15% PRE-ORDER DISCOUNT ON BARE ROOT PLANTS. USE CODE BARE15 AT CHECKOUT. DELIVERIES BEGIN FROM 2 NOVEMBER5–12.5% OFF POTTED PLANTS, ROOT BALLS, & INSTANT HEDGING ORDERS OVER £300. DISCOUNT AUTOMATICALLY APPLIED AT CHECKOUT (NO CODE NEEDED)
English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) hedge plant summary
Native (one of very few evergreen native species)
Prickly leaves
Evergreen
One of the best hedging species for shade
Also good in damp soils and at the coast
An easy way to add some evergreen cover into a mixed native hedge
Livestock safe (can be used as livestock feed) but not recommended near horse paddocks
Holly makes a fantastic single species hedge (or a component of a mixed hedge) but these plants can also be grown as individual trees either in a woodland setting or a garden
We have pot grown Holly plants in various sizes all year round
Please contact us by phone (or you can email us at hello@hedgenursery.co.uk) if you have any questions, would like any advice, or if your order is likely to come to over £1000 - we may be able to offer a better price than the online price. We have experienced horticulturists answering calls and emails and we’re always very happy to help.
English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is one of the very few native evergreen hedging species (the other native evergreen is Yew) so we have a lot of demand for Holly and it is often added to a mixed native hedge or introduced into woodland planting to give some evergreen winter cover - but it also makes a superb low maintenance holly hedge, with very dark green dense, prickly foliage dense from top to bottom - ideal for nesting birds and hedge mammals. The leaves are evergreen but as some fall off (and are replaced with other glossy green leaves) this "leaf litter" is an ideal habitat for hedgehogs and small mammals. We particularly recommend Holly for planting underneath a hedgerow oak or other shade casting hedgerow tree where it will fare much better than the normal species in mixed native hedging which like a bit of sunshine.
Holly's red berries are popular with a wide range of garden birds and if you want to cut your own stems to make Christmas decorations, you should net some before the birds have them all! There are male and female Holly plants so if you want berries, you need to use several plants to ensure that you have at least one male to fertilise the females. Generally the Holly plants we sell are too young for us to be able to identify which are female and which might be male. Buying at least 5 plants and keeping them all planted reasonably close to each other should be enough to ensure you get some berrying plants. The flowers are not very noticeable (you wouldnt choose Holly for its flowers) but they are nectar rich and very popular with pollinators.
Holly is a useful species for shady situations and it does well in moist soils providing they are well-drained. It is reasonably well adapted to coastal situations.
Its prickly leaves make Holly an ideal intruder-proof security hedging species but it will take a while to grow to a mature height and fill out enough to prevent intruders because it is relatively slow growing. We describe Holly leaves as prickly but actually many Holly leaves are smooth (generally those at the top of the tree which don't need to be prickly to deter deer grazing). This ability to switch on genes according to the environment (presence of deer) and in this case, to make leaves more or less prickly, is known as phenotypic plasticity and is a key driving factor in evolution.
According to folklore, holly hedges (or holly in a hedge) prevents witches running along the hedge.
Hedge Nursery has sold very large quantities of Holly hedge plants over many years – our reviews are excellent, and you can buy with confidence knowing that you will receive top quality plants. We do not sell bare root Holly - in our opinion, it isn't a species that is suitable to growing as a bare root plant. Our nearest equivilent (and a much nicer plant in our view) is the 9cm pot grown plant.
Code:
DELIVERY CHARGES
Delivery charges are automatically calculated at checkout, based on the size of the plants and the value of your order. Our delivery charges and the kick-in points for free delivery are highly competitive, and about 90% of orders are delivered free.
Plant Type
UK Mainland (excl. Scottish Highlands and Islands)
Scottish Highlands
Bare root plants shorter than 100cm, all cell-grown plants, plants in pots up to 7 Litres
Free for orders over £120 (or £9.90)
Free for orders over £120 (or £14.99)
Bare root plants 100-120cm
Free for orders over £300 (or £24.99)
Free for orders over £300 (or £29.99)
Bare root plants taller than 120cm, plants in pots larger than 7.5 Litres, all root ball plants and instant hedging
Free for orders over £350 (or £59.99)
£112.99
Notes:
All prices include VAT.
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.
Scottish Highlands do not have a free pallet delivery option.
DESPATCH TIMELINES
Most plant specifications are in stock, so we typically dispatch within a few days after you order. Generally, we don't dispatch on Fridays, to avoid plants being in transit over a weekend. Rest assured that we will do everything we can to deliver your plants as soon as possible.
You'll receive an email from us on the despatch day, and delivery will occur within 48 hours - usually the next day, but occasionally it may take an extra day.
If you'd like to delay delivery to a date that suits your planting schedule, please include a note in the Delivery Instructions section at checkout or email us at hello@hedgenursery.co.uk.
We do not take responsibility for any deliveries delayed by couriers.
Pre-orders
For pre-ordered plants with an expected future delivery date (shown before you added them to your basket), we will dispatch around the indicated date. If your order includes both pre-order and in-stock items, we'll send everything together when the pre-order items become available.
Root Ball Plants
Root-ball plants are freshly lifted from our fields upon order. This approach ensures the plants are at their freshest when you receive them, improving their success rate. If you want delivery on a specific date, please order well in advance of when you need them.
During peak season, we lift root-ball plants twice weekly, aiming to deliver within 3-7 days. During busy periods, this may extend to 7-14 days. As the season slows, we lift once a week, with delivery within 7 working days. We'll promptly inform you of any stock unavailability or delivery delays upon receiving your order.
RECEIVING DELIVERY (Do I need to be at home?)
All deliveries will be sent with “no signature required”, so you do not need to be at home on the day of delivery.
For pallet deliveries, we will phone or email you on the day we dispatch. If you wish, you can arrange for someone to be there the following day to ensure the pallet is left in a convenient place for you to unpack the plants.
Pallets are delivered to the ‘kerbside’, but if there is driveway access for a pallet truck, the pallet will be left on the driveway or another suitable access point to your address, rather than blocking a road or pavement. Pallet trucks require a hard surface; pallets cannot be moved over gravel, soft or uneven ground, or grass.
Drivers do not unpack the pallets and it is down to the drivers discretion whether they will take the empty pallet away. If not, then customers must dispose of the pallet themselves.
RETURNS
We are rarely asked to accept a return. We can facilitate returns by collecting the parcel (s) or palletised plants from you (in their original packaging), but we do not refund the delivery charge or the carrier collection and delivery back to us. We do not accept returns if you have ordered too many plants.
If you wish to return an order, please email hello@hedgenursery.co.uk, and we will explain the process in more detail.
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.
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.
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.
