# A living fence of native thorny shrubs and small trees

> Which thorny natives turn cattle and keep out people, the spacing for a hawthorn row, how many years until it closes, and the invaders once planted for the job.

Published 2026-11-12. Tags: What to plant, Planting. By Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-living-fence-of-native-thorny-shrubs/

A living fence is a hedge planted to stop a body rather than a view: a row of thorny shrubs or small trees set close and kept dense to the ground. Among natives, hawthorns make the clipped kind, while wild plums, crabapples and prickly ash sucker into thickets. American holly is the evergreen choice. Set Washington hawthorn 5 feet apart for a hedge, in one row or two offset rows. Guard the young plants with wire for their first years, since deer and stock [browse](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/glossary/index.html.md#browse) the shoots.

![A long hedge clipped into a dense green wall beside a mowed roadside bank, with power lines and trees beyond it](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/a-living-fence-of-native-thorny-shrubs-1-1000.jpg?v=b590542a "A historic Osage orange hedge clipped into a wall along a road at Winterthur, Delaware, in September 2003. Prairie farmers planted such hedges to hold livestock before barbed wire.")
*Photo: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABrandywine_Valley_Scenic_Byway_-_Osage_Orange_Hedge_at_Winterthur_-_NARA_-_7717480.jpg) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABrandywine_Valley_Scenic_Byway_-_Osage_Orange_Hedge_at_Winterthur_-_NARA_-_7717480.jpg))*

## What turns a hedge into a fence

A [privacy screen](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-hedges-screens-and-windbreaks/index.html.md#which-natives-make-a-privacy-screen-and-which-stay-green-in-winter) only has to block the eye. A living fence has to turn a cow, a dog or a person at ground level. That takes armor and a base without gaps. Haw also means hedge, so hawthorn means thorny hedge.

The model was the [Osage orange](https://bluewhaletrees.com/species/osage-orange/index.html.md) hedge of the prairie farms, planted to hold livestock before barbed wire. A single row set a foot apart turned horses, bulls and hogs in about four years. Kansas landowners alone planted nearly 40,000 miles of hedge between 1865 and 1939.

Barbed wire, which the hedges led to, proved cheaper. By the early 1900s farmers had soured on the hedges, which needed trimming every year and spread into the fields. Osage orange is one we do not grow.

![Old, gnarled Osage orange trunks leaning in from both sides of a grassy lane, their limbs arching into a green tunnel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/a-living-fence-of-native-thorny-shrubs-2-1000.jpg?v=4c4beeb8 "Old Osage orange trees arching over a lane on May 20, 2024. Osage orange wood provided most of the posts for the barbed wire that fenced the West.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Native thorny shrubs and small trees for a living fence

These thorny natives we grow make a living fence, coldest zones first:

| Plant | Zones | Height, feet | Armed with | Habit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Prickly rose](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/prickly-rose/index.html.md) | 2–6 | 3–8 | Fine, straight prickles | Thicket from underground stems |
| [Prairie crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/prairie-crabapple/index.html.md) | 2–8 | 20–30 | Spurs, often thorny | Thickets from root suckers |
| [American plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/index.html.md) | 3–8 | 15–25 | Some twigs become thorns | Thickets from root sprouts |
| [Cockspur hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cockspur-hawthorn/index.html.md) | 3–8 | 20–30 | Thorns 2 to 3 inches | Low, flat branches |
| [Common prickly ash](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-prickly-ash/index.html.md) | 3–8 | 10–20 | Thorny stems | A thicket that widens in time |
| [Washington hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/washington-hawthorn/index.html.md) | 3–8 | 20–30 | Thorns 1 to 3 inches | Dense; takes heavy pruning |
| [Devil's walking stick](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/devils-walking-stick/index.html.md) | 4–9 | 10–20 | Spiny stems | Few branches; a spreading colony |
| [Southern crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/southern-crabapple/index.html.md) | 4–9 | 20–30 | Spur shoots, often thorn-tipped | Thickets from suckers |
| [American holly](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-holly/index.html.md) | 5–9 | 20–50 | Spiny-toothed evergreen leaves | Dense, slow |
| [Chickasaw plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chickasaw-plum/index.html.md) | 5–9 | 4–20 | Thorny spurs | Dense thickets from suckers |

Washington hawthorn's thorns make an impenetrable hedge, and cockspur hawthorn has been grown as a hedge since colonial times. The dense, thorny branches of cockspur hawthorn give small birds places to nest, and Chickasaw plum thickets shelter nesting bobwhites, brown thrashers and mockingbirds. The loggerhead shrike impales its small prey on thorns or barbed wire, which earned it the name butcher bird.

