As a hedging plant suitable for wildlife in hedgerows and useful in the kitchen for jelly and jam making since the fruit have a high pectin content for setting, you can do no better than the Wild Crabapple hedge or Malus Sylvestris from the family Rosaceae. It is a tough small deciduous tree, native to Europe, which has been proven by DNA samples to have been an important contributor to the modern cultivated apple although there is another African species which also played a part in the genome and nowadays the Wild Crabapple hedges are often planted in commercial apple orchards to assist with pollination as they have such long flowering periods.

Mentioned in Celtic folklore, the wood of Wild Crabapple was often burnt in fertility rites and the pips of the fruit tossed into the flames whilst saying the name of the person you love, if it was true love then the pips would explode. Wild Crabapple is a long-lived plant, possibly up to 100 years, which although called a tree more often grows as a bush or shrub making it eminently suitable for growing as part of a hedgerow.

The mid-green leaves which appear in spring are soon followed by clusters of sweetly scented white or pink tinged flowers, then developing into small yellowish green crabapples often used for jelly making. Malus Sylvestris, which literally translated means forest apple, is frequently included in native hedgerow mixes to encourage wildlife in the form of insects such as bees for pollination, an important function in the food chain, also birds and other mammals which eat the fruit, hence dispersing the seeds around the countryside. The truly wild Common Crabapple over time can develop thorns which can make it a good deterrent as part of a security hedge. You can prune or trim this hedge any time from late summer into autumn and through winter, giving it time to recover before spring.

Malus Sylvestris hedges will grow in any reasonable, well-drained soil, it is unsuited to wet sites, and for planting a hedge we would recommend 3 plants per metre for a single row and 5 plants per metre for a double staggered row to give more depth.

Delivery leadtimes update – April 2025

Spring is our busiest time of year and we are working through orders as fast as we can to get your plants delivered. To give you an accurate idea of when your order will arrive, these are the current leadtimes (delivery is 1-2 days after despatch):

– Orders containing only bare roots – despatch within 5 working days.

– Orders containing only root balls, or root balls and bare roots – despatch within 10 working days.

– All orders containing potted plants – despatch within 14 working days.

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 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)

Heavy Plants (Pallet Delivery)

Tall Plants 2.5m+ (Specialist Delivery)

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.

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