Gardening 101: European Beech Tree - Gardenista

Gardening 101: European Beech Tree - Gardenista
As a tall and graceful tree, beech can live to half a millennium. Informal or formal, a pleached beech could be the way, for a high hedge on stilts.
European beech (Fagus sylvatica): “The Chameleon”
Photography by Kendra Wilson, except where noted.
A beech column is one of the simplest topiary shapes, created here by Arne Maynard at Cottesbrooke Hall.
Weeping beech is a lovely thing for gardens with a lot of space, its yellow-orange-green tints waving around in fall.
Hornbeam is a good alternative to beech if excellent drainage cannot be guaranteed.
Classic woodland in the UK includes beech, oak, and birch. This ancient beech is part of the Five Hundred Acre Wood in East Sussex, immortalized by A.A. Milne as the 100-Acre Wood.
Photograph by Jim Powell.
Photograph by Jim Powell.
The floor of a beech wood is typified by thick leaf mold and the scrunch of beech masts.
Keep it Alive
A bluebell wood is so-called because it consists of two monocultures: beech and Hyacinthoides non-scripta.
In April when new leaves on beech are just beginning to unscroll, there is enough sunlight to encourage a carpet of bluebells. : Wondering what the right tree is for your setting?
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