Cypress or cedar?

Hedge trees, cedar and cypress have been sharing the limelight in gardens for decades. Windbreaks, privacy screens, these coniferous hedges are very appreciated by gardeners for their thick and persistent foliage in winter. But what is really the difference between cedar and cypress?

A strange resemblance

It's hard to tell the difference between a cedar or cypress hedge!

The Lawson cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) is not a true cypress (Cupressus) in the botanical sense of the term, whereas the Leyland cypress (Cupressocyparis x leylandii), is a natural hybrid between the Lambert cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), and the Nootka cypress (Cupressus nootkatensis)

Cedars and false cypresses are conifers, very similar in appearance that share certain characteristics:

• a green foliage (except the cultivars in vogue, golden or blue) persistent composed of flattened scales;
• a slender, conical to pyramidal habit in the first years;
• they provide compact, dense hedges, ideal as privacy and windbreaks throughout the year;
• they are well suited to pruning;
• they must be pruned once to three times a year, when they are grown as hedges to contain them.

Discreet differences

There are a few ways to differentiate cedars from false cypress and cypress trees used to create hedges:

• cedars have slightly wider, slightly less dense branches than false cypresses;
• False cypresses grow much faster (up to 70 cm to 1m/year for the Leyland cypress) and appear finer in their young age;
• several pruning actions are required to contain the false cypresses each year;
• false cypresses are a little less resistant to frost than cedars (-20°C all the same!);
• The shape of the cones is elongated on the cedars and rounded on the false cypresses;
• The scales of true cypresses are never flattened but rather spiral or 3D;
• the spire (top of the tree) is thinner on the cedar;
• There are many varieties of Lawson cypress, for example 'Stardust' with golden foliage or 'Pembury Blue' with bluish foliage.

Cedar, the star of the 80s

For decades, cedar was the dominant plant in the creation of blackout hedges.

Thuja plicata, better known as 'western red cedar', is very appreciated for its average growth (30 cm/year), which limits pruning. It has the advantage of growing in height (up to 50 m) but also in width, which ensures a well-filled and dense hedge.

• Thuja occidentalis 'Brabant', or 'Brabant cedar', has its followers because it is very resistant to cold (-25°C) and easy to maintain. Its average growth (30 cm/year), and its light green color are unanimously appreciated, especially since it only grows up to 5 m high and is very easy to prune.
• Despite all these advantages, the use of cedar in hedges is more and more controversial, especially because of its sensitivity to cryptogamic diseases (Phytophthora cinnamomi, Didymascella thujina, Coryneum cardinale...). These diseases, frequent in heavy and humid soil, cause the browning of the foliage and its fall. In the case of Phytophthora, the cedar will not survive.

Another concern is a small parasitic insect: the bupreste, which has been devastating many plantations for several years.

In southern regions, cedar can be sensitive to drought unless an automatic watering system is installed so that the tree can really produce its root system. Let's not forget that the lack of water is a stress factor, which can weaken the tree and make it much more susceptible to diseases and parasites.

Cypresses, very trendy in hedges

As we have seen, cedar has been gradually replaced by other species more resistant to diseases and pests. Cypresses grow very quickly, are very hardy and for the moment are less sensitive to pests and diseases.

They do not really appreciate very calcareous and dry soils.

Available in ornamental foliage (blue, golden...), Lawson cypresses also appeal for their ease of growing and pruning.

On the Leyland side, beware! It grows so fast that to obtain a regular hedge and keep a dense aspect, it will be necessary to prune often (up to 3 times a year) and to call a professional to avoid the formation of unsightly holes with time.

So cypress or cedar?

It's all a question of choice, but with these conifers, you will only obtain monospecific hedges, which certainly attract certain birds but will remain unicolored in all circumstances and will require very regular maintenance (pruning).

The current trend is to have a variety of hedges, composed of flowering shrubs of different species to stagger the blooms throughout the year and encourage the presence of pollinating insects. Some of them have berries that attract birds and small mammals. Biodiversity is thus favored with a better balance in your garden!

Plant tools in an all-purpose hedge!

Bocage, windbreak, flowering, fruiting, defensive, evergreen ... The hedge comes in all forms. Forgotten, the old hedges were used by man as diversified tools, links, handles, stakes... Let's discover these practical and handy tools for the modern gardener.

