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Welcome to our Nursery /in , /by

Book Your Nursery Visit

We would be delighted to guide you around our nursery in Iver, Buckinghamshire to view our Practical Instant Hedge™ and see our extensive range of pleached and screening trees.

The nursery is located near to M4, M25 and M40 junctions, about 6 miles from Heathrow Airport and 15 miles from London. Just 1 mile from Iver Station, with trains from London Paddington.

Please call us on 01753 652022 to book a nursery visit and we will ensure we have an expert on hand to show you around.  We also recommend bringing pictures and measurements (particularly of access) as well as a description of your soil type so that we can give you the right advice specific to your enquiry.

Important Information

We are a working nursery that grow our trees in containers and instant hedge in trough bags. From time to time, the weather, particularly, heavy rain, can make our nursery muddy. We suggest that you bring suitable footwear, and dress comfortably for viewing an outdoor environment.

Opening Hours

We are open every week day, Monday to Friday from 8.00am to 5.00pm. We are closed on Bank Holidays.

Please call us on 01753 652022

We look forward to meeting and helping you with your enquiry.

Ilex aquifolium 'Nellie R Stevens' - Holly 'Nellie R Stevens' An evergreen holly with smooth rather than spikey leaves and bright red autumn berries
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Our Top 23 Trees That Are Looking Good Now /in , , /by

Our Best Looking Trees

We select the best quality specimen and semi mature trees and then carefully nurture these at our Tree Nursery in Iver, Buckinghamshire. This means that you will have the best trees for your garden project.

Looking Good Now

The specific trees listed below are looking particularly fine at the moment, and are ready for planting now.

Arbutus unedo – Strawberry Tree
An attractive evergreen tree offering year-round interest with its flowers, fruit, leaves and bark.
Standard specimen, girth 10-12cm and currently 3m high Price £282

Betula utilis ‘Jacquemontii’ – West Himalayan Birch
An elegant deciduous birch tree with bright white bark that peels each year and dark green foliage that turn golden yellow in autumn. Multi-stemmed specimen is 5-5.5m height with a spread of 4m Price £278

Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’- Wedding Cake Tree
These deciduous trees grow in distinct layers with each new year of growth, and the creamy flowers hang in clusters from the tree. Standard tree 3.5-4m high Price  £1395

Cupressus leylandii – Leyland Cypress pleached
These pleached Leylandii are an effective evergreen screening choice for smaller spaces, but it must be regularly maintained and clipped to ensure they are contained for shape and space
Pleached tree 2.1m clear steam and 3-3.5m high Price £838

Elaeagnus ebbingei Vivelog – Oleaster
Highly regarded for its sweet fragrance and tiny bell-shaped white flowers in late summer, this evergreen tree also has small orange berries in the winter and variegated foliage
Standard tree is 3m high with 1.8m clear stem Price £414

Eriobotyra japonica – Loquat
This evergreen tree has a beautiful scent and produces white flowers that last from winter through to spring
Standard tree 1.9m clear stem and 18-20cm girth 3m high Price £838
Half standard with 1m clear stem and 18-20cm girth 2.5-3m high Price £469

Fagus sylvatica – Beech pleached
A popular native deciduous tree that retains its leaves throughout the winter months. The leaves are fresh green in the spring, turning golden in the autumn
Pleached trees have 1.6m clear stem, girth 30-32cm and height is 3-3.5m   Price £850

Ilex aquifolium ‘Nellie R Stevens’ – Holly ‘Nellie R Stevens’
An evergreen holly with smooth rather than spikey leaves and bright red autumn berries. We have these trees in both pleached and standard formats
Pleached 12-14cm girth 3.5m height Price £927
Standard 12-14 girth 3.5-4m height Price £476
Standard 14-16 girth 3.5-4m height Price £523

Ligustrum japonicum – Japanese Privet pleached
A compact, small evergreen tree with shining olive-green leaves and large panicles of white flowers in late summer.
This tree is available in various sizes:
Pleached 8-10cm girth Price £302
Pleached 10-12cm girth Price £662
Pleached 16-18cm girth Price £877
Standard 20-25 girth Price £670

