Pleached trees bring an elegant touch to any garden. They’re perfect for privacy screening, as they’re trained to form a screen of branches and foliage on a single stem, and can create a ‘wall’ effect when they’re planted in rows at equal distances.
But what exactly are pleached trees, and how do you care for them? We go through all this and more in this guide to pleached trees.
What are pleached trees?
Pleached trees have a single, clear stem with a screen of branches that are trained horizontally on a frame. When planted together with their shoots intertwined, they can look like a ‘hedge on stilts’, as their stems rise high before the branches create a continuous narrow screen.
Pleached trees were used as early as Medieval times to create shaded walkways, and they became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries to line the gardens of stately homes. Pleached trees are enjoying a bit of a revival thanks to their excellent screening capabilities, whether to offer privacy in gardens or hide unsightly buildings. And you can even find them in RHS Chelsea Flower Show gardens to offer something different to contemporary gardens.
How tall do pleached trees grow?
How tall pleached trees grow generally depends on the species. However, most pleached trees’ stems will be between 180cm and 220cm tall, with the branches and foliage on top. You’ll be able to buy pleached trees with different frame sizes based on how wide you’d like them - usually starting from 120cm x 150cm. You can help the trees reach the height and spread you want by regularly pruning them.
What are the best trees for pleaching?
There are plenty of trees that are great for pleaching, but we’ll go through our top choices:
Lime: Lime, or Tilia, trees are the most commonly used tree for creating pleached walkways. They have dark green, circular leaves that turn a lime-yellow colour in the autumn and drop soon after. They’re fast-growing, which is great if you want to establish a walkway or screen quickly.
Cherry laurel: One of our firm favourites is the cherry laurel, or Prunus laurocerasus, which is technically a shrub. They are evergreen, meaning they’re ideal for privacy screening all year round, and their leaves are green and glossy. In the spring they produce white flowers, and in the autumn they bear a fruit that looks like cherries which turn from red to black. Since they grow upright and bushy, they’re an ideal candidate for pleaching.
Crab apple Everest: If you own or are working on a smaller garden, the crab apple Everest or Malus is ideal. This deciduous tree has beautiful pink and white blossoms in spring, glossy green leaves that turn yellow in autumn and pink and orange crab apples in winter. It’s a smaller tree, making it perfect for pleaching in smaller gardens.
How to pleach a tree
We asked our very own Head of Operations, Jenny, to give us a step-by-step guide on how to pleach your own trees:
“Creating your own pleached trees is possible with time, patience and a little engineering!
Year one
Start in winter with a 3-4 year old tree and stake with a vertical stake to the height you want your finished plant to be.
Attach a rectangular framework to the top of the stake.
Remove all lateral branches below framework height and tie in all remaining branches horizontally onto the frame.
Year two
Keep training all main branches horizontally and cut back any smaller stems coming from these back to 2 or 3 buds.
Remove any shoots growing from the main stem below framework height.
Year three: winter
Cut back any growth extending beyond the framework and weave or tie in other shoots to help fill in the gaps.
Once established and the growth is dense it can be maintained in the same way you would prune a hedge.”
It’s important to remember to space out your trees if you’re planting more than one. Plant them 1.5 metres apart, and at least 40cm away from fences or walls. They should also be at least 1 metre away from buildings to prevent root growth into foundations.
Can you pleach a mature tree?
It will be very difficult to pleach a mature tree. A tree that has been left to grow naturally will have many branches lower down and will have a strong crown.
You would need to cut off lower branches, which will be tricky and will look unsightly. It will be very hard to train a mature tree against a frame as the branches will be thick and established.
It’s much better to buy a mature tree that was pleached when it was young so you can get the effect that you want immediately.
How to plant pleached trees
If you’ve bought a pre-pleached tree, you may be wondering how to plant it. You should treat it like any other tree - give them care and the right conditions so they can live for decades or even centuries to come.
Here’s our step-by-step guide to planting pleached trees:
Find the right site for your trees. Flat or slightly sloping ground is best for a row of pleached trees.
Soak each tree’s roots in a bucket of water for at least 10 minutes, and while they’re soaking dig a square hole that’s no deeper than the pot the tree is in but is slightly wider.
Remove the container or wrapping from each tree and tease out the roots, cutting off any damaged ones. Stand the tree in its planting hole, then check that the top of the root ball or the dark soil mark is level with the soil surface.
Backfill around the tree with the soil you’ve dug up. It can help to shake the tree to get the soil to settle around the roots. Firm around the root ball and make sure that the soil and roots are in contact - if there are air pockets left, the roots can die.
In the first three to five years, keep the tree staked. The stake should be around a third of the height of the tree and standing at a 45-degree angle.
Water your tree thoroughly, and make sure you prune and maintain carefully for the first few years.
Can pleached trees be kept in pots?
Technically you can grow pleached trees in pots, but you might not get the look you are after as quickly. You want to give your trees lots of space to develop a strong root system to allow them to grow properly, but this will be restricted in a container.
Pot-grown pleached trees may end up with stability issues or be deficient in key nutrients. It’s best to plant your pleached trees straight in the ground and mulch with well-rotted compost every spring to keep them healthy.
How to care for pleached trees
Pleached trees do require more maintenance than trees that are left to grow naturally. Through the growing season, make sure you train the young shoots by tying them onto the framework and weaving them into the branches of the trees next to them. While they’re settling in in the first year, make sure you water the trees when it’s dry. You should also mulch every spring with well-rotted compost.
How to prune pleached trees
To keep the trunk or stem clear of new shoots, you’ll need to prune them as soon as they appear. If you see any outward-growing lateral branches in the summer, you should prune them to help maintain the height and shape of your tree.
Once or twice a year, clip the tree to encourage dense growth and to keep the appearance of the screen.
How much do pleached trees cost?
How much pleached trees cost depends on the type of tree you want and how big it is, but expect to pay between £200-350 for a fresh pleached tree. A mature pleached tree will set you back around £300-500.
While that may seem expensive, a lot of craftsmanship goes into creating and maintaining mature pleached trees. It takes years of time and effort to get a pleached tree to maturity, so the price tag reflects this. For something a bit more budget-friendly, consider buying a young pleached tree if you have the time to continue training it as it grows.
If creating your own pleached trees seems like more work than you have time for, we can help. Join Eden where we can supply you with ready-made pleached trees in a large number of varieties and do the hard work for you! Plus, get exclusive prices from the Online Plant Market with over 40,000 plants from over 400 growers.
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