The hedge and the farmer

A few decades ago, hedges crisscrossed the landscape, bordered plots of land and kept herds at bay. Sources of biodiversity, regulating water flows, windbreaks, for generations they found their place in the agricultural ecosystem. Farmers combined ecological interest and practical utility.

The branches of the "tetards", pruned and re-pruned trees with thick and twisted trunks, were used as fodder. The faggots heated the bread ovens. The bunches of flexible branches were used as brooms. Most of the wooden tools were renewed at the edge of the cultivated plots, from the simple tie to the pickaxe handle.

A piece of string

The gardener always needs a link, a piece of string, raffia, copper wire... A tomato to tie, a vine to guide, two stakes to tie, and the search for a tie begins. Pocket money? No. Going back home ? For a branch... What about the hedge, at the edge of the garden, within reach?

The willows, pruned near the short trunk, have given off young shoots, long, thin and flexible. They turn without bending, without breaking, and can tie, bind. From time immemorial, wicker has followed the vine, the ancient link of the winegrowers.

Other shrubs of the hedge were used as a link, then in braiding for basketry. Baskets, hats, trellises, were conceived, repaired, near the blood dogwood, Vitex agnus-castus, viburnum lantana, clematis...

The spade handle broke...

If the link is essential to the gardener, the handle is no less so. Spade, hoe, weed, plant... Every tool needs a handle, which always breaks at the wrong moment. Sundays and holidays, the old hedge is always there. If the ash was known for its flexibility, its tenacity, the field maple, less used, compact and homogeneous, was also used for any tool handle.

Mediterranean, renowned in its time for its properties equal to ash, the hackberry outclasses it for its robustness and flexibility. Wood of all the manufactures, stretchers, oars, axles, it was cultivated to produce forks. The shoots were pruned and shaped in order to harvest the ready-made tool. Shrub of the hot regions, the climatic warming encourages to register it in any plantation of hedge.

Tomato stakes

Less demanding in terms of mechanical properties, stakes are found on shrubs with straight branches, with straight and vigorous shoots. Hazelnut will provide beautiful stems that can be reused for several years if they are protected in winter. This gives the hedge time to regenerate.

The black locust, commonly called acacia, grows beautiful vertical shoots, thorny but solid, durable.

The blood dogwood produces long, flexible branches in the spring, then rigid, with branches that are easily lopped off. The longest stems are used as stakes to support large plants and climbers.

Another hedge shrub, with the hardest wood and the tastiest berries, the male dogwood. It was used as a wedge to split wood, harrow teeth, ladder rungs. Its stakes are extremely solid. The grandfathers found a certain interest there...

Grandfathers and children

...And knew how to recognize reliable wood that could withstand the weight of years. The cane was harvested on the edge of the meadow. Dogwoods, but also serviceberry and hazelnut trees, were appreciated. Sometimes honeysuckle was mixed in, and its imprint marked the wood with an elegant spiral. The male dogwood, so hard, became also javelin... For the pleasure of children, who remember their grandfather, find the yew, the cytise and the ash to make bows, the elder for whistles and blowpipes, the boxwood for toys, buttons and spoons.

Maintaining an old hedge, planting an all-purpose hedge, in spite of the blackthorn's readiness to escape, the bramble's readiness to go prospecting, is an encounter. Locate the handles of his future grelinette, the flexible branch that will be used to repair his straw hat. Twine the honeysuckle around the grandfather's next cane. Preparing a long vine stake. So many gestures of another rhythm. And new plantings to be made, for shrubs combining diversity, flowering, and practicality.

The hedgerow

Playing an exceptional role in plant and animal biodiversity, the hedgerow, which fell into disuse at the end of the last century, is making a strong comeback in farming practices. A complex ecosystem, it plays a protective role for the soil, crops and livestock but also has an ornamental function.

What is a hedgerow?

A hedge is a hedge composed of several species of trees and shrubs arranged in differentiated layers. Generally, it is made up of local, indigenous plants, which grow without worry and are adapted to both the climate and the soil of the region. In the past, this hedge served as a property boundary between cultivated plots and as a natural fence for livestock. This type of hedge was the basis of the famous bocages that shaped the landscape in many regions, providing firewood and delimiting plots so beautifully.

The great economic projects of intensive reparcelling between 1960 and 1980 were the reason of this so particular landscape, leaving place to the green deserts of the intensive agriculture and all the problems which are linked to them.

