Hedging
How to grow a beech hedge
Fagus sylvatica
Plant beech as bare-root whips between November and March, three to the metre, in sun or part shade on soil that drains freely. Drainage decides everything: beech dies on ground that sits wet in winter, where hornbeam is the better choice. Keep the strip weed-free and watered for three summers, then clip once in August so the hedge holds its copper leaves until spring.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy
- Position
- Sun to part shade
- Soil
- Free-draining (dislikes waterlogging)
- Ideal pH
- 6.0 to 7.5
- Water
- Moderate while establishing; dislikes waterlogging
- Feeding
- Light feeder
Sowing and planting a beech hedge
WhenPlant bare-root Nov to Mar; clip Aug
Starting off
Plant bare-root whips Nov to Mar, soaking the roots for an hour and never letting them dry in the wind; shorten each by a third after planting. Beech transplants badly above 1.2 m, so buy small. Propagate from beech mast sown in Nov outdoors in a seedbed, germinating in Apr; purple beech comes partly true from seed. Mulch 5 cm and keep the hedge line weed-free for 3 years.
Spacing and planting
A beech tree reaches 25 to 30 m by 15 m, so never let a hedge plant escape clipping; hedges are held at 1.5 to 4 m tall and 60 to 90 cm thick. Plant bare-root whips 40 to 60 cm tall at 30 to 45 cm apart in a single row (3 per metre), or 45 cm apart in a staggered double row 40 cm apart for a dense screen, at the depth of the soil mark on the stem. Not a container plant.
Varieties worth growing
- Green beech (Fagus sylvatica)
- The native hedging beech: fresh green in May, copper leaves held all winter on a clipped hedge. Sold cheaply as bare-root whips.
- Purple beech (F. sylvatica Atropurpurea Group)
- Deep purple summer leaf, also sold as copper beech. Hedging plants are seed-raised, so the colour varies from plant to plant; a few mixed into a green hedge works well.
- 'Dawyck'
- A narrow, upright tree for a lawn or drive where a spreading beech would never fit, though it still grows tall and reaches 4 to 8 m wide in time. Not a hedging plant.
- 'Purpurea Pendula'
- Small weeping purple beech that stays around 3 m, for a specimen in a small garden.
A beech hedge month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Plant bare-root whips whenever the soil is neither frozen nor waterlogged.
- February
Plant. Renovate an overgrown hedge now, one face only, while it is dormant.
- March
Last bare-root planting by the end of the month. Light feed on young hedges, then a 5 cm mulch.
- April
Leaves open late in the month. Weed the hedge line and check new whips are firm after frost.
- May
Optional light trim of young hedges late in the month; check for nesting birds first.
- June
Water hedges under three years old in dry spells, 20 litres per metre weekly.
- July
Keep watering new hedges. Woolly aphid shows now; leave it.
- August
The main clip, once summer growth has stopped. This is the cut that keeps the winter leaves.
- September
Finish clipping in the first week. Top up mulch where it has thinned.
- October
Order bare-root whips. Clear and dig the planting strip, removing perennial weeds.
- November
Planting season opens. Soak roots for an hour and plant the day they arrive. Sow beech mast outdoors.
- December
Plant in mild spells. Firm in any whips lifted by frost.
Feeding a beech hedge
A light feeder. A young hedge is helped by a small spring feed and a mulch for its first three years; an established beech hedge needs a mulch at most and usually nothing.
Low, a light spring feed and a mulch while establishing.
Feeding plan
At planting, November to March
The label rate is 5 g per litre of root volume. A 40 to 60 cm whip carries roughly half a litre of root, so 2.5 g per whip: about 8 g per metre of hedge at 3 whips per metre. Dust it onto damp roots so it touches them. Once only.
March, years 1 to 3
70 g per metre run: the label's 100 g/m² spread over a strip 70 cm wide along the hedge (100 x 0.7 = 70 g). Scatter either side of the stems and water in.
March, every year while establishing
Garden compost
A 5 cm mulch over the same strip, kept just clear of the stems. On an established hedge this is the only feeding worth doing.
May to August of the first summer, in dry spells
1 g per litre of water: 10 g in a 10 litre can, one can per metre of hedge every 2 to 3 weeks as part of the weekly watering.
Year 4 onwards
Nothing
No fertiliser unless the leaves are pale and the growth short, in which case repeat the March feed once.
Signs to watch
Brown, crisped leaf edges and early leaf drop in Jul to Aug on new hedges → drought on shallow or free-draining soil, not a deficiency → 20 litres per metre weekly in dry spells and a thicker mulch. Pale yellow-green leaves and short growth after establishment → nitrogen hunger → balanced feed at 70 g per metre run in Mar for the first 3 years. Yellow leaves with green veins on very thin chalk → iron
Pests, diseases and problems
White fluffy wax under the leaves in May to July, leaves sticky and sometimes curled
Beech woolly aphid
Tolerate it: an established hedge is not harmed and ladybirds and blue tits clear most of it. The August clip removes the worst shoots.
Brown blotches at the leaf tips and small round holes in June
Beech leaf-mining weevil; the grub mines the tip and the adult chews the holes
No treatment needed. The damage is cosmetic and is hidden by the summer growth.
New leaves brown and shrivelled a few days after opening in late April or May
Late frost on soft young growth, usually in a frost pocket
Leave alone. The hedge releafs from dormant buds within a few weeks. Hornbeam is the better plant for a frost hollow.
Whips fail to leaf in the first spring, or leaf and then collapse in May
Roots dried out between lifting and planting, or the trench sat waterlogged over winter
Keep roots bagged and damp until the minute they go in, plant on the day of delivery or heel in, and never plant into a trench that holds water. Replace failures the following November.
A run of plants yellows, thins and dies back from the tips over a year or two on heavy ground
Phytophthora root rot in waterlogged soil
No cure. Remove dead plants with their roots, improve drainage, and replant the gap with hornbeam, which tolerates wet clay.
Pruning
Pruning and care
Clip once in Aug, after the summer growth stops, so the cut leaves held through winter turn copper and stay on until Apr; a second light clip in late May is optional on young hedges. Taper the sides so the base gets light. Allow 10 cm of extra height each year until the final height, then cut the leaders. Beech renovates in Feb, cutting one face back to within 15 cm of the main stems and the o
Good to knowHolds coppery dead leaves through winter if clipped, great for screening; clip in late summer.
Growing a beech hedge in pots
Beech is not a container plant. It is a forest tree with a wide, shallow root system that scorches as soon as a pot dries out and sulks if it sits wet, and a hedge needs an unbroken run of soil. If you need a clipped shape in a pot, yew or box will put up with it far better.
A beech hedge: common questions
Does a beech hedge keep its leaves in winter?
Yes, a clipped beech hedge holds its dead copper leaves until the new buds push them off in April. The habit belongs to young growth, so it depends on clipping every year in August; a hedge left unclipped, or cut late in autumn, drops more of its leaves.
How fast does a beech hedge grow?
About 30 to 60 cm a year once established. Expect very little in the first year while the roots settle, and allow five to seven years from whips to a 1.8 m hedge on good soil.
Why is my new beech hedge not growing?
Usually because the roots are short of water or sitting in it. Beech does little above ground in its first season, but if leaves are scorched at the edges the hedge is dry and needs 20 litres per metre a week, and if plants are dying in a run the soil is waterlogged. Grass and weeds growing up to the stems hold it back as well.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.