golden leylandii - yay or nay

countrywoman

just wondering if anyone can recommend Leylandii? are they really that awful?
i've an area of garden that is in need of a strong hedge. my dad recommended Leylandii, he has them in his garden,and i have to admit they look well...golden leylandii


i've heard people saying bad stuff about them....just wondering really

emo72

no way. had about 20 of them in my garden and payed a fortune to get them out. they are a nightmare. replaced them with a evergreen prunus hedge. much easier to control that. and it will take real hard pruning. leylandii can wreck walls and if you have neighbours you will be inflicting a nightmare on them.

im afraid its a "no" from me. best of luck!

Avns1s

It's a "no" from me too.

Planted then around the house about 15 years ago. It's a nightmare to keep them under control. Trimming then is a pain and the most hateful job I can think of. In spite of close trimming each year, they have still gotten to about 9ft. The frost in the previous 2 winters slowed them down a bit.

They do give a good hedge quickly, but remember, just as quickly, they grow past the hedge stage and can start to get a bit bare and open at the bottom.

Pick something else if you can at all. To me, leilandii are nothing short of a weed!

Rinker

I do a lot of work with trees and would strongly advise against planting leylandii as a hedge. Unless you're very careful Leylandii's can cause big problems for you and your neighbours. They have rapid growth, great potential height, and they block out sunlight. They also take up a lot of space in your garden and your neighbour will also have to maintain their side or else they'll encroach into their property too.
I bought a house which had a neighbours leylandii hedge growing into it. I cut it back to the boundary 4 years ago and it is still brown and hasn't grown back.
It is such an issue in the UK that leylandii hedges are covered under Part VIII of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 introduced in 2005 - also known as the “leylandii law”. They even have leylandii hate groups there:eek:

Not to be totally negative it should be noted that all trees have their place. A single Leylandii can be a great garden tree if you have the space. They make really good climbing trees for children and they are ideal for building dens. Their branch network is so dense that there is very little risk for a fall while climbing them.

planetX

No - wish I could post a pic of the 50ft monsters that are my view from the kitchen. And the same people have a line of golden ones on our boundary that are on their way up, and never get trimmed. Soon I'll get no sunshine, there really should be a law against them:mad:

secman

If you need hedging buy hedging, Leylandii are trees and have a tendendcy to grow like trees. a work colleage of mine has them and in the last 5 years he has spent a fortune trying to keep them in check. The last time, his regular handyman refused to touch them as they had grown up through ESB cables. In the end ESB Networks came out to sort them.
Nightmare of a tree, only good for firewood !

Secman

countrywoman

thanks so much everyone for your replies and the details in same.

it's a 'no' from me too!! i'm so glad i enquired here first

Rinker...i laughed at your post, even though its not meant to be funny (the legislation bit!)


thanks again

wexford12

Unless they are grow real gold not in a million years would I plant them

nulabert

I've seen some well kept Leylandii hedges and they look like carpet, very well kept. I have them all around the boundary of the site. They came with the house and planted almost 30 years ago. The hedge to the front of the house is now 11 foot high after a good trimming last year but the hedge is almost 9 foot wide on top :eek: - ya, these things spread up and out.

Got a quote last year to trim them into shape, the quote was €1500. Ended up spending 5 days cutting them myself and 2 days gathering the the cuttings and shredding them using a hired 1.5 tonnes shredder.

I'll keep on top of them from now on.

They are grand if you don't have neighbours, they are well back from the house and you're fairly fit and up to some strenuous work outs maintaining them once they are established!!

Macy0161

countrywoman wrote: »

just wondering if anyone can recommend Leylandii? are they really that awful?

It depends on the circumstances, and how prepared you are to keep on top of them - you can't really get away with taking a year off with them. The problems come when people don't take care of them as a hedging plant. A lot of hedging plants are trees, if left to their own devices.

