Hornbeam, Carpinus: “The Hedge of Dreams”
“Build it, and they will come,” the voices told Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, prompting him to make an entire baseball stadium from scratch on his Iowa farm.
Of its dozens of species, Carpinus betulus (European hornbeam) is preferred for the narrow crown that makes its shape easily adaptable when clipped.
In plant classifications, the hornbeam tree is often mistaken for a shrub, though in fact, it belongs to the same family as the hazelnut tree and yields wrinkly brown nuts (that are not edible).
Photograph by Marie Viljoen.
Pleached hornbeams.
Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista
Photograph by by Deborah Nevins.
Keep It Alive
For more, see Hedge Fun: At Home with Garden Designer Deborah Nevins. The leaves turn a delicate shade of rust and crisp in the autumn sun.
Photograph via Wikipedia.
Growing hornbeam from seeds is an investment in the future of your garden.
A wooden door in a hornbeam hedge leads to a secluded miniature green garden.
Photograph by Clare Coulson.
Young hornbeam seedlings do best in partial shade outdoors. Seedlings will germinate in the spring, and after a season, can be transplanted to a brighter area of the garden (spaced 25 feet apart).
Photograph by Maria Dremo Sundström via Almbacken.
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In winter, leaves on hornbeam shrubs turn a beautiful rusty color.