Pyracantha hedge plants with yellow berries (Firethorn 'Golden Sun')

Pyracantha 'Golden Sun' hedge plants summary

• A fantastic, dense, spiny, evergreen hedging plant, ideal as an intruder-proof hedge
• Profuse creamy, scented flowers in May, followed by clusters of bright golden yellow berries offering spectacular autumn and winter colour
• The flowers are loved by pollinators, and the berries provide vital food for garden birds during winter
• Once established, it grows quickly and is remarkably low-maintenance. It responds very well to regular pruning and can be clipped into a fairly narrow hedge or kept as a dense, wider hedge, with heights typically between 1m and 3m
• A great plant for covering walls and fences, or as a standalone hedge or shrub
• Good in full sun or partial shade, but flowering will be best in full sun
• We have pot-grown Pyracantha available year-round. We also have a red-berried variety, Pyracantha 'Red Column', and an orange-berried variety, Pyracantha 'Orange Glow', available

Please contact us by phone (or email us at hello@hedgenursery.co.uk) if you have any questions, would like advice, or if your order is likely to exceed £1000 - we may be able to offer a better price than the online price. Our experienced horticulturists answer calls and emails, and we are always very happy to help.

Pyracantha 'Golden Sun' (also called Pyracantha Soleil d’Or) has vibrant golden-yellow berries and a dense, spiny habit, offering year-round privacy and wildlife appeal in all garden situations.

Pyracantha is one of our more popular ornamental hedging plants and is useful for a wide range of situations. This striking shrub maintains its glossy, dark green foliage year-round and is a top choice for those looking to keep intruders away, thanks to its very strong spikes and stiff branch structure.

It is also fantastic for wildlife – insects love the highly scented clusters of creamy-coloured flowers that appear in May, and in late summer to early autumn, vibrant golden-yellow berries develop. Unless birds get to them first, the berries persist on the branches through autumn and into winter, giving ornamental interest throughout the year. These berries are a crucial food source for garden birds, making ‘Golden Sun’ an excellent choice for wildlife-friendly gardens.

Pyracantha ‘Golden Sun’ is a fast-growing shrub, typically adding 30–60cm in height each year, making it an excellent option for quickly establishing privacy screening. It forms a dense, multi-stemmed evergreen hedge with an upright habit, capable of reaching an ultimate height of 1–3 metres with a similar spread. It can be easily maintained as a hedge and responds very well to pruning. Beyond hedging, it can be trained against a wall or fence, used in a variety of topiary shapes, or grown as an impressive standalone specimen shrub.

It will grow in most well-drained soils and will tolerate partial shade, although you will get a greater abundance of flowers and berries in full sun.

Once established, Pyracantha 'Golden Sun' is relatively drought-tolerant, though regular watering is essential during its first year after planting, particularly for wall-trained or container-grown plants. It also demonstrates high tolerance to urban pollution, making it a robust choice for city gardens.

Due to its thorns, it is important to wear thick gloves when handling and pruning this plant. While its berries are ornamental and highly attractive to wildlife, they are not intended for human consumption.

We have other varieties of Pyracantha available, including Pyracantha 'Red Column' and Pyracantha 'Orange Glow'.

Hedge Nursery sells large quantities of Pyracantha hedge plants – our reviews are excellent, and you can buy with confidence knowing that you will receive top-quality plants.

Notes:

1. All prices include VAT.
2. Orders of plants requiring delivery on pallets (bare root plants taller than 120cm, plants in pots larger than 7.5 Litres, root ball plants, and instant hedging) delivered to destinations in the UK Mainland are delivered free when the order is over £350, regardless of the number of pallets needed.
3. Scottish Highlands do not have a free pallet delivery option.

Pots, bare roots, root balls, instant, cell grown, P9s - if it's all double Dutch, this explanation should help you decide which root type is best for you.

The majority of hedging plants are sold as bare roots, pot grown, or root balls, so we'll start with those.

Bare Root Hedging

For many years, we only sold bare roots, so there's a lot of advice on our website about bare root plants. Here's a very quick summary, along with links to other pages you might find helpful.

Bare root plants are grown in open fields and lifted during the winter months when dormant. This is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly growing method, so they are usually the best option if you are planting from November to April and the species and height combination you want is available as bare roots (about 80% of the species on this website are available as bare roots).

We sell hundreds of thousands of bare root plants each year to thousands of customers and, for a cost-effective solution, they're hard to beat.

We have a full explanation of the benefits and drawbacks, and an explanation of how they are grown on About Bare Root Hedging Plants, along with advice on Storing Bare Roots and Heeling in Bare Root Plants.

Pot Grown Plants

Everyone knows what a pot grown plant looks like, but there is often confusion about pot sizes and what you get for your money. Generally, with some exceptions, the bigger the pot size, the more mature, bushier and taller the plant will be - and the more costly.

Pot sizes are always described by the number of litres they hold. Our standard pot sizes are 2L, 5L and 10L (where L stands for litres). Pot dimensions from different manufacturers can vary, even though they all hold the same amount of growing medium, so sizes are specified by volume rather than the pot's dimensions.

There are several benefits to pot grown plants:

• The range of species is very wide, with some only available in pots.
• There is no root disturbance because they are grown in pots rather than lifted from fields, so the success rate is extremely high.
• They can be planted year-round, though we always advise caution when planting in extremely warm weather - water generously until they are established!

Root Ball Hedging

For large plants, particularly big, bushy evergreens, the most popular root type is root balls. They are cheaper than pot-grown plants of the same height and often bushier, but they are only available during the dormant season, usually from October to April.

They're environmentally friendly because they are grown in open fields, but instead of lifting the plant bare rooted, soil is retained around the roots and wrapped in hessian. They are not quite as eco-friendly as bare roots because root balls are heavy to transport.

Read more About Root Balls here.

Instant Hedging Troughs or Ready-Grown Hedging

Instant hedging involves planting several plants (normally 5) into a 1 metre long trough and allowing them to knit together into a hedge, so that when planted by you, you get an instant effect.

Compared with other root forms, they are relatively expensive because if a single plant fails at the nursery, the whole trough is ruined. There is also a huge cost in nursery time because the plants are trimmed into a hedge shape by the nursery team and, in some more mature instant hedging, this is done many times so that the hedge becomes extremely dense.

Instant hedging is very popular and available year-round, and we are continually expanding the range of species grown this way. There's more information on instant hedging here, and we also have a blog explaining the benefits, drawbacks and how it is grown.

Cell Grown Plants

Small cell grown plants are grown by specialist nurseries in containers about the size of a small yoghurt pot, though a bit deeper because hedging plants and trees naturally have deep roots.

They are a cost-effective solution when gardeners are willing to wait for plants to grow, and they're ideal for infilling where there isn't enough space to plant larger root types. They are also often used by foresters because they are lightweight to carry to remote areas, easy to plant and have a high success rate, reducing the need for replanting.

They are increasingly used by home gardeners as hedging plants because, although they don't have the size and bushiness of pot-grown plants, they are less expensive and available year-round, making them a good alternative to small bare roots outside the bare root season.

There is very little root disturbance or loss of the fine feeding roots that plants rely upon when moved, so the success rate is extremely high. All our cell grown plants are grown in Britain.

We show prices in various bands depending on quantity, but if you are planting a woodland and need larger quantities, please contact us for a bespoke quote.

We're always happy to advise by phone or email, so please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the best root type for you.