Leylandii Hedge.

DAN WILSON · 3 March

Evening all,

Long story but I am putting a leylandii hedge in next to a fence on one of my borders. This is for entirely practical purposes. I have a young oak about 20 feet tall, and a 15 foot chestnut in the current border. There are also a couple of small acers with a 1m wide or so canopy. I would like to keep what I can. I plan to put leylandii in that are about 5 feet tall. Will the larger trees survive being surrounded by leylandii and how can I move the acers?

Cheers
Dan

Busy-Lizzie · 3 March

The trees should be OK if you keep the Leylandii under control. If not, they grow huge and suck all the moisture out of the soil and it will be too late to prune them as you can't cut into dead wood as it won't grow again. I think Leylandii are a bit of a nightmare. When our neighbour removed his hedge he kept 4 trees which are now huge and cast a lot of shade on our garden. They drop bits all over our patio. I hate them. Couldn't you plant Thuya instead?

robairdmacraignil · 3 March

Don't do it. Leylandii are too vigorous and want to be huge trees and take too much work to keep trimmed as a hedge.

Happy gardening!

Fairygirl · 4 March

As the others have said - leylandii can easily get away from you if it's happy, so if you decide to go ahead, make sure you keep it well controlled from very early on, and don't pick specimens that size- much harder to establish. Your conditions will dictate how well it thrives, but it may do that at the expense of the trees you want to keep. There are better, easier options for hedging if there are existing trees and other planting in situ.

The Acers will move if you are careful about the prep - as big a rootball as possible, and well watered before and after. Have the new site prepped beforehand too, so that there's as little shock to them as possible.
However, you'd also have to be careful if you move them over the next few weeks - again depending on your location and climate. In some areas, they will be growing away, and that can mean they stall if moved. If they're still reliably dormant, they'll move more easily, but you still have to ensure they get really good care for the rest of the season, until becoming dormant again at the end of this year, when they should be established nicely.

bédé · 4 March

Leylandii don't like shade, nor being kept cut back. I have interlaced my shaded, closely trimmed (but still green) 3m high leylandii hedge with small yew plants that are growing as replacements. The leylandii were good for the first ±30 years.

My Thuya drops just as many bits. Brush them under the hedgeand think of them as mulch.

Acers don't like being moved.

Liriodendron · 4 March

But the acers would probably be even less happy being left under a leylandii hedge.

DAN WILSON · 4 March

If I'm after a quick large screen what alternatives do I have other than Leylandii?

Plantminded · 4 March

If you are aware of its potential problems but are prepared to maintain it to avoid them, Leylandii can make a good hedge. I prefer Thuja plicata which looks similar, is slower growing but can be maintained more easily as you can prune back to old wood and it will regrow.

madpenguin · 4 March

DAN WILSON said:

If I'm after a quick large screen what alternatives do I have other than Leylandii?

What sort of height were you aiming for?

DAN WILSON · 4 March

2-3 meters finished height. I know 3 m sounds high but we are on a slope and the other 2 sides are the neighbours leylandii and there's are 4 m or so. It's a reasonable garden so entirely manageable. I keep them all in check.

robairdmacraignil · 4 March

DAN WILSON said:

If I'm after a quick large screen what alternatives do I have other than Leylandii?

For a large quick growing hedge option cherry laurel is another possibility.

Leylandii Hedge.

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