Magnolia grandiflora Gallisoniensis- Magnolia Bullbay pleached
An evergreen with extravagant, fragrant white flowers. We have this stunning tree as pleached and clear stem standards.
Pleached tree 10-12cm girth Price £503
Pleached tree 14-16cm girth Price £938
Pleached tree 16-18cm girth Price £1139
Standard tree 14-16cm girth Price £772
Standard tree 20-25cm girth Price £1425

Pinus sylvestris – Scots Pine
A large native, long-lived evergreen tree with blue-green needles (when young) and attractive craggy bark.
Feathered tree 2-2.5m high and 2-2.5m spread Price £251

Prunus laurocerasus ‘Novita’ – Cherry Laurel
A popular evergreen screening tree with large shiny leaves.
Standard tree 14-16cm girth Price £497
Standard tree 16-18cm girth Price £596
Standard tree 18-20cm girth Price £729
Standard tree 20-25cm girth Price £828

Prunus lusitanica – Portuguese laurel
An attractive evergreen with slender leaves. It can produce small, white, sweet-smelling blossom.
Feathered 2.5-3m high Price £251

Taxus baccata – Yew
A native British evergreen conifer that is a fine specimen, it will need trimming to maintain its shape and desired size. We have two special specimens
Pleached 0.6m clear stem 0.7m wide 3.5m+ high Price £546
Cone Topiary Price £550

Thuja plicata ‘Excelsa’ – Western Red Cedar
A slender, fast growing evergreen tree with a conical shape. It can be left natural or pruned to create evergreen screening. We have these trees available as a column or in feathered formats
Column 3m+ Price £177
Feathered height 5-5.5m Price £451

Trachelospermum jasminoides – Star Jasmine on metal screen
An attractive self-twining evergreen climbing shrub with clusters of fragrant white star-shaped flowers in spring, early summer. Two screens of each height
1m wide by 1.5m high Price £268
1m wide by 2.2m high Price £603

Trachycarpus fortunei – Chusan palm
Hardy tropical evergreen palm with large fan-shaped leaves, Ideal for bringing an exotic flair to your garden.
Large specimen is over 6m high Price £850

Special Offer

A 20% discount will be applied to ex VAT orders of trees worth a total of £3000 or more.
The discount applies to the tree stock value of the order only, not to delivery and planting etc.

Contact us for details

Please email trees@pracbrown.co.uk or call 01753 652022 for more information.

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1.8m high Native Mix Hedging available now! /in , , /by

Native Mix Instant Hedge

Native Mix hedging is one of the most popular in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. Hedgerows are a common sight in the British countryside and are part of our rich heritage. Hedges are usually planted to define property boundaries and provide privacy or to give shelter from prevailing winds. Our Native Mix Instant Hedging contains plants that are all native to the UK and as such emulate these traditional country hedgerows.

Mixed Native hedges create a natural look and contain a variety of colours and textures which provide a rich living collage for excellent seasonal interest from the early spring blossoms to fruits and berries in the autumn.  Hedges made from flowering and fruiting native plants are a massive boon for wildlife too, as many will be attracted by the food and shelter opportunities.

Even if you only have a relatively small garden, a native hedge can look very attractive, especially if your garden backs onto open fields.

Native hedging, by its very nature will thrive on most soil types and can be planted in all but the deepest of shade. It will tend to grow quite quickly at some 30 – 60 cm per year and will require pruning once or twice a year, ideally in the summer. A native hedge can be kept to a formal shape if clipped regularly, or it can be left to have a wilder look, when it will prove even more wildlife friendly.  However this hedge is cared for, the mixture of plants gives it plenty of interest at different times of the year.

Practicality Brown’s Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge generally contains roughly equal quantities of the following native species: Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Hazel, Hornbeam and Privet.

Blackthorn

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) has long spikes that make a good deterrent to unwanted intruders while wildlife benefits from the early white spring flowers and fruit known to gardeners (and gin drinkers!) as sloes

Hawthorn

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is a native hedging staple. Its dense habit and thorny growth give it excellent stock-proofing properties and a good site for birds looking for somewhere discreet to nest or roost. Creamy-coloured flowers are followed by red berries.

Hazel

Large, downy leaves of hazel (Corylus avellana) support a range of moth caterpillars, while the flowers attract many bee species. The fruits (nuts) are popular with squirrels.

Hornbeam

Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) has significant wildlife value as a food, shelter and roosting site.  It does not shed all of its leaves in winter, which can provide shelter throughout the winter months. While the catkins are a rich food source for insects, birds and mammals.

