darn....that goes to show how much I know about trees and gardening... the cost wasnt too bad, i think, each tree was $45,but yes, I did bust my *** planting the darn trees. The whole idea was to create a barrier of sort for the pool. I watered them every day, with a hose, for the first 4 or 5 days, for about a minute or so each, however we had a few thunderstorms and rain in the days I did not water them, so, we can say they got water pretty much every day since I planted them. the last round of weather, this past weekend, i think dropped something like an inch or so of water. At this point, they are in the ground and I hope thay can make it, unfortunately I had not idea what I was getting into to begin with. I see however a bunch of this trees aroudn the area, used either in homes landscaping, but mostly along the roads, and they seem very healthy. any suggestion from this point on? Should i be worried about them bending to much at the top or is it normal?

At 20 ft. I'd probably cut it back and then follow below: For a smaller tree, restake, and water a couple of times. Then quit watering that tree. This could kill tree, but if it doesn't, you are forcing tree to grow its roots out to reach moisture. At the same time with no extra water, top growth will be slowed. I did this with an elm, and it worked. Every 3 months loosen up the wires slightly if it looks good so far to allow it to move a little more in the wind. Goal is to be totally loose in about a year. You may want to cut back or quit watering these trees altogether. My wife has these planted too close together and they seem to be either growing or dieing. There seems to be no middle position with them. If you cut them back, they will multi-leader. Might want to start replacing them with something else.

I have three Leyland Cypress about 8 ft . high They are approx. 5 years old. I noticed severe needle blight on all three as described on a website containing disease discussion.Needles browning from the bottom up and outward. Also , a powder substance ( spore ) is prevalent I have sprayed with a copper containing fungicide purchased from a local nursery. Should I be doing something else ? Additional treatments ?? Another fungicide ? I don't want to lose these trees .Any help would be appreciated . Thank you

The two primary issues are Seridium canker and Botryosphaeria canker but various root rots can be common as well. These seem to most prevalent where these trees are grown in the Southeast but as they are typically determined to be stress-related pathogens - like root girdling (a very common issue with container grown trees) - they could occur anywhere. They do show up here from time to time but I have not seen them to the degree they appear to be present in the South. I quite like Leylands - when well grown and in the right location, they are an impressive, even majestic sight. But few suburban landscapes can accommodate such a large and fast growing tree, let alone an entire privacy screen of multiple plantings. I even like them trained and sheared into tight hedges but these take immense dedication from the gardener as the maintenance to keep them like this is nearly constant. And there are just so many other screening and/or hedging choices available that it seems taking on huge maintenance issues with some amazingly fast and large growing trees is just not a reasonable thing to do if you only need 6-8' or even 10' of screening coverage!!