![A dark hawthorn branch against blue sky, with long, straight, needle-sharp thorns hanging from it among new leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/a-living-fence-of-native-thorny-shrubs-3-1000.jpg?v=3094a1a2 "Long thorns on a cockspur hawthorn branch in Wrocław University Botanical Garden, Poland, on May 24, 2019. Cockspur hawthorn is often grown as a hedge.")
*Photo: Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACrataegus_crus-galli_G%C5%82%C3%B3g_ostrogowy_2019-05-24_06.jpg))*

## How close to plant, and in how many rows

An informal hedge is spaced by mature size, 4 to 6 feet apart for shrubs 8 to 12 feet tall. Washington hawthorn goes 5 feet apart for a hedge, and common prickly ash 6 feet apart in a hedgerow. A second row, offset from the first, fills the gaps between the plants. Cut bare-root deciduous shrubs to 4 to 6 inches at planting so they branch low.

Keep thorny plants back from paths and play areas. The [distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn&near=boundary,tree) sets Washington hawthorn 5 feet from the next plant and 13 feet in from a property line, half its mature crown, so the crown stays on your side.

## Wire beside it until it holds

A young hedge is food before it is a fence. Deer browse the tips of Washington hawthorn until its thorns harden, and rabbits gnaw young hawthorn, plum and crabapple bark. Cage or wire each plant for its first two to four years. The prairie hedges had the same weakness:

> "Pole-sized and larger Osage-orange trees are practically immune to browsing, but seedlings and tender sprouts are highly susceptible." (USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, *Osage-Orange*)

Keep stock off the row with a wire fence until the hedge has grown, about four years for the old close-set hedges. Guarding a tree from stock is part of [native trees for chickens, goats and a pasture](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-chickens-goats-and-pasture/index.html.md).

![Blueberry hawthorn branches in bright crimson fall leaf, a green wire fence and post standing behind them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/a-living-fence-of-native-thorny-shrubs-4-1000.jpg?v=9197ab52 "A blueberry hawthorn in crimson fall leaf beside a wire fence on October 31, 2026. Haw also means hedge, so hawthorn means thorny hedge.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Keeping the base thick

Shear a hedge slightly wider at the base than at the top, so light reaches the lower branches and the bottom does not go bare. [Downy hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/downy-hawthorn/index.html.md) takes hard pruning and sprouts again from old wood, so it can be kept as a hedge too. Prune hawthorns in winter or early spring.

Some farmers wove the twisted limbs of young Osage orange hedges together, a practice called plashing, for a tighter barrier. Prairie farmers cut old hedges to the ground every 10 to 16 years for fence posts, piling the brush over the stumps to keep stock off the new sprouts. An overgrown hedge of shrubs is [renewed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/pruning-and-renewing-native-shrubs/index.html.md#renewing-an-old-bare-legged-shrub) a third of the oldest stems at a time.

## What a thorn hedge will not do

A thorn hedge is not a deer fence, since deer browse its young shoots. Where deer must be kept out, an [8-foot fence](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md#fencing) does the work.

[Black locust](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-locust/index.html.md) suckers and carries paired spines on its young shoots, but its bark, leaves and seed are poisonous to livestock. Wild plum leaves and wilted twigs can [poison horses](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-nuts-and-fruit-poisonous-to-dogs-horses-and-children/index.html.md). A suckering hedge also spreads past its row, so leave a [mowed strip](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/suckers-at-the-base-of-a-tree/index.html.md) where it must stop.

## Thorny shrubs once planted as fences, now invasive

The US Soil Conservation Service promoted multiflora rose in the 1930s for erosion control and as living fences to confine livestock. It soon spread beyond the plantings, and Missouri declared it a noxious weed in 1983:

> "Although it provides some benefits for wildlife, the way it degrades our natural communities is worse." (Missouri Department of Conservation, *Multiflora Rose*)

Three more thorny shrubs planted as hedges are invasive too:

- **Japanese barberry.** Imported in 1875, it was once used in living fences for livestock. Pennsylvania now bars selling or planting it, apart from a few exempted sterile kinds.
- **Trifoliate orange.** A thorny Chinese relative of citrus brought in as a rootstock, it is considered invasive in some states, North Carolina among them.
- **Common buckthorn.** Brought from Europe as hedging, it fills fence rows with thickets whose twigs often end in a short thorn.

Osage orange escapes too, into eroding ground, overgrazed pastures and fence rows. [Invasive vines and shrubs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md) shows how to tell multiflora rose, barberry and buckthorn apart and how to clear them.

## Where to start

Blue Whale Trees grows every plant in the table from seed, so each plant in a row is genetically distinct. Choose by your zone and the job:

- **To hold stock or keep people out:** Washington hawthorn 5 feet apart, or cockspur hawthorn as a barrier hedge.
- **Where a thicket is welcome:** the plums, the crabapples or prickly ash.
- **For a fence that stays green:** American holly.
- **Spacing and setback:** the [distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn&near=boundary,tree) for the next plant and the property line.
- **The table's plants:** [put all ten on a request list](https://bluewhaletrees.com/list/#items=prickly-rose:1,prairie-crabapple:1,american-plum:1,cockspur-hawthorn:1,common-prickly-ash:1,washington-hawthorn:1,devils-walking-stick:1,southern-crabapple:1,american-holly:1,chickasaw-plum:1), keep the ones for your ground, and we reply with what is ready and current pricing.