Privet

Privet (Ligustrum vulgare) is attractive to wildlife. Bees visit the clusters of cream flowers and birds feed on the black berries. Privet Hawk Moth, the UK’s largest resident Hawk-moth, feeds on the nectar and whose caterpillars can be found on the foliage.

 

Practicality Brown’s award-winning Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge is available from 1m to 2m high. This mixed native instant hedge has been used in award-winning RHS Flower Show Gardens. For more details, see the project page on our website.

For more details, including a quote, please email trees@pracbrown.co.uk or call 01753 652022 for more information

 

Close of Blackthorn hedge with ripe sloes growing on branches

Blackthorn hedge with sloes

Native Mix Instant Hedge growing at Practicality Brown's nursery in Iver

Native Mix Instant Hedge growing at Practicality Brown’s nursery in Iver

close up of Mixed Native Hedging showing leaf detail

Mixed Native Hedging close up

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Prices Held on Evergreen Trees despite weakening £ /in , , /by

Prices Held on Summer Stock

We have a range of evergreen trees that are currently in stock at our nursery in Iver and are available at summer prices. There are no price increases on these in-stock trees, as they are not subject to exchange rate fluctuations*.

Same too for our Practical Instant Hedge™ range, which is grown on site by our experienced Horticultural team.

Evergreen Trees

The current range of evergreen trees here at our Iver nursery includes various sizes of:

  • Holly (Ilex Nellie R. Stevens)
  • Chestnut Leaved Holly (Ilex Castaneifolia)
  • Japanese Privet (Ligustrum japonicum)
  • Magnolia Grandiflora ‘Gallisoniensis’
  • Osmanthus aquifolium
  • Osmanthus armatus
  • Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica)
  • Photinia fraseri Red Robin
  • Prunus laurocerasus Novita (Cherry Laurel)

Practical Instant Hedge

We have over ten thousand metres of Practical Instant Hedge™ in production, and will always have  something available for you to consider. The range is available in heights from 60cm to 2m, and the current stock includes:

Evergreen

Griselinia, Yew, Elaeagnus, Portuguese Laurel, Common Laurel, Privet, Photinia ‘Red Robin Holly and White Cedar

Deciduous

Native Mix,’, Hawthorn, Green Beech, Purple Beech, Hornbeam

Semi Mature Trees

We specialise in semi mature trees for sale, and select the best quality specimen and semi mature trees each season so that our customers have the best possible trees available.

Over the years, we have developed close relationships with several specialist growers and nurseries, meaning that we can offer quality and quantity for all sizes of projects.  We continually monitor conditions to ensure that trees are in the peak condition for planting.

Complete Service

We can supply, deliver and plant these trees and hedges for you.

Contact us

For more details, including a quote, please email trees@pracbrown.co.uk or call 01753 652022 for more information

* Some imported stock from Europe has seen prices increases of 15-20% – this does not apply to our products currently in stock at our Iver nursery.

Griselinia Instant Hedge
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The Instant Hedge Specialists /in , /by

Practical Instant Hedge™

Practicality Brown have specialised in instant hedging since late 1990s, providing immediate impact and maturity to many private gardens and landscaping projects across the country.

Using this experience in developing, maintaining and planting instant hedging, we now produce our own Practical Instant Hedge™ which is mature hedge grown in 1m long pieces here at our nursery in Iver, Buckinghamshire. The production method ensures that this mature hedge is easy to handle, with no transplant shock and can be planted all year round.

 

Award Winning Hedging

Our UK grown Instant Hedge is proving very popular with gardening professionals. Over 400m has been planted in the Children’s Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Whilst many garden designers at the Royal Horticultural Society garden shows and festivals throughout the year, including Chelsea and Hampton Court, have used our Practical Instant Hedge™  as a background for their award-winning designs.

Evergreen and Deciduous Instant Hedges

We have over ten thousand metres of instant hedge in production. Our current range includes Native Mix, Griselinia, Yew, Elaeagnus, Portuguese Laurel, Common Laurel, Privet, Photinia ‘Red Robin’, Hawthorn, Green Beech, Purple Beech, Hornbeam, Holly and White Cedar.  We welcome specific enquiries and you are also very welcome to visit our nursery to view and select your instant hedge; please contact us to make an appointment and one of our experts will show you around.

