If you want to create a low-maintenance hedge in the garden or on the fence, you should consider the cornelian cherry. Due to the early flowering and the edible fruits, cornel cherries are also a good choice from an ecological point of view.

The cornel can be trained well as a hedge

That is why the cornel is suitable as a hedge plant

  • Early flowering
  • Ecologically valuable
  • Edible fruits
  • leaf coloring in autumn
  • Good cutting ability
  • slow growth
  • Pretty tough
  • Rarely pest infestation
  • Undemanding

Early flowering attracts bumblebees and bees to the garden. The fruits are very popular with birds and humans. Therefore, the cornel is one of the ecologically valuable hedge plants.

Of course there are also disadvantages. Above all, the rather high space requirement of the cornelian cherry plays a role. If you only have little space, you should not create a pure cornelian hedge, but plant smaller hedge bushes in between.

The cornel sheds its leaves in autumn. If you want a dense privacy screen all year round, better opt for other plants.

create a hedge

The cornelian cherry grows best in a warm, preferably sunny place. The soil should be slightly humic and permeable. The cornelian cherry gets a bit of lime very well.

Mark the course of the future hedge, dig up the soil and improve it with mature compost.

Plant cornelian cherries

It is best to use cornelian cherries that have been grown or propagated yourself and are already 1.50 meters high.

Plant the trees about 80 to 100 centimeters apart.

The root system of the cornelian cherry has difficulty asserting itself against strong competition. Therefore, make sure that there are as few other plants with strong roots in the vicinity as possible in the first few years.

Caring for cornel hedges properly

After setting, water the cornel cherries well. A mulch cover under the trees has proven to be very cheap. It ensures constant warmth and moisture.

If the hedge has grown well, you only have to water it in exceptional cases. Fertilizing is usually superfluous.

Cut cornel hedge

So that the cornelian cherry hedge stays in shape and is nice and dense, you have to cut it regularly. However, you should create a hedge that looks as natural as possible and not cut the cornel cherries straight on the sides and top.

The best time to cut is right after flowering in March or April. In doing so, however, you will remove many of the faded flowers that would later produce fruit.

In principle, you can cut back the hedge very strongly at any time. However, remember that the flowers form on one-year-old wood. If you cut too much, the hedge will have little or no flowering in the spring and will not bear fruit either.

tips

Cutting the hedge can sometimes turn into hard work. The wood of all cornelian cherry varieties is very hard and heavy, so it is best to buy a powerful electric hedge trimmer (€77.00).

Category:

Trees