I have them in the mix along our northern boundary - maybe it's the altitude making things cooler, but they've never really jumped out of the ground as I expected (and hoped). There's no neighbouring house, and I actually don't mind the look of them (I know a lot of people don't like the look of them, but that's a subjective opinion).

slowburner

planetX wrote: »

No - wish I could post a pic of the 50ft monsters that are my view from the kitchen. And the same people have a line of golden ones on our boundary that are on their way up, and never get trimmed. Soon I'll get no sunshine, there really should be a law against them:mad:

The funny thing is, no one knows what the maximum height of a Leyland Cypress is; the oldest know specimens are still growing.
There is one in Northumberland which was 36m tall in 2008. It was planted in 1906. That's a growth rate of 34 cm per year.

planetX

slowburner wrote: »

The funny thing is, no one knows what the maximum height of a Leyland Cypress is; the oldest know specimens are still growing.
There is one in Northumberland which was 36m tall in 2008. It was planted in 1906. That's a growth rate of 34 cm per year.

countrywoman

guys,
thanks again so much for all the posts i really do appreciate them


just wondering are there any other trees that would work well for me in a hedge...something like the 'palms' (as my dad calls them...leylandii), i actually like the look of them when they are small!

Macy0161

Lawson's Cypress would be similar (it might actually be a parent of leylandii), but wouldn't be as fast growing. It would need maintenance at least once a year.

Northumbria

I'd get a native holly hedge - evergreen, easy to control, berries for the birds in winter, native and will grow in shade.

On failing that go for a laurel (prunus) species as some people have said here. I have a laurel hedge in the front garden, they're evergreen and pretty decent to look at, but invasive in some places.
They're also fast growing and very cheap, but I've seen some grow into trees (on rare occasions). Most are well-kept though and they're nothing like leylandii.
They'll take a few years to grow to a thick hedge.

Cal04

love ours!

baaba maal

As others have said, you don't plant a Leylandii hedge, you plant a line of Leylandii trees.

Souness

Definitely not imo we had a leylandia hedge and cut it down 20 years ago, should have done it sooner. Best thing for the garden. Planted viburnums, laurel, lilac, hazel, philadelphus, cotinus,mahonia and holly in their place. Aestheticially much better and for the birds/wildlife too. Even if you have a nice trimmed leylanida hedge once it gets hit it will not recover.

The Garden Shop

Hi Guys

We would advise against all forms of Leylandia as hey become far to large over the years

Some good alternatives:
Golden Privet - ligustrum ovalifolium
Portguese Laurel - Prunus lusitanica
Laurel - Prunus laurocerasus

All 3 are fast growing and form good dense hedges

We can offer further tips an advise if you contact us online

highdef

I am also thinking about purchasing leylandii to make a line of hedges/trees. I want a thick screen and want an ultimate height of at least 10 metres, with more height not being an issue. The line will be to the northeast of the garden (so not much light to be lost) and I will plant the line about 3 - 4m beyond where I want the garden proper to end, in order to accommodate lateral growth of the leylandii as they get bigger. The far side of the trees will be a field.....no adjoining property.

In my case, would Leylandii be suitable?

The Garden Shop

Hello Highdef

Leylandii Would do the job for you there. and it sounds like you have the space

I still would avoid it though as it is an eyesore. Especially in the countryside where it really standouts out in the landscape

An alternative for 10M high screening could be ALder Trees

These can grow about 3ft a year (once establisded)
They are deciduous but they hold their leaves well into winter

You could interplant with some evergreen pines & spruce for a more 'natural' looking screen

highdef

Thank you the Garden Shop"

I had a look at your other suggestions and I don't think they would be completely suitable for what I am looking for. I really want a tall thick and permanent screen that extends all the way down to ground level and (I didn't mention this) does not cost much. I live in the valley part of an upland area in north Kildare and there are plenty of leylandii around nearby and even more so on the nearby hill tops so they would not be the type of tree that would be a rarity in the area.

So it looks like I am a rare case where leylandii are a suitable plant?????

celticbhoy27

highdef wrote: »

Thank you the Garden Shop"

I had a look at your other suggestions and I don't think they would be completely suitable for what I am looking for. I really want a tall thick and permanent screen that extends all the way down to ground level and (I didn't mention this) does not cost much. I live in the valley part of an upland area in north Kildare and there are plenty of leylandii around nearby and even more so on the nearby hill tops so they would not be the type of tree that would be a rarity in the area.

So it looks like I am a rare case where leylandii are a suitable plant?????

If you leave leylandi grow into its true form the screen won't extend all the way to the ground. Yoyo have to keep it trimmed to some extent.