If you'd like a hedge with a touch of character look no further than native Scots roses, whose white, pink or yellow flowers can add outstanding flourishes to any garden.
Rosa spinosissima (or pimpinellifolia) grows wild at the back of beaches and along cliffs. Near Bowmore on Islay, it grows naturally as a hedge – well worth copying. Half of my kitchen garden is bordered by these wonderfully undemanding plants. What a drift of flowering colour: the low-growing Old Yellow Scotch; its neighbouring brilliant-white pimpinellifolias, pink Mary Queen Of Scots and Falkland, and the subtle, bicoloured Single Cherry with its heady scent. Their all-too brief blossom makes them even more precious; not that I'd be without the repeat flowering of their close relative, Stanwell Perpetual.
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