Images may show mature specimens and are provided as a guide only. As plants are living products, the size, shape and appearance of the stock supplied may vary from the images shown.
Nursery Direct
European Hornbeam
Carpinus betulus
Everything is included in this price: the plant, free delivery and professional installation
The price you see is the whole job: the plant supplied, delivered free and professionally installed. Done for you.
Want to see the actual plant?
The photo shows this species, not the individual plant reserved for you. Send us an enquiry and we usually reply within 1 business day with photos of the actual stock available in the size you want.
Request photosHow tall it arrives: 400mm about 1.5 to 2.5m, 400L about 4 to 6m. Heights vary with species and season. How pot sizes work
Getting it in: the largest size here needs machine access rather than a doorway, and sometimes a lift over the roof. Measure the narrowest point on the route and tell us on the booking call. Standard access is included in the price, and anything unusual is quoted and agreed with you before work begins. What happens on installation day
Looking for a larger size?
Sizes shown are the sizes we currently source in this species. If you need larger specimens, project quantities or a size not listed, our sourcing team can look for it through our national supplier network. We confirm your exact stock with you on the booking call before anything ships.
Send An EnquiryYou order. We do the rest.
After checkout, our team contacts you to confirm site access and book a day that suits. Most orders are delivered and planted within 2 to 4 weeks of your booking call. Nothing else for you to organise.
Registered Australian business, ABN 33 683 675 603. Public liability certificates available on request.
Product Details
Overview & Specifications
Price includes everything: the plant, free delivery and professional installation by our planting team. One price, whole job done.
European Hornbeam - Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus is the workhorse of formal European landscape design and it translates well to cool temperate Australia, where it is used as much for clipped hedging and pleaching as it is as a free-standing tree. The trunk is smooth grey and fluted like taut muscle, and the ribbed, sharply toothed leaves turn clear gold in autumn. Its defining trick is marcescence: when clipped, it holds dry copper leaves through winter, so a hornbeam hedge screens all year even though the plant is deciduous.
Why European Hornbeam
Winter Leaf Retention: Regularly clipped plants keep tan leaves through winter, giving a deciduous hedge that still screens.
Clipping Tolerance: It takes hard and repeated shearing better than almost any other deciduous tree, which is why it is the standard for pleaching.
Trunk Texture: Smooth, sinewy, silver-grey bark with vertical fluting that improves with age.
Autumn Colour: Reliable yellow to gold across cool districts, holding for several weeks.
Clay Tolerance: It handles heavier soils and cold sites that would stall beech or ornamental pears.
Ideal Applications
Clipped formal hedge: Planted close and sheared twice a year for a crisp architectural green wall.
Pleached screen: Trained on a frame above a fence to lift privacy without occupying garden width.
Avenue tree: Repeated along a drive it makes a strong, upright, symmetrical corridor.
Garden room divider: Used the way a wall would be used, to break a large garden into defined spaces.
Specimen & Installation
Spacing (screening/hedge): 0.6 to 1m
Spacing (feature/avenue): 6 to 8m
Best Planting Season: Winter, while fully dormant
Soil & Drainage: Wide tolerance from clay loam to chalky soil, prefers moist and free draining, dislikes hot dry sandy ground
Establishment Care: Water deeply through the first two summers, especially for hedge plantings where the roots are competing along a line. Mulch the full run rather than each plant individually, and begin formative clipping in the second summer so the hedge fills in from the base.
Plant Details
Height: 10 to 15m unpruned, readily held at 2 to 4m as a hedge
Width: 7 to 10m unpruned
Growth Rate: Moderate
Foliage: Deciduous, marcescent when clipped
Light: Full sun to part shade
Native to: Europe and western Asia
Flower Colour: Insignificant green catkins
Delivery & Installation
Delivery and installation are included in your price
No freight calculators and no separate installation quote for a standard installation. Your price covers specialist plant transport, positioning and professional planting by our installation team. The whole job, handled.
- Wrapped, secured and transported by specialist plant freight.
- Professionally planted, staked and finished by our install team.
- Our team confirms site access and schedules a time that suits you.
Installation
Professional installation included, never extra
Every plant we sell is planted by our professional installation team, and it's already in the price. We coordinate the delivery, the machinery and the planting for standard site access, so your only job is choosing the tree. Unusual access or engineering requirements? We'll confirm everything with you after checkout before any work begins.
Questions? Send An EnquiryWhy Nursery Direct
Every price includes supply, delivery and installation
Buying a mature tree often means three separate jobs: the plant, the freight and finding someone to plant it. We price the whole job as one: the tree, the delivery and the professional install.
- One price: supplied, delivered and installed
- Mature trees and specimen palms at every scale
- National sourcing for hard-to-find stock
- Residential, estate and commercial projects
How It Works
Place your order. We do the rest.
We Supply
Premium advanced stock, selected from a national network of wholesale growers.
We Deliver
Specialist plant freight brings your order to your door. Free, anywhere in Australia.
We Install
Our professional team plants, stakes, mulches and finishes the job on site.







