Vast dome-shaped topiary above a clipped formal garden

Straight lines · Sharp corners · Living shapes

Hedge Shaping and Topiary, Cut Properly

Hedges are the architecture of a garden and the first thing that looks wrong when they are cut badly. We clip beech, hornbeam, yew, box, privet, laurel and thuja to a line and a batter that keeps them dense to the base, renovate hedges that have gone hollow or drifted out of shape over decades, and cut topiary — spheres, cones, cloud forms, spirals and figurative work — by eye and to template. Contracts run annually so the growth cycle is respected, and everything is cut at the right time of year for the species rather than when the diary is empty.

Services & Contracts Request a Quote

About us

Trained on Estate Hedges, Working on Garden Ones

Both of our senior cutters trained on historic estate gardens, where a single yew hedge might take three weeks and the line is judged from a terrace two hundred metres away. That background sets the standard we apply to a suburban beech hedge as well: lines set with string and laser rather than by eye, a batter cut into every face so the base keeps its light, tops levelled across changes in ground level, and ends squared rather than rounded off because they were awkward.

Timing matters as much as technique. Yew takes a hard cut in late summer and resents a spring one; beech and hornbeam hold their winter leaf only if cut in August; box needs dry weather and clean blades to avoid spreading blight; laurel is cut with secateurs rather than a machine because a shredded leaf browns and looks dreadful for a month. We schedule the whole year's work around those windows and tell clients honestly when they are asking for a cut at the wrong time.

Hygiene is taken seriously, particularly with box. Blades and gloves are disinfected between properties, arisings from an infected hedge leave the site in sealed bags rather than going onto a compost heap, and we will not move from a blighted garden to a healthy one on the same day. Where box has failed we replant with alternatives that clip to the same crisp finish, which most clients cannot tell apart after two seasons.

Front garden filled with clipped conifer topiary shapes

Formal parterre beds edged with low clipped hedging

Advantages

What Separates a Good Cut From a Cheap One

Six things visible from the house within a week of the work being done.

Lines Set, Not Estimated

Every long hedge is cut to a string line and a laser level, with the top set true across sloping ground rather than following the slope in a wave. Faces are cut with a batter — narrower at the top than the base — so that light reaches the bottom and the hedge stays furnished to the ground instead of going bare and woody in its lower third. Ends and corners are squared with a template. From the house, the difference between a hedge cut to a line and one cut by eye is obvious at fifty metres and permanent.

The Right Month for the Species

Yew is cut in late summer, beech and hornbeam in August so they hold their winter leaf, box in dry settled weather, privet twice, laurel by hand with secateurs, thuja never into old wood because it will not regenerate. We plan the year's schedule around those windows and will move a booking rather than cut something at a time that damages it. Clients are told plainly when a request — usually a spring tidy on yew — will cost the hedge a season of growth.

Renovation Instead of Removal

Most overgrown hedges that owners have been told to grub out can be brought back. Yew, box, hornbeam, beech, privet and laurel all regenerate from old wood if cut hard on one face at a time over two or three seasons, with the recovery supported by feeding and, in the first year, watering. We produce a written renovation plan with a drawing of each stage, and the result is a mature hedge at a fraction of the cost and twenty years ahead of anything newly planted.

Topiary Cut by Hand

Shapes are cut with shears and secateurs rather than a hedge trimmer, because a machine tears rather than cuts and leaves browned edges on every leaf it touches. Spheres and cones are checked against a template as the work proceeds; cloud forms and spirals are developed over several seasons rather than carved in one go. Figurative work is drawn first and agreed with the client. Established specimens receive a light annual cut to hold the form, which takes far less time than the first shaping did.

Blight Discipline

Box blight and box moth have destroyed a great many gardens, most of them infected by a contractor's blades. We disinfect tools, gloves and boots between properties, cut healthy box before infected box on any given day, bag and remove arisings from affected plants rather than composting them, and refuse to work on box at all in wet conditions. Where box cannot be saved we replant with clipping alternatives that hold the same crisp line and are not susceptible.

The Site Left Clean

Arisings are sheeted before cutting begins, collected as the work proceeds rather than at the end, blown out of beds and gravel, and removed the same day unless the client wants them chipped and kept. Borders under a hedge are protected with boards, lawns are matted where machinery has to cross them, and cut lines are checked from the house before the team leaves. Clients regularly say that the finish of the tidy-up is what makes them book the following year.

Services

What We Cut

Annual contracts, one-off cuts, renovation, new topiary, planting and estate work.

Formal palace garden with clipped beds and gravel paths

Annual Hedge Contracts

A fixed programme of one, two or three cuts a year depending on species and formality, scheduled into the correct month and confirmed a fortnight ahead. Contracts include all arisings removal, protection of borders and lawns, and a check of the hedge for disease, wind damage and gaps. Prices are agreed for the season rather than quoted each visit, and clients on a contract get priority when storm damage needs urgent attention.

One-Off Cuts and Tidies

Single visits for hedges that have been neglected for a year or two, for properties being sold or let, and for owners who normally cut their own but want the lines re-established. We reset the top and the batter, square the ends, cut back any encroachment onto paths and neighbouring boundaries, and leave a note of what the hedge needs next. Many of these become annual contracts once the owner sees the difference a set line makes.

Hedge Renovation

Staged recovery of hedges that have grown too tall, too wide, hollow at the base or misshapen after years of casual cutting. The plan is drawn before work starts: which face is cut hard in which year, how much height comes off at each stage, and what feeding and watering the hedge needs while it recovers. Most projects run over two or three seasons and cost far less than replanting, with a mature hedge at the end rather than a row of young plants.

Topiary Creation and Upkeep

New shapes cut into existing shrubs or developed from young plants: spheres, cones, cubes, obelisks, spirals, cloud forms, arches, windows and figurative work. Simple geometry is achieved in a season; cloud and figurative pieces are developed over three to five years with a drawing agreed in advance. Established specimens receive a light annual cut by hand, and we can take over pieces started by somebody else and correct the proportions gradually.

Planting New Hedges and Specimens

Supply and planting of bare-root and rootballed hedging in autumn and winter, at the spacing and grade that produces a dense hedge fastest, with soil preparation, irrigation for the first two seasons and a formative cutting plan for the first three years. Mature topiary specimens can be sourced, transported and craned into position where access allows. We advise honestly on species for the site, including where box should no longer be used.

Estates, Hotels and Public Gardens

Larger contracts covering long avenues, parterres, allées, cloud hedges and historic topiary collections, with scaffolding, elevated platforms and multi-week programmes planned around visitor seasons. We work to conservation specifications where a garden is listed, keep photographic records of every piece from year to year, and train the site's own gardening staff to maintain the shapes between our visits.

Contacts

Quotes and Scheduling

Send photographs of the hedges with an idea of their length and height and we will give a realistic price range before visiting. Quotes are fixed, include removal of arisings, and state which month the work should be done in and why.

Renovation plans, new topiary, planting and estate contracts are arranged through the same office.

Office

11 Rue Nationale, 37000 Tours, France

Phone

+33 2 47 61 39 24

straightlinehedge@gmx.com

Season

Cutting February–October; planting November–March