The Top Popular Shrub & Hedge Trimming Styles

Landscaping lawn maintenance is one thing, but hedging your shrubs is another level of landscaping that many people take pride in. If you have small trees and hedges anywhere on your lawn or if you’re looking for hedge ideas, continue reading. 

Hedges are great for improving and boosting plant and animal diversity and enabling you to watch birds and other wildlife forage and nest all year round. From planting through care, the many varieties of hedges, shrubs, and border fences are easy to maintain and provide years of enjoyment.

Top Popular Hedge Styles

There are literally endless possibilities when it comes to trimming your hedges but our experience as professional landscapers, we’ve found the following to be the most popular styles we work with. 

Some of the more popular shrubs used in hedging are the Japanese Holly, the English Holly and Barberry bushes. Here are some popular shrubs for making hedges.

Round Shaped Bushes

The most popular hedge style we see or get asked to work on is the cloud formation hedge. It’s a very clean and traditional style that apparently stands the test of time and can always look good in virtually any setting. A rounded cut is a humble style that looks more natural than most of the other hedge styles, and blend in quite well with other plants, trees and shrubs.

Square and Rectangle Shaped Hedges

Squared hedges are great for setting boundaries in larger sized gardens and are considered privacy hedges. It’s a low maintenance hedge and complements the natural surroundings. They act as natural dividers, are easy to shape and can be placed along walkways, around decks and pools, near gates and even compliment the use of a terrace.

The Cloud Formation Hedges

Cloud formations are creative hedge styles that are meant to really show off the hedge especially when it grows out. Cloud pruning (from the Japanese Niwaki) takes a bit of skill and they easily adapt to any style of garden you have. They can be planted in the soil, boxed or kept in their original pot. When cloud formations grow out they look more naturally cut and highly increase the aesthetics of the garden.

Traditional Hedges

Traditional garden hedges usually include one species of shrubs but that trend is changing and diversifying traditional hedge gardens is becoming the norm. Some favourites traditional hedges include dwarf shrubs such as huckleberry, lilac, and even a blueberry shrub which are all great as border hedges or as trios or solo plantings.

Shrubs Providing Winter Privacy

A hedge that loses leaves during the winter may still provide effective screening if it has sufficient density. Even if you begin with larger plants, it takes some growing time for the hedge to be able to fill in gaps between the shrubs and get high enough to offer privacy.

In the long run, hedges do great for providing winter privacy but it takes a few years for the shrub to get thick enough even if it loses some of its leaves. Evergreen shrubs and evergreen trees for gardens are best for hedges for privacy, since you do not want to have your privacy compromised when leaves drop off during fall. 

If you live in colder regions, there are still many quick growing hedges that you can plant in your yard. Your growing zone will heavily dictate which type of evergreen trees you can plant as a hedge in your yard, as more robust trees will withstand weather extremes easier than those that are less robust.

Boxwood can be planted anywhere from two to three feet apart when creating a hedge, making it a great choice if you are looking to get a new hedge growing in your backyard fast.

When to Trim Your Hedges

Most people in the lawn care and landscaping industry, we advise to have your hedges trimmed in mid to late spring before the summer starts. This gives the shrub enough time to start flourishing by late summer just in time for a final fall trimming.