Leylandii and Conifer Hedges: Pros, Cons, and Care Tips
Introduction
Conifers are among the most widely used trees for hedging across the UK because they are the most cost-effective (cheapest) to buy, toughest and fastest-growing hedges available.
Different types of Conifer Hedges
There are different types of conifer hedges. The most common fast growing coniferous trees used in hedging are Leylandii and Thuja plicata.
Leylandii (Leyland Cypress and x Cupressocyparis leylandii, x Cuprocyparis leylandii)
A Leylandii hedge is tough, hardy, easy to grow and tolerates most soils. A Leylandii hedge growth rate is the fastest of any evergreen hedging plant including all the other conifers. It is the most widely planted hedging plant in the UK and will form an excellent, evergreen screen.
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)
Thuja plicata is a fast growing coniferous tree that will form a dense, evergreen hedge quickly. It is tough, hardy, easy-to-grow and will tolerate most soils. It is very similar to Leylandii and will take some trimming back into old wood.
Pros of Leylandii and Thuja plicata hedges
Evergreen Hedges for Privacy & Screening
A Leylandii or any type of conifer hedge, provide all year-round privacy and shelter in almost any situation. They make effective screening between you and your neighbours. Conifer hedges are evergreen, which means they do not drop their leaves in winter but keep them 365 days a year. Mixed Native Hedges such as Hawthorn, Field Maple, Hazel, Dogwood, Blackthorn are deciduous and drop their leaves and so you are left with bare branches until the spring. Beech or Hornbeam hold on to some of their leaves, but they are not evergreen like conifer hedges.
Fast-growing hedges
Using fast growing coniferous trees such as Leylandii is one of the quickest ways to form a hedge to block unsightly views or screen off neighbours.
Leylandii hedge growth rate: up to 1 metre (3 ft 3in) per year in good growing conditions
Thuja plicata hedge growth rate: up to 90cm (2ft 11in) per year in good growing conditions.
Fast-growing conifer hedges are the best for tall screens although should not be grown tall where they will block out light from neighbours.
Easy to grow
Thuja and Leylandii hedges are easy to grow. As long as they are planted well and kept watered during dry spells for the first year or two and regularly trimmed (once or twice a year) they will look after themselves and do not need any further feeding or care.
Tolerant of most soils and conditions
Conifer hedges are tolerant of most soils. Unless the site is a riverbank, on a floodplain or has very heavy soil that doesn’t drain for long spells in the winter, you can grow a Leylandii hedge, or Thuja hedge, anywhere. They can grow in sunny or relatively shady sites and are happy in most soils except very wet soils.
Wind & Cold Tolerant
All conifer hedges are wind tolerant. In stormy weather, they resist strong winds better than fences, making a good windbreak which can help keep your property calm and sheltered.
Noise Filter
The dense foliage of a Leylandii hedge will help to reduce the noise of traffic and other sounds. A Thuja hedge will have a similar effect.
Filter Out Air Pollution
If you live near a busy road, the dense foliage of all conifer hedges filters out air pollution from cars, vans and lorries, helping to keep the air in your house and garden cleaner. Leylandii and Thuja hedges have been shown to reduce particulate matter from diesel engines in houses and gardens.
Formal & Uniform Appearance
Due to their uniform appearance, conifer hedges can be kept looking very neat and formal. Their thick foliage means they can be trimmed into straight lines. A Thuja or Leylandii hedge can be trimmed into a formal shape. The rich, dark greens of Leylandii and Thuja hedges create a blank canvas that highlights the colour and form of more showy plants planted in front.
Trouble-Free
With correct maintenance, conifer hedges are usually easy to care for and rarely affected by pests or diseases.
Most cost-effective hedging
Leylandii and Thuja are generally the least-expensive (cheapest) options to get a good-sized hedge. Because they are fast-growing, they cost less than Laurel, Portugal Laurel and Griselinia at equivalent sizes (especially at tall sizes), and they will form a tall hedge more quickly than non-conifers while having lower upfront costs.
Foliage changes colour in winter (Thuja hedges only)
The foliage of Thuja turns almost bronze in cold winters which adds interesting colour. Thuja also has a delightful fruity aroma when you brush against it. Finally, the fresh new spring growth of all conifer hedges does look attractive against the darker old growth.
Cons of all Conifer Hedges
Formal & Uniform Appearance
Whilst this can be a pro, as mentioned above, providing a neutral backdrop for more ornamental plants in the foreground to stand out, the neat and uniform nature of a Leylandii hedge (or a Thuja or Yew Hedge) can be seen as too formal by some people. If this is the case, consider planting Laurel, Portugal Laurel or Griselinia or a mix of the three. If you do not need evergreen hedging, consider Mixed Native Hedging plants.
Require Regular Maintenance
Conifer hedges, particularly a Leylandii hedge, require regular maintenance and typically need trimming once or twice a year. However, this is generally the case with most evergreen hedges if you want to keep them dense and prevent them from growing too tall.
Most conifers (with the exception of Thuja and Yew) do not regenerate from old wood. They only produce new growth from the green, leafy foliage. For this reason, a Leylandii hedge should always be trimmed so that around 10 cm (4 inches) of green foliage remains on each side.
If a Leylandii hedge is pruned annually and kept to the same height and width, this is not an issue. Problems arise when the hedge is left untrimmed for several years and then cut back hard, which can result in unsightly brown patches.
