philadelphus hedging?

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

18 years ago

Philadelphus is not particularly known for deer resistance, plus it will not be very attractive hedging during the winter months. Two alternatives that come to mind are Ceanothus (wild lilac), which is evergreen, about as deer resistant as one can get, extremely drought tolerant but not fragrant. The second is Choisya ternata (Mexican orange) - also deer resistant, evergreen, fragrant but not especially drought tolerant (will need periodic deep waterings during our dry summers). Burkwood or Delavay osmanthus could work as well, but not sure where they may hit on the deer menu.

All of these shrubs take pruning well and are often used as hedging material.

babs_pnw

18 years ago

In my experience Philadelphus is well liked by deer and is heavily browsed. I have groups of plants that have not gotten more than 2' tall in 5 years, thanks to them.

Not all Ceanothus is deer resistant; Vandenberg is quite deer resistant here, but Victoria is browsed. Supposedly smaller leaved forms are more likely to be resistant.

My current favorite plant is Grevillea "Poorinda Constance" which is very deer resistant, drought tolerant, fast growing, evergreen. It blooms (red/orange) year round and is attractive to hummingbirds. No fragrance, though. It is for full sun and requires good drainage. Do not fertilize. It does get huge (10-12'high x at least as wide), which makes it inappropriate for small gardens, but can take pruning (I prune to preserve a pathway).

Babs
Vashon Island

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Mmm, autumn always seems like the start of the gardeners year - new bulbs, lots of pruning, cuttings for overwintering, harvest, ladling on compost and planting the new bare root fruits, roses and shrubs. After a truly bizarre rainless summer, the allotment has turned sere and brown much earlier than usual. Rudbeckias, dahlias and heleniums and asters had an attenuated show - I always struggle with these prairie type beauties on my sandy soil but one must have them. This year, not even emergency hosing was going to prolong the luminous late summer show of golds, bronzes and purples so I turned my face to the gravel garden which never fails to thrive. Melissa, how I love spanish broom - yep, Spartium junceum can be a thug but what a gorgeous fragrant and elegant one. They twist and bend, making fantastically gnarly shapes and grow huge and fat in East Anglia. Cytisus also grows to shocking tree size, as does Tamarix. Desperate savage pruning has been done. even though the shrubs in question are less than 6 years old, they are eating the shed. A glorious stipa gigantea, planted so carefully to filter the low evening sun, has been overshadowed one one side and totally mugged by a giant acanthus on the other. In truth, the entire gravel garden has to be redone, lifting the remnants of the old membrane (which utterly failed to prevent the millions of verbena, centranthus, ox-eye daisies, althea and eryngiums from seeding with total abandon) and replacing plants which should never have been placed there (legion - Dieramas, Schizostylus, echinaceas - embarrassing how clueless I was to plant these moisture lovers in gravel!!!)Then there are the plants which clearly love it but are far too keen - helianthemums, nepetas, salvias, hebes - small cushions are ground swallowing mounds. Apart from lots of lavender - I have hedges of L Hidcote - the deepest blue, I do not have as many silver plants as I would like. A colony of pulsatilla does well with summer silky seedheads. Santolina and a lone artemisia (Powis Castle - another huge thing). Would like to try astelia and also celmisias. A plant grown much by Ingrid, and a revelation to me, was Limonium - violetta, I have and it looks terrific with eryngiums and stipa tenuissima. Stachys or Phlomis have, so far, failed to touch my heart and I have done verbascums to death. Still throwing out flowers is the modest Zauschneria, looking good with the last of the escholzias, Salvia greggii and microphylla are flowering profusely and unstoppable. Also, pushing out another cycle of flowers - a lovelu silver leafed mound of erodium chrysantha (might be good for you, Melissa, it is a lovely thing). However, much of this is happening out of my sight since I am woefully stuck at home in a kitchen which resembles Entebbe. A simple flooring job turned into armageddon - the massively heavy cast-iron and enamel sink is upside down on the sofa, the old washing machine has been drug to the tip and a new (to me) one has arrived - although the sink issue means it is still in the middle of the kitchen. Am running out of knickers and socks - may have to be a slut and turn them inside out since the whole water system is now only usable with a lot of fiddling about with stopcocks. In a moment of frenzy, I thought we may as well go the whole way and ripped off great swathes of old painted wallpaper - which of course, came off really easily....on one wall - the rest seems as though it was cemented in position. The ingrates (offspring) have absented themselves for large amounts of time yet still manage to materialise at sensitive (shouty, sweary) moments and chip in with ludicrous suggestions (we could put speakers in the new sink cupboards, why don't we have an indoor hammock?)Estimates of finishing time have gone from 'around a week' to 'in time for Christmas'. We are eating a lot of 'bread based snacks' - although the rate of jam consumption is worrying as I was definately slack this year, using the virusey raspberries as an excuse to cut down on all the 'earth mother' nonsense I had somehow got myself into(what was I thinking?) May be forced onto chocolate spread - sweetheart can have marmalade (shudder). Even so, it has been a spectacular tomato year (no rain - no blight)- have had kilos and kilos from 40 plants. I now have wrists of iron from poking hundreds of tomatoes through a sieve. The first bareroots will be arriving soon so I will have every reason to flee the kitchen chaos.

