The fresh green leaves emerge in spring and flutter attractively in the slightest breeze, bringing movement and lightness to the landscape. As autumn approaches, the foliage turns soft shades of yellow before falling, revealing the tree’s striking upright framework throughout the winter months. Its elegant, formal habit makes it particularly effective when planted in avenues, shelter belts or as a focal point in larger planting schemes.
Populus nigra ‘Italica’ is renowned for its vigorous growth and adaptability. It thrives in a wide range of soil types, including heavier clay soils, and performs best in full sun. Due to its rapid growth rate and eventual size, it is best suited to larger gardens, estates, parks and rural settings where it has sufficient space to develop. Once established, it is a robust and reliable tree capable of tolerating exposed positions and challenging conditions.
As a rough guide when planting Populus nigra ‘Italica’ as a screen or avenue tree, allow 3-5 metres between specimens depending on the desired effect and available space.
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How to grow Populus nigra ‘Italica’
Position: Full Sun
Foliage: Deciduous
Soil and site: Moist but well-drained soil; tolerant of most soil types including clay
Flowering time: March to April
Growth rate: Fast
Ultimate height and spread: Height to 25-30m, spread to approximately 4-8m
Hardiness: Fully hardy
Water regularly during the establishment period, particularly in dry weather. Minimal pruning is required, although any damaged or crossing branches can be removed during the dormant season. Ensure adequate space is available for future growth and avoid planting close to buildings, drains or underground services. Apply a mulch around the base in spring to help retain moisture and suppress weeds while the tree establishes.
Potted orders are usually despatched within 3-5 working days and delivery is 1-2 days after we despatch. Pleached tree and tall plant deliveries are booked in for delivery at the earliest possible convenient date.
Delivery is free for most orders above our free delivery thresholds, these are displayed above our prices in the product listings and summarized below. If you don’t need that many plants it’s not a problem, you can choose to pay our subsidised delivery charge and only order what you need.
Delivery is convenient – no signature is required so you don’t need to wait in, we will leave your parcel in the safe place that you nominate.
Delivery is fast – because we pick orders daily from our own growing beds your plants only travel the small hop to our packing shed before being sent to you, they are usually delivered within 5-7 working days.
Delivery is reliable – we have been selling and delivering Hedging Plants to our customers nationwide since 1992. We have a lot of experience in packing them safely and only use tried and tested delivery partners.
Smaller Plants (Parcel Delivery)
| Location | Order Value | Price |
| UK Mainland excluding Highlands | Up to £300 | £9 |
| UK Mainland excluding Highlands | Over £300 | Free |
| Scottish Highlands and Isle of Wight | All orders | £24 |
Heavy Plants (Pallet Delivery)
| Location | Order Value | Price |
| UK Mainland excluding Highlands | Up to £500 | £50 |
| UK Mainland excluding Highlands | Over £500 | Free |
| Scottish Highlands and Isle of Wight | All orders | £90 |
Tall Plants 2.5m+ (Specialist Delivery)
| Location | Order Value | Price |
| Mainland England and Wales only | Under £1800 | Please call us |
| Mainland England and Wales only | Over £1800 | Free |
| All other areas | All orders | Not available |
Exceptions to our delivery charges are Scottish Highland and Isle of Wight delivery areas where we need to charge a little extra to cover the cost of deliveries to these outlying areas. We don’t currently delivery to other offshore addresses including Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
Tall plants over 2.5 metres have to be delivered by our own specialised transport, our delivery area is limited to mainland England and Wales only.
For pleached tree orders we can often deliver smaller orders of £600 or more (£500 plus VAT) with a contribution towards delivery, so please do call our sales team on 01580 765 600 or take a look at our Delivery Information page.
Please note there is a minimum order value of £50 for orders containing smaller plants and £250 for orders containing heavier plants.
Complete delivery information can be viewed on our Delivery Information page.