The Instant Hedge Specialists

We are able to offer a premium mature hedging product, grown with top quality plants, suitable for both commercial and domestic situations. Achieving all this requires great attention to detail. We have an expert grower overseeing production, and dedicated nursery team who hand craft the hedges to the highest standards.   Practical Instant Hedge™ is a market leading product that we are truly proud of.

We are the Instant Hedge Specialists.

Please Contact our sales team for a detailed quotation, or to arrange a nursery visit.

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RHS Summer Shows /in , /by

Summer Flower Festivals 2022

 

Following on from a successful Chelsea Flower Show, the RHS hosted two events in July, which also featured Practical Instant Hedge™ at Hampton Court Garden Festival and Flower Show Tatton Park.

RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival

This event is the world’s largest flower show, full of colour and wonderful summer gardens of inspiration. It is set in the stunning grounds of the Historic Royal Palace in Richmond upon Thames

Award-winning garden designer, Dave Green created a beautiful Feature Garden at this year’s show. The RHS Forest Bathing Garden drew on a purposeful practice of spending time under the canopy of trees surrounded by nature to relax and de-stress, which can decrease both anxiety and depression.

Forest bathing often takes place with a guide and focuses on exploring the natural environment using the senses (sight, sound, touch and smell) to create mindfulness awareness. The garden was designed to for all the sense, including sight, sound and aroma.

We are delighted to have supplied Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge for this beautiful, restful garden.

You can find out more on the RHS website, and watch highlights of Hampton Court Garden Festival in a BBC Gardeners’ World special programme.

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

Celebrating colour, creativity, community and the positive power of plants and flowers, RHS Flower Show brings the joy of gardening to the historic grounds of Tatton Park.

Crowned at the show, RHS Young Designer of the Year Will Scholey created the Working From Home Garden which was a perfect working environment, while reducing the homeowner’s carbon footprint. The ‘daily commute’ was a winding gravel path through native meadow planting with multi-stemmed trees. There was plenty of native wildlife-friendly planting including our Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge, from our range of Deciduous Instant Hedges. Will received a Silver-Gilt award for this garden, as well as his title.

Talk to our Horticultural team about how Practical Instant Hedge™ could be right for your own garden.

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RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 /in , , /by

Practical Instant Hedge At Chelsea Flower Show

The Container Garden category at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show create positive green spaces for health, wellbeing and the environment. The aim is to show that any space, no matter how small, can be turned into a gardening haven. These small gardens offer plenty of inspiration for making the most of limited space and resources.

We are delighted to be working with multi award-winning garden designer Paul Hervey-Brookes again at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. As well as creating his own show garden, Paul is mentoring five newly qualified designers for the Container Garden category.

Each of the five gardens is enclosed by our Practical Instant Hedge™.

Container Gardens

The Still Garden

Designed by Jane Porter Gold Medal and Best in Category Winner

This is inspired by the plants that thrive across the Highlands and Islands. The plants reference native species and the climate to evoke an atmosphere that is immersive, secluded and still.

Wild Kitchen Garden

Designed by Ann Treneman Silver Gilt Medal and People’s Choice Winner

Wild edible plants and trees are brought into a small urban setting. The planting is informal colourful, airy, natural, and tasty too. It would work perfectly in the back garden of a city terrace.

The Enchanted Rain Garden

Designed by Bea Tann Silver Gilt Medal

Inspired by a rainy garden in Manchester, this container garden is designed to thrive in wet conditions, influenced by UK forests

Mandala, Meditation and Mindfulness Garden

Designed by Nikki Hollier Silver Medal

This garden offers a safe haven to spend time sitting and meditating, listening to the tranquil water, bees humming and birds singing – a calm and restful but rejuvenating space.

Mediterranean Reflection

Designed by Tanya K Wilson and Johanna Norlin – Mallorca Garden Design Silver Medal

Inspired by the Mallorcan landscape, this container garden utilises the colours and stone textures of the Mediterranean through artisan elements.

 

Gallery



More Information

You can see these gardens, and much more of the Chelsea Flower Show, in the BBC’s comprehensive TV coverage on the BBC iPlayer.

Talk to our Horticultural team about how Practical Instant Hedge™ could be right for your own garden.