Composition of a hedgerow

This very diversified hedge includes a tree part with high trees (ash, beech, rowan, oak...), a shrub zone composed of bushes and shrubs such as hawthorn, viburnum, broom, holly, fusain, blackthorn or bramble, and a herbaceous zone at its foot with local plants growing spontaneously such as mallow, poppy, vulpine or clover. This plant diversity offers numerous shelters to a very varied and useful fauna. In the tree layer, birds (including birds of prey) watch over the crops, capturing parasitic insects, but also rodents and other small mammals. The tall trees are sometimes replaced or associated with trees in the form of a hedge such as hornbeam, alder, white willow or wild apple.

The shrub layer shelters a very varied fauna, birds but also insects and mammals; it often serves as a nesting area. Flowering over a long period of time and providing a variety of berries for many months, it is a choice larder for wildlife that is attracted en masse.

The herbaceous zone attracts pollinating insects, but also serves as a breeding area and biological corridor for animal movement, especially in agricultural areas. The wider the strip, the more beneficial animals will be present.

Often the herbaceous zone is located at the foot of a slope, a very common feature in bocages. The embankment compensates for certain effects of the wind and modulates them. It also has the function of slowing down the flow of rainwater and limiting the erosion of the land.

Further down, at the base of the slope, a ditch is often built to stop the progression of tree roots on the surface (which would compete with the crops) and encourage their vertical rooting. It serves as a drainage and storage area for rainwater and is often home to a wide variety of batrachians, insects and reptiles.

Interests of the plantation of a hedge bocagère

This type of very diversified hedge has many advantages on a technical, economic and environmental level.

Technical and economic advantages

• The hedge serves as a natural fence and requires little maintenance;
• It can be a source of firewood and work to be done on site (stakes, tool shed, gate ...);
• It provides a harvest of fruits and berries depending on the species planted;
• It protects from the wind;
• It has an undeniable aesthetic aspect in the landscape and constitutes an element of identity in certain regions.
• Leisure and educational activities are organized by tourism actors around the concept of the discovery of this form of development that are the hedgerows and the hedges that constitute them. Creation of hiking trails, mountain bike trails, horseback riding, bird and wildlife observation tours, but also discovery trails on the various typical pruning techniques (pollards, hornbeams, plessage...) attract many tourists in these rural areas.

Environmental benefits

• The hedgerow is a reservoir for both animal and plant biodiversity, it allows to recreate a balance between prey and predators. The crops protected by the auxiliaries are less subject to treatment products.
• It is a source of humus.
• This type of landscaping helps to fight effectively against soil erosion and nutrient leakage.
• Planted perpendicular to the slope, it favors water penetration in the soil.
• The slope plays an important role in draining and filtering water if it is overloaded with inputs. Pollutants such as phosphates and nitrates are thus fixed and transformed before they enter the water table.

Hedge trimming

There are many ways to trim a hedge depending on the desired effect and the plants that make up the hedge. Smaller hedges will be used to delimit specific areas of the garden, while larger, straighter hedges will be used as fences around a property. Regardless of the style, a hedge requires regular maintenance, let's see how to proceed.

Pruning Times

Spring is the best time to trim shrub hedges. Proceed at the very beginning of spring before the vegetation has started to grow.

We prefer to wait until July for the pruning of conifers in order to preserve the beautiful colors of the new spring shoots. For the more fastidious, lovers of straight lines, green pruning should be done in three stages: at the end of April, at the end of June and at the end of August. This will ensure a clean and neat appearance.

How to proceed?

1- pruning an open hedge

An open hedge is composed of shrubs with decorative foliage or interesting flowers. They will be pruned in a lighter way using simple secateurs or a small saw, in order to remove the dead wood and the branches that cross. The goal is to clear the interior of the plant to let in light. This pruning can also be used to limit the height if necessary. Always try to keep a certain harmony and not to make holes in the whole.

2- Regular hedges

Interventions should be more frequent, every two to three months. For a successful hedge, plant two stakes on either side of the hedge and stretch a wire between them. Do not hesitate to adjust the height of the wire using a level on flat ground or a meter on sloping ground. Proceed in the same way for the pruning on both sides of the hedge.

Use hand shears if the length is less, motorized shears if the hedge is more important. The blade should be disinfected and sharpened beforehand. Then simply slide the shears along the wire used as a guide. Keep a light hand and do not press on the wire, as this would cause irregularities. Do not hesitate to prune frequently so that the hedge does not grow more than 10 cm per year.

