Caesalpinia

I think more or less ALL of the caesalpinias are thorny, aren't they?
so just about any of them would perform the same hedging function. The
only one at all 'commonly' grown in the UK is C. gilliesii and I can
certainly swear to the thorns on that, pruning and weeding around it
having just left a couple embedded in my long-suffering paw. (How do
people prune wearing gloves? I can never do it. Like ballroom-dancing
wearing clogs. You just can't feel what you're doing. So I swear and
put up with the scars. Or is there a solution I've been missing all
these years?) C.g., despite the thorns, is certainly well worth
growing, both for flowers and foliage. In hot dry climates it gets
almost to tree size, though in this cool wet climate it's so far only
a modest shrub. The only other species available over here seems to be
C. pulcherrima, offered by a single firm and that one which
specialises in conservatory shrubs. It's a plant which I don't know
but which its name suggests might be worth investigation by someone -
like Richard - in a suitable climate?

Tim
Solway Coast, UK
mild, cool, damp, -3C > 28C
Tim Longville
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