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Privet Hedge with another plant

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It is an interestin idea but I imagine that it might be difficult to maintain the hedge, without damaging the climber. I have a traditional hedge at a constant 1.5M height and have grown several single stemed shrubs to 2.5M intermitantly through the centreline of the hedge. above 2.5M they branch out and flower. I have used philadelphus, white lilac, yellow buddleia, mimmosa and a few fruit trees. It seems to work.

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Melissa, here comes a 50x30 ft. suburban lot with a 25 yr. history. When we moved here, the backyard consisted of a paver patio, a mature medium size apple tree, a large snowball tree with bark chips under it, and a small red rose bush, the rest was grass. After a year, I decided I would like some flowers for cutting, so I converted a 3x10 ft. strip of the lawn to a flower bed. I started reading books and got hooked on gardening. Mainly perennials, with some shrubs and some annuals, heavily influenced by the likes of Beth Chatto and Penelope Hobhouse. Every two years or so, I would steal another part of the lawn. I made many mistakes (our climate is not really like England ;-) ), learned from them, and around 2007 I still had a sizeable lawn, but the flower beds were winning. Like my Dutch ancestors dammed in the sea and converted it to land, so I was damming in the lawn and converting it to beds. Pictures taken from the patio, 'panning' from left to right. In the following years it slowly became clear that my husband was suffering from Alzheimer's. My first responsibility was his care, and I had to let the garden slide, till in 2013 it looked like this: Still lots of plants, but thugs reigned and the rest got weaker and sometimes died, like the old snowball tree. In that time I learned to carve out my own little paradise by ignoring the mess and focussing on the small areas of beauty that could still be found: When my husband had to go to a nursing home, I slowly took up gardening again. I had decided earlier that I wanted a garden without a lawn area, as lawn care had always been my weak point. Early this year our daughter and her husband brought in soil, and some cedar mulch for the main paths and another seating area. I built up the soil level, made the mulched areas low, and dug out an even lower area, all for drainage. Then came the time for saving what could be saved, transplanting and planting. I now have what I wanted, a garden I can enjoy year round. Winter is not my strength, as I do not particularly like evergreens, but the apple tree and the shrubs and seed heads give enough winter interest for me. As soon as the snow is gone, I have hellebores and small bulbs, and the year ends in November/December with fall bulbs and late bloomers, plus all the plants and shrubs that give fall its colour with their changing foliage. I have a place that gives me a healthy work out, I have a place that gives me peace and quiet, I have a place that makes me praise the Maker of it all. Enough of an earthly paradise. I will post some pictures of the garden as it was this year in a separate post. I am afraid the site might refuse a too picture heavy story.

brahanseer
Original Author

18 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions, all of which make more sense than mine. Having checked again, I agree Philadelphus was a poor choice. I like Choisya but watering whole hedges is not an option. We'll likely limit the use of this shrub to specimens on the way up our main drive and close to the house.

Ceanothus or Grevillea seem like the best candidates. Ceanothus 'Edinburgh' I know and there is some on our island but Grevillea is new to me. I couldn't find a good online illustration of it but assume it's similar to Firebird except for the colour. If it's fast growing it sounds like it might be the right answer.

There is a small island off the coast of Brittany called L'Isle de Callot, a nature reserve and bird sanctuary. The island, mostly traffic free, has pedestrian lanes which are defined by Escalonia hedgerows 10 - 12 feet high that seem very old. They support an enormous variety of birdlife and are stockproof. As a trigger for happy memories of that beautiful island, we'll also include some Escalonia hedges somewhere in our landscaping plans.

reg_pnw7

18 years ago

Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica) would be a good choice too. Evergreen, naturally hedge shaped, and native to PNW coastal areas. I see it growing on rocky cliffs on the shoreline along the Olympic Peninsula, just south of you; it's probably native on Vancouver Island shores also. Would not need watering once established in the area you describe. Natives are a good choice when they'll do exactly what you want, as they're already adapted to the environment and the wildlife.

Escallonia can freeze badly in zone 7 areas but does fine in zone 8 areas. I've always been leery of planting grevilleas around here as they're accustomed to warmer drier climates than ours. They don't like cold wet soil.

philadelphus hedging?

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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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philadelphus hedging?

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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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