To be dense, a hedge must be as wide as it is high, or even slightly wider at the bottom. It is possible, for more softness, to round the angles to create a more harmonious shape.

The various possible shapes

Here again, it's all a matter of taste and functionality:

• Rectangular: the hedge forms a real wall that doesn't let the light through, it protects from the eyes and from intrusions;
• Domed: the hedge is rounded at the top, the ideal solution to keep a natural look to the garden.
• Half sphere: mostly used on small shrubs to suggest shapes or delimit particular areas in the garden.
• Loose: to create a flowered wall at the bottom of the garden;
• Sculpted: reserved for virtuosos of the shears and for boxwood and yew hedges. All possibilities are then possible (volutes, windows, crenels and merlons ...)

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', an alternative to boxwood

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball': a replacement for boxwood?

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' owes its name to its compact ball-like habit. Rather recent (it was found by a nurseryman about ten years ago), it is already a serious candidate to replace boxwood, which is susceptible to two diseases and one pest (the boxwood borer defoliator caterpillar).

To know: nurserymen are looking for plants that could replace boxwood. However, at the present time, there is no plant that can replace boxwood in all its uses and all its geographical zones.

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is especially interesting in the southern half of France, to form small borders, but also balls.

The advantages

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', like a number of other Pittosporums, is particularly resistant to drought. It has no known diseases or pests, and, as an added bonus, it can be pruned very well.

Pruning 

It can be pruned several times a year, depending on the needs, but avoid pruning in the middle of winter, when there is a risk of frost.

A small pruning in April, then a second one during the summer, allows to obtain a perfect ball.

Its small boxwood leaves

If in a very favorable situation (as in the nursery), Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' has a vigorous habit and 'big' leaves (1 cm long and 8 mm wide), rest assured: in the open ground, the habit will naturally be more compact, with finer leaves, similar to those of boxwood.

The propagation of Pittosporum 'Golf Ball

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' can be cuttings in September, but beware: it is a plant whose reproduction without the authorization of the New Zealand nurseryman is forbidden.

How to plant this pittosporum?

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is a full sun shrub, possibly in partial shade. The soil should be normal or draining but not waterlogged in winter. In this case, plant it on a mound.

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' can also be grown in a pot, on a terrace, in a mixture of one third soil, one third quality potting soil and one third compost.

Care of Pittosporum 'Golf Ball

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is a hardy plant. Therefore, it does not show any signs of weakness when it is thirsty. It is therefore necessary to check regularly that the soil remains fresh, but not waterlogged.

The benefits of a hedge

Evergreen, deciduous, flowering...

To know what we are talking about, and what type of tree we use to create a hedge, let's go back to some definitions.

An evergreen tree is a tree that keeps its leaves in winter. On the other hand, a deciduous tree loses its leaves in the fall. Flowering trees can belong to both categories, evergreen or deciduous.

Trees or shrubs?

It is also important to distinguish between trees and shrubs. Even on large plots of land, where there is room to install large hedgerows favorable to biodiversity, we mainly use shrubs, which are less cumbersome than trees.

A shrub can easily be more than 2, 3 or 4 meters high. Also, on the scale of a modest garden (500 to 1000 m2), we tend to use subjects of 1m to 1.50m, or that we will maintain at this size (in general, a maintenance pruning every 2 or 3 years is sufficient).

Diversity to encourage biodiversity

When planting a hedge, it is important to keep biodiversity in mind. This requires a diversity of planted shrubs. It is important to mix species and varieties, to have recourse to evergreens, deciduous and flowering plants, with flowering periods staggered throughout the year. Thanks to the plant diversity, we encourage animal diversity and therefore, the arrival of terrestrial and aerial auxiliaries.

The advantages of a plant hedge

• Contrary to a mineral hedge, the vegetal hedge brings coolness to the garden when it is hot.
• The leaves of deciduous shrubs nourish the soil and the biodiversity of the soil when they fall to the ground and decompose.
• It limits the effect of wind, erosion of sloping soils, etc.

A 'disadvantage': maintenance

The disadvantage of a vegetal hedge is that it requires a minimum of maintenance to benefit from all its advantages in the long term. Some shrubs require only one pruning per year, others every two or three years. From time to time, it will be necessary to intervene in a more drastic way, i.e. to cut back to let it grow back.

Bonus: pruning will allow you to have some firewood or to make some shelters for auxiliaries (for example, for a hedgehog), by making some piles that you will install under the hedge.