Dense, deep-green foliage that holds its colour all year and blocks a view completely: Leyland cypress (Cuprocyparis leylandii) is the fast-growing hybrid conifer planted for screening hedges and windbreaks, and it can reach 65 feet unpruned. It asks for water in summer, so where summers run hot it repays regular watering.
| Name | Cuprocyparis leylandii |
|---|---|
| Family | Cupressaceae |
| Type | conifer, evergreen hedge |
| Height | up to 65 feet (20 meters) |
| Exposure | full sun to shade |
| Soil | ordinary, well drained |
| Foliage | evergreen |
With its extremely rapid growth, it will quickly hide you from peeking neighbors, and from strong winds, too, if you need.
Leyland cypress is usually planted as part of a hedge, and is usually set up from the beginning of fall, but it can also be planted until the month of early spring to mid-spring as long as it doesn’t freeze.
After planting, you can also mulch the foot of the tree in order to avoid having weeds crowd it out from below but also to protect the roots from the cold.
If you cypress is never pruned, it can grow to reach nearly 65 feet (20 meters) and its bearing will be a distinctive cone.
For hedges, select the pruning height you are comfortable with as well as the thickness.
A heavy pruning late summer is enough to keep this growth under control.
That is also the season where sap descends and so it will slow the cypress’s growth a bit.
Spring pruning is usually with rising sap and tends to accelerate the tree’s growth, so this is ideal if you aim to hide yourself from prying neighbor’s view.
Usually, leyland cypress can make do with very poor soil. However, to make sure it grows very lush, or to rejuvenate an old hedge, it’s a good idea to apply fertilizer.
Ideally, apply the following three times within the year, at the beginning and end of Spring and then once more in Fall. Of course, when planting the hedge, feel free to add these fertilizers to the soil as you backfill.
Sometimes, though, the issue isn’t a lack of nutrients: it’s a wrong pH level. If the soil is too acidic (very low pH, as in 5 or lower) or too basic (8 and higher), the cypress has trouble extracting the nutrients. For this cypress, the pH level should hover around 6.
A Leyland cypress hedge asks for very little, but each job has its season. Here is how planting, pruning and feeding fall across the year.
| Task | When | Key detail |
|---|---|---|
| Planting | From the beginning of fall, or until early spring to mid-spring | Only while the ground is not frozen |
| Spacing at planting | At planting time | 32 inches (80 cm) to 3 feet (1 m) for a 6-foot hedge |
| Pruning | End of summer or beginning of spring | late summer slows growth; spring pruning speeds it up |
| Feeding | Beginning and end of spring, then again in fall | Bone meal, nettle tea, coffee grounds or seaweed |
| Mulching | After planting | Keeps weeds down and protects roots from cold |
Feeding and summer watering together will add several years to the life of the hedge.
Beyond the plain green hedging plant, Leyland cypress comes in a handful of widely sold clones that differ mainly in foliage colour and vigour. Use the table below to match a variety to the screen you have in mind.
| Variety | Foliage colour | Vigour | Best exposure | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘Robinson’s Gold’ | Bronze-gold, yellow in summer | Vigorous | Full sun | Specimen tree, wide hedge |
| ‘Naylor’s Blue’ | Blue-grey | Vigorous | Sun to part shade | Softer-toned screen |
| ‘Silver Dust’ | Dark green splashed cream | Less vigorous | Full sun to part shade | Accent plant, low hedge |
| ‘Leighton Green’ | Rich dark green | Very vigorous | Sun to part shade | Dense formal hedge |
| ‘Castlewellan Gold’ | Golden yellow tips | Vigorous | Full sun for best colour | Bright hedge, colour contrast |
| ‘Gold Rider’ | Bright golden yellow | Moderately vigorous | Full sun | Clipped golden hedge, specimen |
| ‘Haggerston Grey’ | Grey-green | Very vigorous | Sun to shade | Tall screens and windbreaks |
| ‘Golconda’ | Gold-variegated | Moderately vigorous | Full sun | Small garden screen, container |
Learn more about Leyland cypress
Cypress are excellent wind-breakers ready to resist gales of any power.
They are also very resilient in the face of disease and pollution.
From an aesthetic point of view, it doesn’t have any other advantage than the deep green that lasts all year round and a high opaqueness.
Also, know that if the climate is hot in summer, Leyland cypress might not be your best candidate because it requires water in summer.
Almost all the Leyland cypress varieties found today arose from cross-pollination of two different conifers. These are the Monterey cypress and the Nootka cypress. They were planted on the Leyland estates and, in 1888, a first hybrid appeared.
Although a few specimens are over 50 years old, in hedges the trees don’t grow as old. Where soil is loose and the hedge has proper spacing, you might expect a hedge to survive up to 20 or even 30 years. However, alongside construction or roads, it might be that the hedge needs replacing even after only 10 or 15 years have gone by.
Read also:
In a hedge, think well about how high you want it to grow so that you can determine the planting distance of your Leyland cypresses accordingly! Keep a spacing of about 32 inches (80 cm) to 3 feet (1 meter) for the usual 6-foot (1.80 m) hedge.
