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My First Leyland Cypress Trimming

14 years ago

Hi everybody from Rome, GA!! About 7 years ago we planted a row of Leylands next to our driveway - drive on one side and fence on the other. There's about 10 feet on each side - they are getting pretty close to the fence. Would this be a "good" time to begin trimming what's touching the fence? My wife has some pruning scissors - do I just nip about 6" off the fence several times a year? After the nip do I need to spray the open ends to keep these nasty diseases out? If I don't "nip" my neighbor is going to get a chain saw out while I'm sleepting - so I want to make sure it's done right. I have a beautiful row of 20 going up a 200 foot drive. Thanks..

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Comments (3)

gardener365
14 years ago
I'd shear them pretty good in the spring as the new foliage is just beginning to grow. Maybe?? 2 feet. Just take a very close look at several of those branches now and you can see graduations in bark color. The tip to where you see the next color (darker) is how much they grew this year. You can also see what the previous years growth was as there will be two graduations. That should help... Be sure though you cut more than what's going to touch the fence... It's going to get more and more rampid as time goes on so it'll be a dice roll. I'd probably snip them two feet as I said before.

Dax
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Embothrium
14 years ago
Stay beyond old, bare wood or you may end up with "dead zones". Should have sheared them as they developed instead of letting them go and then trying to beat them back from the gates.
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You are absolutely right, pete - it won't bother the tree at all. Limbing up conifers is a pretty common practice and some species do it themselves :-) I will say that because of the upswept habit of the branching on Leylands, these limbed up do present a rather goofy looking appearance. What is a pretty majestic looking tree with lower branches sweeping the ground and turning up at the ends begins to look a lot like a Christmas tree on an extension pole when limbed up. I would try to keep this at the minimum distance up the trunk necessary for comfortable clearance - no more!
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"what would be a good spacing for the hornbeams (from each other and the fence)?" 6-8' on center. And they can be planted about as close to the fence as you like, although I would space somewhere around 24-36" from the fence. sam makes a very good point. As I stated previously, in the midAtlantic states and into the southeast, Leyland cypress are plagued by a couple of virulent and typically fatal fungal diseases. I really would question the advisability of planting them in those areas.
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nearromega
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the feedback. BBOY - dead zones next to the fence won't be visible to us --- so I would guess that's okay... right? I just don't want to damage these beautiful trees... not concerned about what the "other side of the fence" thinks / sees. Dead zones would mean to me areas that don't grow anymore so cutting into the older wood would mean no more growth in THIS area, right?... I would have sheared earlier but I started reading about some of these monsters growing dozens of feet wide. My wife, the nature expert told me 20 feet wide is the max - that's why we planted them 10 feet from the fence and 10 feet from the drive way.
Thanks again.....
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