I have one Castlewellan too. About a foot and a half tall, and seems to be bent over from shipping. May have to stake it.

When I bought this house I didn't realize it's in a wind tunnel. Every weather change brings gusty winds; pretty much constant wind here. Have had to stake almost everything with lodge poles and chainlock. Leyland above is chainlocked to back fence. Will be able to unchain him sooner than some others because at least the neighbor's house there blocks some wind. But at the rate he's growing he'll soon be taller than their roof, so will have to re-chain. Using that thick big black rubber stuff. Started with the smaller kind but it's stiffer.

My 2 2' Naylor Blue leylands got totally bent over so I staked them back up loosely. For little plants I use plant velcro, nice and soft and pliant. Yours might like that!

"In addition to ... straight species"

It's a hybrid, so there's no such thing as the 'straight species' ;-)

The most commonly planted green clones are 'Haggerston Grey' and 'Leighton Green'.

Resin

Oh! Sorry. Label only said leyland. Think Gloria the nursery gal said something starting with an "H" so Haggerston may be it. Must take a picture of the one at Marylhurst University and post it here. The curliness of the Castlewellan doesn't show much in above pictures but it's really cute, not straight like the other leylands I've seen. Want one more silver dust to match the beauty I got last fall from forest farm. Will take more pictures. Thanks Resin for your help on all these threads.

Leylands tend to fall over from being rootbound, that may be what happened.

The falling over of Leylands in the Pacific Northwest(possibly elsewhere??) has more to do with a slow/poor root system, at least compared to the top growth. Some conifer nurseries will graft onto Cup. x ley. Gold Rider to offset this problem (a better root system and it slows the top down a bit), but it is not a common practice....way to easy from cuttings when you have the right prop. enviroment.

"Leylands tend to fall over from being rootbound"

"more to do with a ... poor root system"

I'd assume those are the same!

Resin

I have a Castlewellan 35 to 40 Ft. tall. I did have two, but it outgrew it's place quicker than I could get around to move it. The stump has been very slow to decay. The one remaining shows no sign of slowing down. It's in a group of Incense Cedars. (Calocedrus decurrans)
Cascadians, from what pictures I've seen of the trees in your yard, you're going to have the forest you want quicker than you realize. Are you leaving it open to the south to take advantage of what little sun we get in the winter? Also satellite communications. Perhaps that's a subject for another thread.

"Leylands tend to fall over from being rootbound"
"more to do with a ... poor root system"

I'd assume those are the same!

In this instance, I would disagree. Some nurseries in the Pacific NW have started root-pruning field grown Leylands to establish a finer & dencer root mass (even custom designed "root pruning" container's do not solve the problem). But even that does not appear to solve the problem for field grown plants...tis "the nature of the beast" for this area.
The bottom does not keep up with the top, even for plants that are lightly fertilized to slow them down...hard to do with Leyland Cypress:-)

Hi Botann of the Incredibly Beautiful Garden,
I sure do hope the forest grows fast and well, roots and all. Trees die and I freak out. So expensive to shop, seek, buy, install, pamper, cut down, replace, etc. Have a douglas fir that croaked -- thought that was impossible in Portland. It got covered with humongous warts and turned brown.

But hope is renewed! Hazel Smith sequoias, the very hardiest and outstandingly majestic, are available in HUGE sizes, extremely healthy and full, from Evans Farm down the street. Excellent prices too. More sequoias in the yard :-) Yes, if things live it will be a forest. It's hard to find Hazel Smiths and Evans Farm's this year are just luxuriantly robust.

The south is where the wind comes from, neighbors to south have no trees so that's open. Also have a path running from south to north where the wind barrells through. Altogether too much burning sun here, desperately need more shade, doing quick forest succession thing, willows growing fast and starting to provide a little shade.

Satellite communications? You lost me. No idea what that means.

Fertilizing a leyland slows it down? Roots don't keep up with top?
Maybe I'll have to prune them a lot. Maybe have to buy a cherry picker type rig, the size of a small riding lawnmower, to work amongst the treetops in a couple years. Whatever it takes ...

Yes, I'm a beginner and I'm crazy, but I love trees and can't get enough, lust for more and more green always.

Finally found some native western white pines, pinus monticola, from a Christmas tree grower, but have to wait until November for him to dig them for me. They used to cover the earth here but have been logged almost to extinction; even native nurseries don't have them. But they're incredibly beautiful.

"Finally found some native western white pines"

Logged, but even more, killed off by introduced White Pine Blister Rust (Cronartium ribicola) - that's still a severe problem in trying to grow the species, which is why not many growers do so.

WWP is commoner on the east slope of the Cascades, where the climatic conditions are less good for the transmission of the disease. Some very nice ones to be seen if you go a short distance over the McKenzie Pass.

Resin

Cascadians, have you noticed staellite dishes all pointing south or southeast? I have Direct TV and was barely able to place the dish on the house so I could receive the signal because of all the trees in the way. I think it is something to consider when planting.

The grower claims his pines are genetically resistant to the blister rust. He has a nice tree farm and some varieties named after him. Thanks for the info! I really appreciate this education, and please keep excusing my ignorance. If I had my life to do over I'd concentrate on becoming a tree expert.

Botann, I've never noticed anything about TV because I never watch it, never have, can't stand the sound and the vacuousness of it. Not worried about not receiving signals, and also in an increasingly residential / commercial neighborhood where everybody including me has cable for hi-speed internet and there's an elementary school across the street. Not out in the wild enough to worry about that although maybe my baby forest will grow up enough to shield me from noise, signals, pollution? But the cable is a physical thing that runs from the street to the house, don't know if trees will disrupt that. Can understand now what you mean if it was out in the country.

Here's a picture I found of Pinus monticola on the web -- look at these trunks! Want these in my yard. Course have to find the Fountain of Youth, a friendly vampire or werewolf to get to that maturity but boy what a great tree!

I'm out in the country. My driveway is 1/2 mile long off a dead-end road. No cable here. My wife likes 'her' soaps. ;-)

Those look like east-side Sierra Nevada trees - saw some very similar ones in the Onion Valley (near Independence, CA). Great age, and orange bark, seems to be characteristic of WWP in this area.

Resin

Yes: You'd have to live in the region where they look like that as well as live long enough.

Thank you Resin for all your expertise.

Today I had 3 Hazel Smith (very hardy and blue) Sequoias delivered to replace 3 dead trees - a Colorado blue spruce, a douglas fir, and a straight sequoia. I hate it when trees die. I put so much effort into these trees. *** sigh ***

There's a leyland near the driveway that has just gone bonkers with growth, and I think I see this root problem y'all have talked about. He's leaning with the strong winds and we chainlocked him to the picnic table but in the last 6 months he's grown so much we have to drive huge hooks into the garage roof eves and chainlock him up there. I'm a little worried he'll pull the roof right off the garage in a big windstorm. He doesn't have enough room for a supportive root system. Yet he keeps growing! He giving shade and green and I can't bear to cut him down. Will have to place a bunch of poles strategically and have him really tied from different angles.

He was here when we bought the house 2 years ago, was just a little thing then ...

The Castlewellan pictured above is leaping skyward so fast we can now see him from the deck. Wow!

Want to say this forum is super and the info is very helpful and accurate.