how fast does the lalandie hedge grow

Could anyone tell me how long the lalandie trees take to grow????? ( hope i have spelt the name of the tree wright sorry if i havent.....) I have just planted some trees and would like a hedge affect to protect my garden from the bad winds i get.....

I would also like advice on when the best time to move a heebie and a red robin.:ntwrth:

 

Leylandii grow very, very fast once they are established and need to be kept regularly trimmed - if you miss a trim and cut into brown wood, it will not produce fresh growth, unlike most other plants. Good windbreak though, providing you don't need to grow anything near them!

 

very very fast indeed, we just took our Leylandii hedge out because we just could cope with its growth. They also make the area very dry. Their roots grow a few meters long must be careful not too close to the drive.

 

They grow too fast, and as Aaron says they need regular maintenance, far more so than many common hedge shrubs/trees do. I have them in my back garden. They were there when we moved in and had been neglected. They had reached about 30ft by the time I managed to get someone to help me chop them down (they were already about 20ft when I moved in). I don't clip mine anywhere near as often as I should, but during the warmer months it is still a tedious and regular task.

As a rough guide, I chopped mine down to about 4ft tall in early spring. Now they are about 6ft in parts (because I haven't been keeping up the regular clipping). Bear in mind that on mine the main trunks had have all been chopped to about 3 ft, so all the growth is from the branches.

You also need to watch out for them bushing out. If you don't keep an eye, they will pinch about 2ft of garden space in one summer.

 

I would like to thank you all for your replies they have been very helpful. I take it then if i trim the face and leave the top they will grow bushy and tall?

 

Chop the top off when it is about a foot shorter than the height you want. The branches will bush up and make up the extra height. In fact if left to do its own thing at least one branch from each tree would turn it's self skyward and become the new main trunk, so you still need to keep an eye on it. And yes, chop its face off too so that it thickens up.

 

"Chop the top off when it is about a foot shorter than the height you want."

I've always done it the other way - chop them when they are a foot taller than the final height, to about 6" - 12" less than the final height, and then let them bush up.

I have seen some very smart Leylandii hedges, but they take quite a lot of maintenance - the more concerning thing is that if they are not cut for a while then there is no going back - as has been said, if you cut the sides back to "old" wood it won't regrow.

We moved in here about 3 years ago. The Leylandii hedges are 50' tall and 15' - 20' wide at the base and look a complete shaggy mess.

Personally I think Cupressus Leylandii is the wrong plant for a hedge and Thuja plicata atrovriens is a better choice. It doesn't grow quite as fast, but it can be cut back, and it forms a very smart hedge.

To make a hedge grow fast it needs looking after. Feeding it with Sulphate of Ammonia (i.e. a high Nitrogen feed) and watering well (I always install a leaky-hose, snaked around the plants, and water heavily once a week during Spring / Summer), mulching - using weed suppressing membrane, or something more natural- will all make a huge difference - and then you can stop doing that when the hedge gets to the appropriate height - AND it will then slow down!!

Sadly, Leylandii will just keep on going ...

What height do you need it to be? and if that is more than, say, 6' how do you plan to trim it?

We had a 15' Thuja hedge at a previous house - sheltering us from the North wind. It only needed cutting once a year, and we used a scaffolding tower, but it took ages - cut a 10' strip with the tower, then move the tower along a bit, repeat!

 

I have two Leylandii hedges I grew for the same reason as rach. I am a bit intrigued as to people finding them very high maintenance. I only trim mine once a year. Late July usually after the nesting season. One my OH persists in having one as a square formal shape the other I do, as I wanted a more natural look at the back of a border and have it trimmed in a slope that is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom so any growth never looks untidy. Mind you I only have the front of the trees to do as the back has large trees behind and is basically bald. I keep them at about eight foot high. I have an eleagnus hedge at the front which I keep the same shape and it always manages to look OK. The worst hedge is a hawthorn hedge which of course was already here when we moved. It never looks tidy and is horrible to cut.

 

I think cutting it once a year is fine. Missing a year is not :( and for a smart, formal, hedge I would expect Leylandii to need cutting several times a year - but that depends on soil quality, feeding, weather etc.

But at a once-a-year cut I would expect you to be taking 3' off the top? Either that or their site prevents them making that much growth, which is definitely :thumb:

Edit: Or they are the Golden variety or somesuch that is slower growing.

 

One is the golden variety Kristen and the other I thought was the golden one but is darker but lighter then the normal one IYKWIM.. Certainly never take three feet off. I think you are right about the site. Backed by large deciduous trees.

 

Can you remember how tall they were as plants, and how quickly they got close to your 8' final height (obviously will have taken another year or so to "box out" at the top )

I think would be useful info for this thread if you can remember?

 

For every one smart Leylandii hedge, there has got to be about 20 awful ones though. I can understand people like them because they are so quick growing, but there are plently of other nicer, easier to manage things to grow a hedge out of ..... surely

 

When you get a new house and the garden is exposed it provides a very quick growing barrier against wind. I would never have chosen it but for that.
A much nicer conifer hedge is lawson's cypress but it is slower growing

 

I have a hedge which has Leylandii at the back, Thuja in the front. The Leylandii must have been to shelter the Thuja with a view to ripping the Leylandii out later ... but they never did, and 30 years later the Thuja was swamped, ragged, and pretty much wrecked.

Not very clear, but the things on the right are Thuja in front of Leylandii, and at the left end just Leylandii. Shaggy for a hedge, don't you think? :(


We've pulled the Leylandii out now ... just got to build up the Thuja, and get it back to a state where it can be clipped.

Leyalndii hedge at the front is gone ... replaced with something else. Had it of been clipped it would have been fine.

This after we had topped it - still looks a mess :(


And that just leaves one at the back, which we have topped, but taking that out will open up the garden to wind for several years whilst we grow something in its place :(

 

I've seen to many people having to deal with a Leylandii hedge gone mad, unkempt or neglected and would avoid like the plague.

Example - a neighbour had landscapers in earlier this year to remove a leylandii hedge that had been left to it's own devices and replace with a fence. The landscapers (2 of them) were working 3-4 days cutting down the trees, digging out the stumps and roots and replacing with a fence. No idea of cost, but all because someone who owned the house previously decided they needed privacy and planting such trees 4 foot from their house would be an excellent idea!

Another example - a large house on my way to work had overgrown leylandii (30 foot high I'd say) "topped". The next day as I rode past, I took a good look - what a mess had been left, lots of dead and brown wood...but the trees were 10 foot lower!

And another example - my parents planted a row of these 40 years ago to mask the next door neighbours garage wall. They were never allowed to grow more than 10 foot high but they drained every nutrient from the soil in front of them, resulting in nothing growing properly there...and at the base of the trees, they lost most of their braches and leaves, so it was still bare! Those trees are now gone 15 years and finally the garage wall is being used to grow climbers up it.

Can you tell I don't much like leylandii?