Advice on new tree please
adamadamant
Posts: 278
we inherited four massive Leylandii at the back of the garden and I am going to take them out. They have been brilliant for screening, of course, so I want to put something in their place, but I don't think a new tree needs to be anything like as tall, maybe ultimately 15', in order to still screen us from the houses at the back. I would like a single tree with a widish canopy (the back is only about 5-6 m wide), evergreen, but light and airy, just to provide a welcome contrast from the gloom of the Leylandii. I was thinking something like a pittosporum, with its cream and white leaves, but does anyone have any other ideas? The ground is at the moment horrible and acid but we will grind out the old roots and give it a good dose of new soil. Thanks!!
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Oooh the world is your lobster
I'm going to go away and think about this - we're taking niece to the seaside - in quieter moments I shall contemplate trees and come up (hopefully) with my ultimate choice - see you this evening 
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Pittosporum sounds good. I can't think of any evergreen trees under 15 foot, but there is Amelanchier which has good colour.
I have been sitting on the pier whilst niece attempted to catch crabs - in my idleness I reflected on trees I have loved.
One tree of which I have very happy memories is the Mount Etna Broom which was outside my office window - as a mature tree it was about 15ft tall with a similar spread; it had elegant angular branches which looked fantastic outlined against the winter skies, and in the mid-summer the thick racemes of golden pea-like flowers filled the air with a heady fragrance.
Although they're not evergreen, the leaves have that appearance, and as they consist of very fine fronds, they don't produce a thick carpet of fallen leaves in the autumn.
A glorious tree with no real problems that I'm aware of, but it's seldom seen - I have no idea why - it should be grown much more often
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you all for your thoughts - Dovefromabove hope you had a good time at the seaside! I will look into the suggestions.......
One tree you could consider if you live in the south or south west of England is Ligustrum lucidum. It is a privet but it grows to 40ft and can be trained to single trunk. The leaves are the familiar privet shape but much bigger and very glossy. it is a very handsome foliage tree. What might be a drawback is that it flowers [typical privet flowers but bigger] quite profusely and if you dislike the smell of privet..... well.