![A hawthorn shoot of doubly toothed, shallowly lobed leaves with small green fruits, each crowned by dry flower parts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/a-living-fence-of-native-thorny-shrubs-5-1000.jpg?v=efea8700 "A hawthorn in green fruit on June 24, 2023, the dry remains of the flower still crowning each small fruit.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Common questions

### Will a thorny hedge keep deer out?

Not on its own. Deer browse the young shoots of hawthorns, plums and roses, and thorns guard a plant only once they harden. To keep deer out of a garden, put up an 8-foot fence.

### Can a living fence hold cattle?

Yes, once it has grown: a single row of Osage orange set a foot apart turned horses, bulls and hogs in about four years. Until then, keep a wire fence along the row, since stock eat young sprouts.

### How far apart do you plant a hawthorn hedge?

Set Washington hawthorn 5 feet apart, in one row or two offset rows. Cut bare-root plants back to 4 to 6 inches at planting so they branch from the ground.

### Is multiflora rose good for a living fence?

No. It was promoted as a living fence for livestock in the 1930s and is now invasive, declared a noxious weed in Missouri in 1983. Plant a native hawthorn or wild plum instead.

## Sources

- [Osage-Orange](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/osage-orange): USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America (J. D. Burton): Osage orange's part in prairie settlement and the invention of barbed wire, the posts it gave for the wire that fenced the West, its escape into eroding ground, overgrazed pastures and fence rows, the quotation on browsing, and hedges clearcut for posts every 10 to 16 years with the brush piled over the stumps against stock.
- [The Enduring Osage Orange](https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/conservationist/1995-11/enduring-osage-orange): Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri Conservationist (Jim W. Grace, November 1995): hedges to hold livestock before barbed wire, a single row a foot apart closing in four years, plashing, nearly 40,000 miles planted in Kansas from 1865 to 1939, cheaper barbed wire, and farmers' dislike of the hedges by the early 1900s.
- [Multiflora Rose](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/multiflora-rose): Missouri Department of Conservation field guide, with its page Loggerhead Shrike: multiflora rose's spread as an invasive, Missouri's noxious weed listing of 1983, the quotation on its harm, and the shrike that impales prey on thorns or barbed wire.
- [Invasives in Your Woodland: Multiflora Rose](https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasives-your-woodland-multiflora-rose-updated-2025): University of Maryland Extension (updated June 17, 2025): the Soil Conservation Service's promotion of multiflora rose in the 1930s for erosion control and as living fences to confine livestock.
- [Japanese Barberry](https://extension.psu.edu/japanese-barberry): Penn State Extension: Japanese barberry imported in 1875 and used in living fences for livestock, and Pennsylvania's ban on selling or planting it outside a few exempted sterile kinds.
- [Crataegus phaenopyrum](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/crataegus-phaenopyrum/): NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, with its pages for Crataegus crus-galli and Poncirus trifoliata: haw meaning hedge, Washington hawthorn's thorns of 1 to 3 inches and its tolerance of heavy pruning, cockspur hawthorn often used as a hedge, and trifoliate orange, a thorny Chinese relative of citrus brought in as a rootstock, grown as a security hedge and considered invasive in some states, North Carolina among them.
- [Prunus americana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/pruame/all.html): USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: American plum thickets spreading from root sprouts.
- [American plum](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=541): Virginia Tech Dendrology, with the sheets for Chickasaw plum and American holly: American plum twigs becoming thorns, Chickasaw plum's thorny spurs, and American holly's spiny-toothed leaves.
- [Selecting and Planting Hedges](https://yardandgarden.extension.iastate.edu/how-to/selecting-and-planting-hedges): Iowa State University Extension and Outreach: informal hedges spaced by mature size, 4 to 6 feet for shrubs 8 to 12 feet tall, bare-root deciduous shrubs cut to 4 to 6 inches at planting, hedges shaped wider at the base so light reaches the lower branches, and renewal by a third of the oldest stems at a time.
- [Mixed Screens](https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/mixed-screens/): Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home and Garden Information Center: rows offset from one another to fill the gaps between plants.

## Related

- Next step: [Open the planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn&near=boundary,tree)
- [Native hedges, screens and windbreaks: which trees to use and how far apart to set them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-hedges-screens-and-windbreaks/index.html.md)
- [Native shrubs and trees deer usually leave alone, and why the lists disagree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-shrubs-and-trees-deer-leave-alone/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)