leylandii 2001 dying, what to do?

Hi all, first post. In march 2019 I planted a row of small leylandii 2001 along the edge of my garden as I live on a housing estate and I wanted a fast-growing screen to screen off the ugly buildings. They were around 2-3 feet tall at that time, and for the first couple of years they grew very quickly. When they got to 7 foot, I cut the tops off. Then in spite of feeding and watering, they all went brown and are practically dead. I've got a virginia creeper growing along my patio area that is well pruned and in good control, which I've been able to take cuttings from. My plan is to plant these cuttings in amongst the dying leylandii because they will form a screen within a few months. My question is how long will these dead leylandii's stand? My other option is to cut them at ground level and plant privets as I have quite a few that I took as cuttings last year, but it will take considerably longer to form a screen. Phew, a bit long, but this is my problem.

 

Hi bigpeter

Dead leylandii will stand for as long as they can before they fall over. Same question as how long's a piece of string? It all depends on what's killed them off. Do they have an established root system that is still intact or has it been weakened by wood decaying fungi. Are there wood decaying organisms in the vicinity that will turn the wood to mush or not? Placing new plants amongst already dead ones without finding out what killed the trees could be courting disaster. My advice - for what it's worth - remove the dead trees completely, grind out the roots, and start again.

 

This is how they looked about 1 year after I put them in and another taken today. You can see the privet has survived.

 

Nice Brug and CIDP.

 

This may seem a bit daft if your situation is very different to ours. Hubby got a chain and clipped it round a large old bush, escallonia I think, tied it to the car hook and slowly dragged them out. It all depends on the road at the other side of the photo. This side would damage the wall if the chain got in contact. It saved us a lot of work. V

 

Taken today.

 

The leylandii's have made a recovery, I'm now sure they went brown due to me not watering them enough. The virginia creepr looks good, I gave it a trim yesterday as it was trailing down to the ground

 

Really glad you didn’t do what I would have done. I thought that when leylandi’s started going brown that was the end of them . Congrats on your success.V

 

Although those leylandii's looked completely dead there were a few very small green bits here and there on the street side. That side gets the sun all afternoon. I'm also giving them a good soaking twice a week that has helped. I have to admit I was surprised to see them recover. But they are struggling on the other side as it's shaded.