Beech
Fagus sylvatica
A hedge or a specimen tree, but either way the clipping window is narrow: once, in late summer, and no more.
- Type
- Tree · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green · Bronze, red and brown
- Sunlight
- Full sun to light shade; it wants an open position more than anything.
- Watering
- Water young trees through dry spells; mature ones need nothing.
- Feeding
- No feed for established trees; a balanced feed for young ones through their first two springs.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Pruning
- Clip hedges once in late summer (August), and confine work on specimen trees to the same window.
- Overwintering
- Fully hardy — no winter protection needed.
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Oct Spring Growth
- Oct–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- In-row spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- Between rows
- 24 ft 7 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, shallow and far-reaching
- Working depth
- 8–20 in
- Can reach
- 4 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 39–59 ft across, about 2–3× the width of the plant
Almost all of a tree’s roots are in the top two feet of soil, where the air is, and they run out well past the branch tips. The deep taproot most people picture belongs to the seedling; the tree grows out of it and spends the rest of its life spreading sideways instead.
Famously shallow, with a dense plate of roots right under the surface. That, and the dry shade of the canopy, is why so little grows under a beech, and why compaction from feet or a car under one does so much damage.
Figures recorded for Beech itself. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Adelgids & woolly aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Adelgids & woolly aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
Trees, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com