Fast-growing hedges: how much each grows in a year

The fastest hedge plants

The plants below grow at least 30 cm a year when young and grow taller than 180 cm within ten years, so they can make a screening hedge. Only plants whose yearly growth our sources agree on are listed.

Plant	Yearly growth	Drought tolerance	Plants per metre	Cheapest price per metre	To 180 cm
Leyland cypress Evergreen	90 cm/year	Low	1.5	HUF 3,800 with 30 cm plants	about 2 years
Cherry laurel 'Novita' Evergreen	50 cm/year	Medium	1.5	HUF 2,500 with 30 cm plants	about 3 years
Firethorn Evergreen	50 cm/year	High	2	HUF 3,800 with 40 cm plants	about 3 years
Western red cedar Evergreen	50 cm/year	Low	1.5	HUF 3,600 with 20 cm plants	about 4 years
Blackthorn Deciduous	40 cm/year	High	3	HUF 7,200 with 50 cm plants	about 4 years
Oval-leaved privet Semi-evergreen	40 cm/year	Medium	3	HUF 9,000 sold without a stated size
Wild privet Semi-evergreen	40 cm/year	High	3	HUF 7,200 sold without a stated size
Arizona cypress Evergreen	35 cm/year	High	1.5	HUF 10,000 with 40 cm plants	about 4 years
Rocky Mountain juniper Evergreen	35 cm/year	High	2	HUF 7,600 with 60 cm plants	about 4 years
European hornbeam Deciduous	30 cm/year	Medium	2.5	HUF 4,700 with 60 cm plants	about 4 years
Photinia 'Red Robin' Evergreen	30 cm/year	Medium	1.5	HUF 2,800 with 15 cm plants	about 6 years

The years to 180 cm are an estimate: we reckon from the height of the plant bought and its yearly growth. A hedge has to be trimmed into shape in its first years so that it stays dense at the bottom, and this slows its rise, so allow a year or two more. The price per metre is the price of the size that gives the cheapest metre, times the number of plants per metre.

How long until it screens: the plant size decides

A larger plant of the same kind costs more but screens years sooner. This choice matters more than the variety: a slower plant bought large makes a closed hedge sooner than a fast plant bought in the smallest size.

Leyland cypress

90 cm/year · 1.5 plants per metre

Size	Per metre	To 180 cm
30 cm	HUF 3,800	about 2 years
80 cm	HUF 7,500	about 2 years
140 cm	HUF 15,000	about 1 year
175 cm	HUF 25,000	about 1 year

Cherry laurel 'Novita'

50 cm/year · 1.5 plants per metre

Size	Per metre	To 180 cm
30 cm	HUF 2,500	about 3 years
60 cm	HUF 6,600	about 3 years
125 cm	HUF 27,000	about 2 years
130 cm	HUF 27,000	about 1 year

Arizona cypress

35 cm/year · 1.5 plants per metre

Size	Per metre	To 180 cm
40 cm	HUF 10,000	about 4 years
90 cm	HUF 15,000	about 3 years
100 cm	HUF 25,000	about 3 years
150 cm	HUF 28,000	about 1 year

The middle way is often best: medium plants that close up in one or two summers. The smallest, cheapest plants are good where screening can wait: they establish more easily and can be trimmed dense from the bottom.

Evergreen or deciduous?

If it must screen in winter too, it has to be evergreen: cherry laurel, photinia, Portugal laurel, or the slower but very long-lived yew. You will find all evergreen hedge plants in the list of evergreen hedge plants.

Privet is semi-evergreen: in a mild winter it keeps some of its leaves, in hard frost it drops them, but it reliably leafs out again in spring. Hornbeam and beech are deciduous, but on a clipped hedge the dry brown leaves hang on until spring, so they still screen somewhat in winter.

A thorny hedge (firethorn, blackthorn) is good shelter for birds, but does not belong next to children or along a path.

Why not thuja?

Arborvitae is no longer a good choice for a new hedge. It comes from humid, moist sites and cannot bear hot, dry summers without watering: its shoot tips turn brown and its branches die. Weakened plants are attacked by the juniper jewel beetle, whose larvae under the bark cannot be treated. This is why thuja hedges are dying in large numbers across Central Europe.

Western red cedar and Leyland cypress are fast but not a safe swap: they bear drought and heat just as badly, the beetle attacks the whole thuja genus, and Leyland cypress, once weakened, falls to fungal canker. Plant them only in moist soil with regular summer watering.

In place of thuja, yew lasts longest (slow, but fine in shade too); privet, photinia and Portugal laurel are faster. Safest of all is a mixed hedge of several species: one disease cannot take the whole of it at once.

Common yew Wild privet Photinia 'Red Robin' Portugal laurel

The price of speed

What grows fast has to be trimmed often. A fast hedge needs cutting back two or three times a year; a slow one (yew, holly) once is enough. Untrimmed, a Leyland cypress can grow 30 metres tall, so once you have started trimming it, you cannot stop.

Thujas and cypresses do not sprout again from old, leafless wood: trim only the green part, or a brown hole remains. Yew and leafy hedges (privet, hornbeam) recover even from hard cutting back.

Birds carry the seeds of cherry laurel into woodland, where it crowds out native plants. Do not plant it next to natural areas; in Switzerland it may not even be sold since 2024.

Planting: spacing and numbers

In a hedge, plants go closer together than as free-standing shrubs. The table above shows the number of plants per metre: most fast hedges need 1.5-3 plants per metre, so a 20-metre fence takes 30-60 plants.

Our garden planner sets the hedge 50 cm from the fence and leaves a 45 cm strip in front of it for trimming, so a border planted in front of the hedge starts at 125 cm. Both sides of the hedge stay within reach.

You will find lower hedges for edging among the low hedge plants, and every hedge plant in the list of hedge plants.