# Sea buckthorn: where to plant it, berries and care

> Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides): a native thorny shrub of 1.2 to 4.5 metres with silver-grey leaves and orange berries. Site, price, pruning and problems.

Canonical: https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/sea-buckthorn
Last updated: 2026-09-28

*Hippophae rhamnoides*

![One sea buckthorn as a free-standing shrub on a lawn in front of a wooden fence in mid-September, with narrow silver-grey leaves and branches full of orange berries](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/duindoorn-f5ed9471.webp)

Published: 2026-09-28

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a native thorny shrub with narrow,
silver-grey leaves. At the end of September the orange berries on the female
shrubs are ripe. They usually hang on all winter. Sea buckthorn wants full sun
and poor, limy soil. Suckers come up from the roots, so one shrub grows into a
small thicket.

## Sea buckthorn at a glance

| Feature | Sea buckthorn |
| --- | --- |
| Height | 1.2 to 4.5 m |
| Spread | 2 to 4 m |
| Full grown after | 5 to 10 years |
| Sun | Full sun |
| Soil | Sand or loam, preferably limy and poor |
| Water | Little: copes with dry soil |
| Maintenance | Low: only the suckers need watching |
| Flowers | April and May, small and brownish green |
| For bees | Little: some pollen, April and May |
| Hay fever | Unknown |
| Leaves | Drop in autumn |
| Hardy | Yes |
| Native | Yes |
| Poisonous | No |
| Pricks or stings | Yes: thorns |
| Price, young | About €1.55 to €2.04 each, from 10 plants, 40-80 cm, bare-root |
| Price, grown | About €64.65 to €78.33 each, 150-225 cm, in a pot, the largest from 3 plants |

- **Leaf**: May to October
- **Flower**: April to May
- **Fruit**: August to February

![A sea buckthorn twig in late May with long, narrow grey-green leaves and a sharp thorn](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/duindoorn-leaf-34351a07.webp)
*Leaf*

![A bare thorny twig of a male sea buckthorn in April with clusters of small brown flowers and the first silver-grey leaves](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/duindoorn-bloom-8297b676.webp)
*Flower*

![A branch of a female sea buckthorn in September, full of round orange berries among narrow silver-grey leaves](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/duindoorn-fruit-ae793c13.webp)
*Fruit*

## How do you recognise sea buckthorn?

Look at the leaves first. They are long and narrow, with a smooth edge and a
short stalk. The upper side is grey-green and the underside whitish. No leaf
grows wider than 7 millimetres.

The branches are thin and packed with long, sharp thorns. Young twigs carry
tiny silvery scales, which later turn dark brown.

The flowers open before the leaves. Small and brownish green, they are easy to
miss. Sea buckthorn is dioecious: male and female flowers grow on separate
shrubs.

The berries are orange, almost round and 6 to 8 millimetres across.

Do not mistake sea buckthorn for the oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia). That
shrub's leaves are 1 to 2.5 centimetres wide, so much broader. Its flowers are
cream to yellow and fragrant. The oleaster's fruit is a cherry-like berry of
at most 1.7 centimetres.

## Where does sea buckthorn grow best?

Give sea buckthorn a place in full sun, which means more than six hours of
direct sun per day at midsummer. This shrub needs plenty of light. The soil
can be dry to fairly moist, ideally poor and limy. A bacterium living in the
roots takes nitrogen from the air, so the shrub finds nitrogen even on poor
ground.

Sea buckthorn struggles in these spots:

- **A border that meets the lawn or a tiled path.** Suckers grow from the
  roots and push up through the grass and between the tiles.
- **A low corner where water lies after rain.** Sea buckthorn grows poorly in
  wet soil.

In winter the shrub is bare. A female shrub usually still carries its orange
berries then, unless birds have already eaten them.

![One border in front of a wooden fence with a sea buckthorn in the middle: on the left in May, full of narrow leaves; on the right the same shrub in January, bare with orange berries, with a box ball at each end](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/duindoorn-1-3822ac65.webp)
*The same border in May and in January. This is a generated image, not a photo.*

The app shows your own plot to scale, with the houses around it. There you can
see whether a shrub this wide fits beside your terrace.

## Planting and caring for sea buckthorn

Plant sea buckthorn in late autumn or in winter. From November to March,
nurseries supply it bare-root, with no soil around the roots. Buying it that
way is the cheapest. A shrub in a pot costs more, and pots also come in large
sizes.

Leave about 3 metres between a free-standing shrub and its neighbours. On
planting day that looks bare, but branches and suckers fill the space by
themselves. For a hedge, set the shrubs 1 to 1.5 metres apart.

Wear sturdy gloves and safety glasses when you prune, because of the thorns.

| When | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| End of winter | Cut a third of the shrub back to the ground every year, if you grow it for the berries |
| All year | Remove suckers that come up outside the border |

Many bird species nest from March through July, and many keep going into
August. If a nest turns up while you are pruning, leave that branch where it
is.

## Sea buckthorn problems and what to do

**The shrub has no berries.** Only a female sea buckthorn carries berries. The
wind takes pollen from a male shrub to the female flowers. So plant a male and
a female shrub near each other.

**Young shoots come up everywhere, even in the lawn.** Those are suckers from
the roots. Pull them off while they are young. Tear an older sucker away as
close to the root as you can. Cutting makes a new shoot more likely to come
up.

