The Hedge That Stopped a Car.

Not what I expected on a quiet Sunday morning…

In praise of Pyracantha: the slightly unfashionable hedge that might just be one of the hardest working plants in the garden

There are plenty of reasons to plant a Pyracantha hedge.

Privacy. Security. Evergreen structure. Spring flowers. Autumn berries. Wildlife. Until recently, I hadn't included stopping a car from crashing into your house on the list.

I have now.

A few weeks ago, a car left the road outside our house, came through the front fence and straight into the large Pyracantha hedge that runs along the boundary. The fence didn't put up much of a fight. The Pyracantha did.

It's a well established hedge. Dense, woody, incredibly thorny and, as it turns out, surprisingly good at stopping several tonnes of moving metal. The car became completely wedged in it and, thankfully, went no further.

I've always had a lot of respect for Pyracantha, I have rather more now.

A hedge with attitude

Pyracantha is also known as firethorn, which gives you a fairly good idea of what you're dealing with.

This isn't a delicate plant. Its branches form a dense, tangled structure armed with very sharp thorns. Given enough time, it creates a boundary that is extremely difficult to casually push your way through. That makes it brilliant for places where you want a bit of privacy and security.

A Pyracantha hedge underneath a window or along a vulnerable boundary is considerably less inviting than something soft and fluffy. You don't need an ugly security fence. The plant does the discouraging for you.

It isn't just a security guard

The slightly unfortunate thing about talking up Pyracantha's defensive qualities is that it makes the poor plant sound like garden barbed wire. It isn't.

For much of the year, it's actually rather beautiful. In late spring and early summer it produces masses of small white flowers, followed by clusters of berries that ripen later in the year in shades of red, orange or yellow, depending on the variety. Those berries can look fantastic through autumn and into winter. It's also a very useful plant for wildlife. The flowers attract pollinating insects and the berries provide food for birds. Its dense, thorny structure also creates useful shelter and nesting opportunities.

So while it's busy keeping unwanted visitors on the correct side of the boundary, it's positively encouraging plenty of others.

Is Pyracantha a bit... suburban?

Perhaps.

It certainly isn't the plant currently dominating beautifully styled photographs of contemporary gardens.

Pyracantha has been around for years. You'll find enormous old specimens growing against houses, surrounding suburban front gardens and occasionally swallowing a garage.

But I don't think that's a reason to dismiss it. There are lots of plants that drift in and out of fashion. What interests me more as a Garden Designer is whether a plant does the job I need it to do. And Pyracantha does quite a lot of jobs.

It can be grown as a dense hedge, trained against a wall or fence, or used as an individual shrub. It can create privacy without taking up the enormous amount of space required by some hedging plants. And because it responds well to pruning and training, it doesn't necessarily have to become the enormous unruly beast you might remember from your grandparents' garden. Used well, I think it can look really smart.

A useful plant for a front garden

I think Pyracantha makes particular sense in front gardens.

Front gardens have to do a surprisingly large number of things in what is often quite a small space. They need to create some separation from the street without making the house feel like a fortress. They may need to screen cars or bins. They need to look good from inside the house and from the pavement. And ideally they should offer something to wildlife too.

A hedge can do all of that while still feeling much softer than a wall or fence.

And if security is a consideration, those thorns are a pretty compelling additional feature.

There are obviously places where I wouldn't use it. I wouldn't squeeze Pyracantha alongside a narrow path where everyone walking past gets attacked by it. And if you're going to prune one, a decent pair of gloves is less of a suggestion and more of a requirement.

It deserves a little respect, trust me on that one.

Sometimes the old favourites are old favourites for a reason

Garden design inevitably has fashions. Certain plants suddenly appear everywhere. Materials become popular. Colours come and go. I enjoy all of that, but I also think there's something to be said for plants that have quietly been doing a brilliant job in British gardens for decades.

Pyracantha is tough, useful, attractive, wildlife-friendly and incredibly good at creating a secure boundary.

It isn't particularly exotic. It isn't especially fashionable. And it probably isn't going to become the star of your Pinterest board. But sometimes a plant just needs to earn its place.

Mine certainly has.

Would I recommend planting a Pyracantha hedge purely as a vehicle restraint system?

Probably not.

But if you want a tough, beautiful, wildlife-friendly hedge that provides privacy and a fairly serious deterrent to anyone thinking about climbing through it, I'd certainly put it on the list.

Mine has now gone rather beyond the original brief.

Mark Hardy Design creates characterful residential gardens across Kent, London and the South East, combining good design with planting that will works hard in your garden.