We also advise against cutting a Leylandii hedge back severely late in the growing season (after late August), as allowing some fresh growth before winter helps protect the hedge and maintain healthy regrowth.
Conifers are not flowering plants
Conifer hedges do not flower, unlike other evergreen hedging plants such as Laurel, Portugal Laurel and Griselinia. Instead, they produce cones otherwise known as Strobili. However, birds do like to nest in Leylandii and Thuja hedges so they are good for wildlife in this way. They also provide shelter for other mammals such as hedgehogs.
If you value the benefits to wildlife over having an evergreen hedge, consider Mixed Native Hedging Plants which provides a range of flowers to provide nectar at different times of year and berries for winter feed.
Other Types of Conifer Hedge
Yew (Taxus baccata)
Yew is extremely tough and hardy and native to the UK. It will form a dense evergreen hedge. However, it is much slower growing than Leylandii or Thuja plicata so it takes longer to form a hedge, especially a tall hedge.
Yew Hedge Growth Rate: up to 25cm (9 inches) per year
Leylandii Hedge Growth Rate: up to 100cm (3ft 3in) per year
Pros of a Yew (Taxus) hedge
Yew forms a dense hedge and has most of the pros listed above, in that it is very hardy, long-lived, filters out pollution and noise, act as a windbreak and creates a beautiful formal hedge that can be shaped into neat lines or topiary shapes. It has the added benefit of being able to shoots back from old wood so Yew hedges can be cut back hard if it becomes over-grown.
As Yew is slow-growing, there is less foliage to trim off each year. However, it still benefits from being trimmed regularly once a year, like all conifer hedges.
Yew berries provide food for the birds in the winter; however, they are poisonous to humans (see below).
Cons of a Yew (Taxus) hedge
Yew will not tolerate poorly drained, wet or heavy soils and requires a very free-draining soil to thrive.
Yew is slow-growing and, as a result, is much more expensive than Thuja or Leylandii hedging at equivalent sizes (especially larger sizes), so it is less suitable if you need a screen quickly. Nevertheless, this makes Yew far easier to manage for topiary or very small hedges.
All parts of Yew trees are poisonous to both humans and pets if ingested. This can be a risk when there are a lot of yew trimmings on the ground after doing some pruning. Here, the best thing to do is to take safety precautions such as keeping your children and pets away when trimming, and to wear gloves to avoid skin contact and accidentally ingesting Yew leaves.
White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis ‘Brabant’)
Thuja Brabant is very similar to Thuja plicata, and the difference between these two species and cultivars can often be difficult to distinguish. However, Thuja Brabant typically has slightly lighter green foliage in summer, with a paler beige-brown tone in winter.
Thuja plicata is very slightly faster-growing than Thuja Brabant. Other than that, it has all the other benefits of being a dense, easy-to-grow conifer hedge.
Lawson’s Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana)
Lawson’s Cypress was once commonly used for hedging, but it has largely been replaced by Leylandii and Thuja plicata, which grow faster and are much more trouble free. As a result, the species Chamaecyparis lawsoniana is not generally commercially available to buy, however, cultivars (varieties) of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana such as ‘Yvonne’ with its golden foliage, ‘Columnaris’ with its blue foliage can be found. They grow approximately 30cm (1ft) per year so take much longer to form a hedge and need a very free-draining soil.
Care Tips for Conifer Hedges
Conifer hedges are among the easiest hedges to grow. While Leylandii and Thuja are fast growing coniferous trees ideal for privacy, other types like Yew are slower but have more ornamental potential.
Looking after your conifer hedges is very simple and does not require any specialist knowledge.
Leylandii or Leyland Cypress hedge spacing: plant 60–100 cm (2–3 ft) apart. Plant closer together (60 cm) for a quick, dense hedge, or further apart (1 m) if you want it to reach over 5 m (15 ft) tall.
When newly planted, the most critical thing is to regularly water them during spring, summer and autumn for the first year to prevent them drying out. In the second year, they may need watering during long, dry spells. Once established, a conifer hedge is generally drought resistant.
In the long term, conifer hedges mostly look after themselves, as long as they are kept in shape with regular pruning.
Trimming is only required once or twice a year, either in early spring like February or in mid-late summer like July or August (though avoid March to June because you could disturb nesting birds).
Your hedge can suffer damage if trimmed too late in the year because it will not have enough time to put on sufficient regrowth before winter. The best way to avoid this is to make sure you trim at the times mentioned above. For example, do not trim a Leylandii hedge after August. Make sure it is left with approximately 10cm (4in) of green growth as it goes into winter.
Leylandii hedges cannot be cut back hard because they do not regrow from old wood (branches with no green shoots). However, you will only need to do this if the hedge has become overgrown because of neglect, so the obvious way of avoiding this situation is to keep it regularly trimmed from the start. This means it will never reach an unmanageable size that would require any drastic action. The other solution is to grow a Thuja or Yew hedge instead, because they both grow back from old wood, so they are more forgiving.
If you are looking for a Leylandii trees for sale near me or fast growing coniferous trees to create a hedge and live in the South West of England, we are based in near Taunton, in Somerset. You can visit the nursery as we are open 7 days a week. Alternatively, if you live too far away to visit, we ship to most parts of the UK with the option of next day delivery on most days if you order before 11am.
If you are looking to buy Leylandii, the prices and sizes of our Leylandii hedging plants.