When you buy hedging plants and shrubs from a wholesale nursery, they often come as bare root transplants, rather than potted.  This makes them lighter and less bulky to transport, which makes life much easier for you if you need to purchase hedging plants in any great quantity.  But how should you go about planting and caring for your bare root transplants?  Here's a quick guide on what to do.

Initial care

Before you can plant your hedging, you'll need to prepare the ground, and this could mean that your plants will have to be stored for a short period of time, until the site is ready.

You can safely store bare root plants for a week or so, provided that the storage location is dry, cool and frost-free.  Your garden shed or garage would be ideal.  Just leave the plants sealed in their packaging so that moisture is retained and the roots aren't allowed to dry out.

Preparing the ground

It's important to make sure that the ground for your hedging strip is free from weeds and grass, which could leach valuable nutrients out of the soil and away from your new hedge plants.

Use a good-quality shrub planting compost to mulch the hedging strip.  For best results, dig the strip over thoroughly or use a rotovator so that the compost is well dug-in.

Planting your bare root hedging plants

Before you plant your hedging, it's a good idea to prune about a third of the height from each plant.  Although this may seem a little drastic, pruning immediately will encourage the plants to grow more vigorously and bush out once they're planted, meaning that your hedge will become established more quickly.

Look at the bottom part of the stem of each plant.  You will notice a dark mark around the stem that indicates the previous soil level at which the plants were last planted at the nursery before being extracted for sale.  Make a hole in your hedging strip that is no deeper than this mark.  Your wholesale nursery supplier will advise you on how much distance to leave between each plant, as the spacing will vary depending on the species of hedging plant you've chosen.

Place each plant into its hole and infill with soil, ensuring that all the roots are covered.  Lightly tread the soil down so that the plant is held firmly upright.  Water well every day for the first week or so, unless the weather is wet.

Care of your hedging plants

It's really important for your hedging that you keep weeds at bay.  Weeds and grass will strangle the roots of the young hedging plants and will retard their growth rate.  You can keep weeds out by making a small margin on either side of your hedging plants and either hoeing it regularly to get rid of weeds or applying a layer of woodchip mulch.

In conclusion

You can ensure that your bare root hedging plants grow vigorously and successfully by following the care guide above.  For further advice on which variety of hedging plants would best suit your circumstances, have a chat with a company like Din San Nursery.

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