FAQ's & Grow Tips

How to grow and care for your hedge FAQs and screening plant tips

Everything you need to know about purchasing your hedging or screening plants, and keeping them alive and thriving !

I was a landscaper for 20 years, these varieties are hand picked, there are no duds!!! All our plants perform that hedging and screening perfectly …..The information on the website including the videos should see you self selecting based on what your requirements are.  A good way to start is with what varieties fit your finished height requirement. Narrow the field by colour and leaf shape, and then check what we have ‘in stock’

A minimum of half a day’s sun is required. The more sunshine they get the thicker and denser will be their  growth. The Murraya (best seller) is our only hedge plant that can cope with a bit of shade “most of the day”  I have seen these growing under canopy type trees quite well.

I like to give the area a deep slow water several days before planting for easier digging. I then spray the existing grass/weeds  where I am planting the hedge at least a day prior to planting with roundup / zero. (no residual soil effect) This will be taken in by the weeds / grass through their leaves, and regardless of your digging and disturbance they will die. This saves much removal effort and the weeds and grass will break down overtime to provide lovely organic matter.

Place out all your plants, stand back and adjust positions so you are happy. Dig a hole bigger than the root-ball, place plant in hole and settle loose soil back in around root-ball you can compact the soil a little bit. 

300mm Pot Size a diameter of say 350 to 400mm  and depth of 300 to 350mm (you can always kick some soil back in to get the rootball top level with the surface) 400mm Super Advanced Pot Size a diameter of say 475 to 500mm and depth of 400 to 450mm (you can always kick some soil back in to get the rootball top level with the surface) Once a hole is dug its a very easy job to dig a little wider or adjust the hole dimension to be bigger. 

Finish planting with the top of the root-ball being level with the top of the soil, make sure NO soil is against the trunk. If you mulch, make sure no mulch is placed against the trunk. Immediately water plants in heavily and thoroughly.

If you are to establish your plants without any setbacks its important to get the watering right at planting and for a few months after. Once established the pressure is off and rainfall alone will usually suffice. Plants are established when they have roots growing out in to the surrounding soil.                                                                                   The way I do it……….AT PLANTING  I like to have a hose running at a slow rate on the plant I have just planted while planting the next plant. This gives the plant a few minutes of slower watering so it has “time to penetrate” all the rootball and and the soil immediatly around the plant.                                                                                                 NEXT FEW WEEKS, the plant will ONLY have access to the rootball for its water until roots grow out. This means water MUST be applied to the rootball as water in the soil outside the rootball will not move sideways into the rootball. However the rootball will only accept water at a slow rate, if you put the water on FAST it will roll off the rootball into the surrounding soil only.                                                                                                                                             Example of SLOW WATERING , a dripper (on the rootball) , a soaker hose, if hand watering give each a plant in the line a few seconds of water till it starts to just run off and then move to the next plant untill your line of plants is finished and then repeat this a few times. You can also just leave the hose dripping/dribbleing on a plant and next time you go past move to another plant. You need to put on enough water to wet up the entire rootball. Daily is good if hot and windy, maybe every 3 days if its cold.  If it goes wrong (left dry for extended period)  the plants will sulk, drop leaves etc but rarely die, they will delay becoming your great hedge by a few months !             After they establish, rainfall in many cases will be enough,  watering when very dry will speed there growth. With my hedges I give them a water if its VERY dry for a long while, I do this with a  with a single long / deep water with a soaker hose. 

If your soil drains water reasonably you have what’s needed as soil! Adding organic matter, adding new soil, adding this or that will all help but in most circumstances is non essential.

Any type of mixed complete fertiliser will be  a “helpful growth speed bonus” applied a couple of times a year in the warmer months. They are not fussy and do not require a “native” type fertiliser.  A complete non organic (chemical) fertiliser can be used at the rate of 1 adult handful per metre of row spread evenly (not against the trunks). The fertiliser will sit there and wash in when it rains. If you use something that’s only organic for example manure pellets you need LOTS more, think a spade full per metre of row. CK 88 fertiliser or any brand similar is an example of a good complete fertiliser.

Any sort of decaying plant material as a layer on top of the soil will suppress weeds, insulate the hedge feeder roots, and over time, provide organic matter to the soil “all good” It’s nice but not essential. It’s difficult to place mulch too thickly, BUT place no mulch against the plant trunks.

In the warmer states any time of year. In a very cold location maybe avoid mid winter.

Plants will start putting roots out into the surrounding soil from around 1 month (think vulnerable baby) At around 3 months they should have reasonable roots and be capable of limited self care (think teen with access to fridge) Water very frequently directly to the root-ball at the start, If its summer hot and windy this could be twice a day. At three months you can be watering much less frequently and watering the root ball and surrounding soil, at 6 months deep water only when obviously dry. 12 months normal rainfall (depending) will be enough, a single deep slow water during an extended dry will speed growth.

Maybe ! The Lilly Pillys (Syzygium) species are better at  handling poor drainage than many other plants. This is because their  parent species are native to the rainforest.. If your soil stays really wet for extended times (many weeks) that’s an issue.  Building up the soil level to be higher than the surrounding ground will at least provide drainage within the added height of soil.

It depends ! If you just want bushy privacy maybe not at all. Our plants will do this!   Trimming will enable you to cap at a particular height and width (you just created a hedge!) Trimming is as simple as let it grow and then cut that new growth back by half, repeating until desired height / shape is achieved.These plants love to be trimmed and will respond well whether you are a frequent snipper  or random lopper.

This is a very common issue. Our plants have a lot of leaves that are sucking water from a small root-ball of soil. The root-ball becomes dry quite quickly. For the first couple of months after planting the plant will only have access to that water not to the surrounding soil.. If the root ball soil gets really dry at anytime it can become dusty dry and phobic to water so no matter how much water you put on it the root-ball will repel it.. Dig in and check the root ball if you suspect this. Easily overcome by leaving a hose just dripping/dribbling right on top of that root ball for 10 minutes+ this will slowly re-wet the root-ball. The root ball is now re-set and will accept water normally.

Firstly how good are these plants for surviving and thriving at a rental property, they are TOUGH. I have chain sawed my 3m screen of Aussie Boomers down to 10cm above ground level . They sat there for 2 months and then bang off they went again stronger than ever! A normal trim through to extreme lop – they love it all. If you do an extreme lop aim to do it in   the cooler months while the plant is slightly dormant.

Yes as all plants do, older leaves eventually drop and new leaves replace. None of our plants are known as being a “problem plant” in this respect.

Any shrub or tree can be, depending on circumstance, however the plants we grow are not known as “root problem” plants, and are on balance a popular choice as can be seen in many gardens / situations. The rule of keeping the top small will keep the roots small is a good one.

Ok, as just about any plant gets pests.Lilly Pillys can and do as well. On some species leaf pimples occur (pimple psylidd) from time to time. It is not usually something obvious at a distance, it will slow the growth a little,  little or no screening effect will be lost. If desired a systemic insecticide can be applied (ask for this at your garden centre) this will ensure the new growth is unaffected. Confidor for example  is a popular and readily available choice. Species that are resistant or free of this are, Select, Resilience, Cascade, The non Lilly Pillys we grow do not get this pest.

No we specialize in advanced sized plants (instant effect) that’s all we do.

These can be easily found with a Google search.

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