Japanese Spindle Tree Euonymus japonicus Green Rocket

Green Rocket was selected for one trait. It grows strongly upright with short lateral branching, so a row of it makes a dense green wall roughly the width of a garden bed rather than the width of a hedge. Foliage is thick, glossy and rounded, plain dark green rather than the yellow-margined leaf of the variegated Japanese spindles. That narrow column is why it gets used on side boundaries, between townhouses and along driveways where there is very little width to give away.

A screen for a narrow strip

It takes full sun to part shade, needs low to moderate water once established, and grows at a moderate rate, quick enough to close a screen in a few seasons without turning into a maintenance problem. Coastal exposure and reflected heat off paving and rendered walls suit it better than they suit most formal hedging plants, and it is frost hardy through temperate districts. Soil should drain, and it will not thank you for a low, wet corner. For a hedge, plant about 50 cm apart in a single row and start clipping the sides early so the column stays tight from the ground up. Autumn planting gives the roots a cool season to move before their first summer, which reduces establishment losses along a long row. The failure mode is crowding. Squeezed hard against a fence or a wall with no air movement, plants pick up powdery mildew on the foliage and scale on the stems and leaf undersides, then sooty mould follows the scale and the face of the hedge goes grey and sticky. Both problems are far easier to prevent with sensible spacing and airflow than to treat once a whole run is infested.

Green Rocket, Tom Thumb or a pittosporum

Tom Thumb is the same species at a different scale, with tiny leaves and a naturally low rounded habit, and it is a plant for edging rather than screening. Use Tom Thumb below knee height and Green Rocket where you need to block a view. Tasman Ruffles is the alternative screen, finer in texture and quicker away, but it is unforgiving of wet feet and shoots poorly from bare old wood, where the euonymus will take a hard renovation cut and come back. Choose Green Rocket for the narrowest and most durable formal face, particularly where a hedge has to hold the same line for decades and a mistake with the shears cannot be allowed to leave a permanent hole. More in hedges.

Two clips a year

Clip twice a season, once in spring after the first flush has hardened and again in late summer, keeping the sides slightly tapered so light reaches the base and it stays clothed. Old, overgrown plants can be cut back harder into wood and will reshoot, though give them a full season to recover before shaping again. Feed in early spring with a controlled-release fertiliser and water through the first two summers while the roots go down. After that, an established hedge only needs supplementary water in a long dry spell.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 100mm up to 400mm, priced from $16.95 to $199.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to hedging plants for Australian conditions.