← All guides · Species choice · Updated July 2026

Griselinia vs Escallonia for a West Cliff plot

These two species get lumped together as "coastal hedging." On a genuinely exposed West Cliff line, one thrives and one struggles. Here is which and why.

Griselinia littoralis: the coastal default

Griselinia is a UK coastal hedging standard for a reason. Apple-green, evergreen, glossy foliage. Takes a hard clip. Chalk-tolerant. Its salt tolerance is genuine but not front-line, it is happier with a metre or two of shelter than in a fully exposed line, and a first-winter easterly on unestablished plants can scorch it back to the ground.

What it does well on West Cliff

• Formal clean lines. It clips as neatly as anything we work with.
• Evergreen presence year-round. No leaf drop, no winter bare period.
• Rapid establishment once through the first two winters: three summers to a usable hedge from container-grown stock at 1m.
• Tolerates the alkaline Thanet topsoil without complaint.

Where it struggles

• Fully exposed frontages with direct salt spray and no upwind shelter. On the exposed West Cliff line above the promenade, first-winter losses are real.
• Very heavy reductions into brown wood. Griselinia is happier with light annual clipping than with a hard reset every five years.

Escallonia macrantha / 'Apple Blossom': the flowering second line

Escallonia is a different offer entirely. It flowers most of summer, deep pink to white depending on cultivar, glossy small dark-green leaves, and it clips reasonably tidily if you accept losing some of the flower show. Its salt tolerance is real but slightly less than Griselinia's, it wants that metre or two of shelter from the direct front line.

What it does well

• Flowers. A long summer show that Griselinia does not give you.
• Slightly denser habit than Griselinia; useful for a screen where you want visual mass rather than a manicured line.
• Second-line resilience: behind an outer skin, or set back from the frontage by a garden's width, it is a strong performer.

Where it struggles

• Genuinely exposed West Cliff frontages, particularly plots without any upwind planting or wall.
• Cold pockets. Escallonia hates a hard frost combined with wet, which is rare in Ramsgate but does happen a night or two a winter.
• Formal clipped-parterre work. It is a screening plant, not a low knot plant.

Direct comparison: West Cliff exposure

On a fully exposed West Cliff frontage: pick Griselinia. It has the edge on salt tolerance, and it clips into the formal line most Regency-era front gardens want. Establish it with two summers of watering, mulch deep, and expect one or two replacement plants after the first winter as normal loss.

On a West Cliff plot with the hedge set back from the frontage, behind a low retaining wall, or one garden depth back from the promenade wind, the two species run much closer. If you want flowers and a slightly softer look, Escallonia is a valid choice. If you want the crisp clipped line, still Griselinia.

For a properly exposed line, the honest recommendation is neither of these two alone. Plant a sacrificial outer skin of Tamarix or Olearia traversii to take the salt hit, and put Griselinia in behind it once the outer skin is 1.5m+. That is the layered coastal hedge described in the seafront species guide.

What we won't recommend for a West Cliff line

• Beech. Scorches badly on direct exposure. Fine in a walled rear garden.
• Cherry laurel. Fails on the front line, though it thrives one garden back.
• Portuguese laurel. Same story as cherry laurel.
• Box. The blight and the box tree caterpillar are both established locally. New box has a short shelf life.

Timing

Both species are best planted in late spring after the last easterly gale window has passed, or in early autumn with time to establish before the first winter storms. Container-grown stock at 1-1.2m gives you an immediate visual line; bare-root is not usually offered for either species at usable size.

Sources: Royal Horticultural Society coastal hedging guidance.