Fastigiate Flame Hornbeam, Large Trees

Carpinus betulus Fastigiata: Bareroot Fastigiate / Flame Hornbeam Trees in Standard Sizes

Fastigiate Hornbeam, nicknamed Flame due to its shape, is an upright, compact form of Common Hornbeam, ideal for roadside planting. It is a large tree with dense foliage, very narrow when young and broadening to egg-shaped when mature. It has big green catkins in Spring that develop into heart shaped, winged fruit whose seeds are popular with finches and tits.

Will grow to 20-30m.

Browse our other our trees, or our younger hornbeam hedge plants.

Delivery season: Hornbeam trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they are best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it is convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features:

• Height: 20-30m
• Upright, egg shaped canopy
• Soil: Any, shade-tolerant
• Native
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Hornbeams

Hornbeams are very versatile trees, only needing reasonably fertile soil. They love heavy clay, will tolerate shade and can be planted in the coldest regions and frost pockets.
The wood is very hard and can resist strong wind in exposed areas.

It is a superb screening tree that should need no pruning maintenance.

Hornbeam is the classic substitute for beech on wet or shady sites.

Please watch our tree planting video for full planting instructions.

Did You Know?

The old trend was to classify it as a subspecies, Carpinus betulus pyramidalis, but that's out of fashion now.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.