6 Flowering Low Hedges

Low hedges, where a number of the same plants are used repeatedly in a row to form a pattern or barrier are strong design elements, but do they have to be the traditional and formally clipped green box or golden duranta hedges? The answer is no!

- By Anna Celliers

If you choose your hedge plants well, you can have your bread buttered on both sides - lots of flowers in different seasons backed up by attractive, dense foliage on plants that can be given free reign for longer periods before you have to do some taming with the hedge clippers.

Key words

Compact size - This means a natural low-growing height.

Relaxed growth habit - This means bushy plants with a rounded shape that you can gently enhance by clipping after a flowering peak.

Great foliage colour or texture - This means plants that will not sport the 'hacked'look after pruning, and which will sprout new vigorous growth fast.

Flowers with a purpose - This means blooms attracting wildlife while also pleasing the human eye, as well as a willingness to bloom even in harsh climates.

Dwarf Natal plum

Carissa macrocarpa 'Green Carpet'

It has very dark green, leathery foliage and spiny stems. This indigenous variety is normally used as a groundcover as it only grows about 30cm high with a spread of about 60cm, but it works extremely well as a neat informal little hedge. It can be pruned to a hedge shape, but you then forfeit the white, star-shaped, fragrant flowers and edible berries that follow them from spring to midsummer. So, as with all the other hedge options here, mind the flowering times. Plant it in full sun, but it is also tolerant of even deep shade. It is not hardy to extreme cold and frost but is very adaptable to windy and dry gardens.