Tilia x Euchlora (Pleached Caucasian Lime)

This is one of our top picks for deciduous pleaching.

Discovered in the Crimea in 1860, this form has big, dark green glossy foliage and in high summer its smallish, pale yellow flowers will scatter a delicately sweet scent all around your garden.

Our pleached specimens are smashing for adding instant impact and some geometry to a garden design. Think of these as a hedge on stilts: a row of these is fantastic for dense screening, or to define ‘rooms’ within a larger space or maybe just to frustrate your nosy neighbours.

In any form, these are as tough as they come. They are unfazed by pollution, which is why every London street seems to have a few. Tolerant of salty sites, too, so a fine choice to plant if you’ve a coastal garden in need of some unflappable, dependable structure. Heavy clay soils won’t faze it in the least, and it’s happy in sun to partial shade.

N.B. When clipping several plants with the same tool, have a bucket containing a 5% bleach solution and swish your blades around for 30 seconds between plants to sterilise them. This will help avoid the chance of cross contamination of disease.

As with all woody plants, plant high, exposing as much of the taper at the base of the trunk as possible. Allowing soil to accumulate round the base of a tree can be fatal. Keep very well watered when first planted.