Flowering Cherry Blossom tree
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Flowering Trees /in /by

Spring into Blossom

One of the joys of walking through our tree nursery in spring is the delightful blossom that graces the cherry trees, with their abundant pink or white flowers. Crab apple and Magnolias are in full bloom too.

Orchard Blossom

The National Trust recently conducted a survey, and found that more than half of the orchards in England and Wales have been lost since 1900. The Trust is encouraging people to plant more blossoming trees and believe that planting native and historic varieties, and other trees such as blackthorn and hawthorn, are vital to supporting nature. They are committed to planting and establishing 20 million trees across England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2030, including four million blossom trees.

Bring Back The Blossom

The colourful display of springtime blossom has been part of British folklore and culture for centuries, with fruit trees in orchards among the first to bloom.

Traditional orchards can support wildlife, such as flies, bees, bats and birds. The knotted trunks and branches of trees provide a home for patrolling bats; while flowers are a food source for pollinating insects.

You can help to bring back the blossom by planting flowering trees in your garden. There are trees to sort all sizes of gardens, from small family gardens to larger plots that could accommodate an orchard.

Top Blossom Trees

If you are looking for some spring colour in your gardens, we can recommend the following Flowering Trees to consider.

Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’

This ornamental winter flowering cherry tree produces semi-double white flowers intermittently from November to March when the weather is mild. It also has good orange/yellow autumn colour.

Prunus Accolade (Flowering Cherry)

The Accolade Cherry is a gorgeous deciduous tree that takes a spreading habit. It’s one of the earliest cherry trees to blossom its semi-double flowers. Beginning with a beautiful pale pink, then fading to a much lighter colour of pink mid autumn.

Prunus cerasifera Nigra (Purple Plum)

This Purple Plum tree has distinctively dark brown bark and pretty single pink flowers that appear early in the spring and remain on the tree whilst the dark foliage begins to emerge, gradually fading to white and contrasting fantastically with the dark leaves.

Malus evereste (Crab apple ‘Evereste’)

Malus Everesteis a conical apple tree with delightful spring blossom. The flowers are red in bud but open up into a profusion of white flowers. In autumn it bears masses of red-flushed, orange-yellow fruits.

Magnolia stellata (Star magnolia)

The Star magnolia is a charming, slow growing tree. The buds open up to spreading white flowers in March to April before giving way to lush, mid-green leaves.

Magnolia kobus (Northern Japanese magnolia)

This hardy magnolia that has a profusion of large, white flowers which can grow as early as March on bare stems and can reach up to 10cm across.

Hedging Alternatives

If you are looking for a hedge alternative to a tree, then our Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge has plants that are native to the UK and as such emulate traditional country hedgerows found throughout Britain. A typical composition would include five of the following seven species: Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Viburnum opulus (Guelder Rose),  Hornbeam, Hazel, Dogwood, and Field Maple – many of which produce blossom and/or fruits.

 

Look out for #BlossomWatch on social media – and if you would like to add some flowering trees to your garden, please email us hedge@pracbrown.co.uk

Large trees newly planted in a garden
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After The Storm Trees /in , , , /by

After the Storm!

If your garden is looking a little worse for wear after the recent storms, we may be able to help!

We have a range of mature specimen trees that may be a perfect replacement for any of yours that have been damaged or blown over. Also, if your fence panels have taken a battering, you could consider replacing them with our Practical Instant Hedge™.

 

Semi-Mature Trees

We have a range of trees available at our nursery in Iver, both evergreen and deciduous. We also source top quality trees from across Europe, so our customers have the best trees available.

Our trees are supplied in a range of sizes:

  • Girth measurement of 18cm to 100cm i.e. measurement around the tree stem at 1m high, for clear stemmed trees
  • Heights of 2-12m for feathered evergreen trees

Instant Hedges

We have over 20 years’ experience in developing, maintaining, and planting instant hedging, including own Practical Instant Hedge™ which is grown in 1m long pieces here at our nursery in Iver, Buckinghamshire. This hedging provides immediate impact and maturity to many private gardens and landscaping projects.

Our Instant Hedges are:

  • pre grown and sold by the linear metre, rather than as individual plants
  • available to plant all year round
  • supplied between 0.8m to 2m high

The Complete Service

We offer a truly comprehensive service, from planning, preparation, and planting to aftercare.

Contact our horticultural team for more details hedge@pracbrown.co.uk

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Practicality Brown Company Video /in /by
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