English which means ‘hard tree’ and it is certainly a durable and resilient hedging species.

Best uses for Hornbeam hedging

Hornbeam hedge plants clip beautifully, so it works well as a formal display. Equally, Hornbeam can be grown in a mixed native hedgerow to achieve colourful winter interest. A hardy variety, Carpinus betulus hedging is suited to wet sites, shade and exposure. The dense foliage makes an effective privacy screen, can help to minimise noise pollution and act as a natural windbreak.

Combine Carpinus betulus with

Your Hornbeam hedge plants can either be grown as a stand-alone shrub or combined with other native hedging varieties for a variety of seasonal interest, including; flowers, berries and vibrant autumn foliage.

Hornbeam hedge growth rate 

Carpinus betulus will achieve an average growth of 20-40cm a year and is perfect to maintain at a height measuring anywhere between 1.5 - 5m.

Care advice for Hornbeam Hedge Plants

Hornbeam hedging requires a trim once a year, in mid-late summer to encourage lasting winter foliage cover. Please view our Hedging Care Advice page for more information.

Suggested planting density for Carpinus betulus hedges

For information on planting density specific to Hornbeam hedge plants, please see the product table below. In the 'No. Per Metre' column, you will find our recommended plant density for each individual plant species and root type. You can find out more about planting density here.

Our cell grown, pot grown and instant Hornbeam hedge plants are available year-round. We also offer Carpinus betulus as bare roots from November - mid/late May, using cold stored plants towards the end of the season. Bare roots are available to pre-order from mid-summer.

Nearly all of our Carpinus betulus hedging plants are UK grown by experts who have years of nursery growing knowledge. On the rare occasion that we source Hornbeam hedge plants from outside of the UK, we ensure that our suppliers cannot be beaten on quality. At Best4hedging, we strive to make certain that your plants are delivered in the freshest condition and that they are of the highest quality, whilst protecting our terrific prices. You can purchase your Hornbeam hedge plants online, safe in the knowledge that you are receiving both reliable service and the very best products.

• Orders £85 & over (ex. VAT) to mainland UK are delivered FREE* (Exceptions apply - see below for Scottish Highlands etc)
• Orders under £85 (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 to 5 working days of receipt and most the day after the order is placed. We can do “next day delivery” on many of our products for an additional £12 (incl VAT) but please call on 01257 494 491 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 backorders 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.

You can buy with confidence from best4hedging.

We accept all major credit and debit cards. We have also partnered with PayPal to provide a further, secure payment option.

You can order online or over the phone by calling our dedicated Sales & Advice team. 

If you have any further questions in regards to payment, please do get in touch. You can read our Terms & Conditions here.

Call our Sales & Advice team on 01257 261 243

Email us at [email protected]