**In winter, webbed nests hang from the branch tips.** Young caterpillars of
the brown-tail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea) spend the winter inside them.
These caterpillars have strongly irritating hairs, which can cause a rash.

Beyond that, sea buckthorn is rarely troubled by pests or diseases.

## Which birds and insects use sea buckthorn?

In winter, fieldfares eat the berries. In the dunes they seek out sea
buckthorn for them.

> **Did you know?**
>
> In winter the berries can start to ferment. Fieldfares that eat them can get
> drunk.

The leaves feed moth caterpillars. The oak eggar (Lasiocampa quercus) lives on
sea buckthorn, and also on blackthorn, willow and bramble. The broom moth
(Ceramica pisi) and Synopsia sociaria use sea buckthorn as a host plant too: a
plant their caterpillars grow up on.

## Is sea buckthorn poisonous or edible?

Sea buckthorn is not known as a poisonous plant. The orange berries are
edible, but quite sour. They are rich in vitamin C. People use the berries for
jam.

The photos on this page were made with AI, based on real photos and descriptions of this plant.

## Frequently asked questions

### How big does sea buckthorn grow?

Sea buckthorn grows 1.2 to 4.5 metres tall and 2 to 4 metres wide. Suckers come up from the roots, so one shrub can grow into a small thicket.

### How much sun does sea buckthorn need?

Full sun: more than six hours of direct sun a day around midsummer. The shrub needs a lot of light.

### Why does my sea buckthorn have no berries?

Only female shrubs carry berries. A male shrub has to grow nearby as well, because the wind carries its pollen to the female flowers.

### When should you prune sea buckthorn?

At the end of winter. If you grow the shrub for its berries, cut a third of it back to the ground every year. Remove suckers at any time of year.

### Are sea buckthorn berries edible?

Yes, but they are quite sour. The berries are rich in vitamin C and are used for jam. Sea buckthorn is not known as a poisonous plant.

## Sources

- [Duistermaat, Sparrius & Denters, Standaardlijst van de Nederlandse flora 2020 (Gorteria 43)](https://natuurtijdschriften.nl/pub/1019223)
- [NDFF Verspreidingsatlas — Hippophae rhamnoides](https://www.verspreidingsatlas.nl/0629)
- [Flora van Nederland — Duindoorn](https://www.floravannederland.nl/planten/duindoorn)
- [Wilde planten in Nederland en België — Duindoorn](https://www.wilde-planten.nl/duindoorn.htm)
- [Wilde planten in Nederland en België — Smalle olijfwilg](https://www.wilde-planten.nl/smalleolijfwilg.htm)
- [Botanische Tuinen Utrecht — Duindoorn](https://www.botanischetuinen.nl/nl/plant/685/duindoorn)
- [RHS — Hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn)](https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/8765/hippophae-rhamnoides/details)
- [RHS — Hippophae (geslacht)](https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/20961/hippophae/details)
- [RHS — Shade gardening (definities zon en halfschaduw)](https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=934)
- [RHS — Removing suckers and seedlings](https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/trees/removing-suckers-trees-shrubs)
- [BBC Gardeners' World — How to grow sea buckthorn](https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/sea-buckthorn-hippophae-rhamnoides/)
- [Imkerpedia — Drachtplanten](https://www.imkerpedia.nl/wiki/index.php/Drachtplanten)
- [Antigifcentrum — Lijst van weinig of niet giftige planten](https://www.antigifcentrum.be/Toxinfos/weinig-of-niet-giftige-planten/)
- [De Vlinderstichting — Duindoorn (waardplant)](https://vlinderstichting.nl/plants/duindoorn/)
- [De Vlinderstichting — Hageheld](https://vlinderstichting.nl/vlinder/hageheld/)
- [De Vlinderstichting — Bastaardsatijnvlinder](https://www.vlinderstichting.nl/vlinders/overzicht-vlinders/details-vlinder/bastaardsatijnvlinder)
- [Vogelbescherming — Kramsvogel](https://www.vogelbescherming.nl/ontdek-vogels/kennis-over-vogels/vogelgids/vogel/kramsvogel)
- [Vogelbescherming — Snoeien in het broedseizoen, mag dat?](https://www.vogelbescherming.nl/actueel/bericht/snoeien-in-het-broedseizoen-mag-dat)
- [Van den Berk Boomkwekerijen — Hippophae rhamnoides (bladmaat)](https://www.vdberk.be/bomen/hippophae-rhamnoides/)
- [Ten Hoven Bomen — Duindoorn (breedte)](https://www.tenhoven-bomen.nl/duindoorn-hippophae-rhamnoides-bosplantsoen)
- [Directplant — Duindoorn (prijs per maat)](https://www.directplant.nl/duindoorn-hippophae-rhamnoides.html)
- [Den Mulder Boomteelt — Hippophae rhamnoides haagplant (prijs)](https://www.denmulderboomteelt.com/webshop/hippophae-rhamnoides)
- [Yarinde — Duindoorn (prijs)](https://yarinde.nl/products/duindoorn-hippophae-rhamnoides)
- [Wikimedia Commons — Leaf: photo by AnRo0002 (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20180525Hippophae_rhamnoides2.jpg)
- [Wikimedia Commons — Flower: photo by Proton02 (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hippophae_rhamnoides_male_flowers.jpg)
- [Wikimedia Commons — Fruit: photo by AnRo0002 (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140907Hippophae_rhamnoides1.jpg)

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