Looks like Leyland cypress (Cupressus × leylandii)

As is often the case for this 60 ft. plus tree planting site is much too small. Unless these are intended to be sheared. In which case they should have started doing it by now.

I see. Yea there are like 4 of them lined right next to each other and right behind a garage... and I don't think my boss has any intentions to shear it

Known over 118 ft. high in Britain by 2000 (from a 1915 planting). By the way in any instance where Xanthocyparis is accepted as the generic name for Nootka cypress then the hybrid becomes x Cuprocyparis.

If they are not going to be sheared, then time to think about removal :-) These grow too fast and too large for most garden plantings, although they are very popular for large area privacy screening in my area and can look very good in these very specific situations. The unsheared hedge of these lining my old garden border (neighbor's property) got whacked back periodically (topped and errant side branches clipped) but still put on a good 4' of growth each year. Routinely encroached on the relatively narrow beach access easement.

Plantings like this where kinds are apparently chosen and placed based entirely on how they look at the time of purchase - as one might do with a piece of furniture or sculpture - are common. But unlike such objects trees and shrubs grow larger after being planted. Making destructive pruning and expensive removals also common.

Alright so what happens if these trees don't get removed?

They grow up over the houses and block out light to adjoining properties. We even had to have a special law drafted for them. Leylandii wars.

They'll eat the building and everyone in it.

They'll keep growing until you have to remove them. And the longer one waits, the more expensive removal becomes.

tj

"By the way in any instance where Xanthocyparis is accepted as the generic name for Nootka cypress then the hybrid becomes x Cuprocyparis."

There is no need for an intergeneric hybrid. The fact that two species can hybridise is evidence that their genomes are close enough to belong to the same genus. Even close enough to bear in their turn fertile seeds. The Nootka Cypress belongs to the genus Cupressus.

Personally I prefer Cupressus due to the DNA results. Well, that and it is easier for me to spell than the other two. ⥀.⥀

tj

This was the first conifer I planted around 2011. I had no idea what I was planting, I just wanted the fastest growing evergreen hedge possible. I bought 5 1ft trees and planted then 6ft apart. 5 years later, none of them are over 6 ft, and they have not started to connect either. So, I'm basically averaging 1 -1.5ft per year of growth, about the same as I get from my green giants. It really depends on your location and hours of sunlight that control growth.

In the UK, these trees grow like crazy, but in z6 on the edge of their hardiness range, they are very manageable. Our native white pine grow faster than these. This was the first spring/fall that I began to lightly shape them, but they still need to do a lot more growing before I will have a solid 6ft hedge

Cupressus.

Ok can I also ask what this conifer is too?

That one looks like Arborvitae (Thuja), not sure what cultivar

Heruga, looks like green giant arborvitaes.

I've seen some cemetery Leyland cypresses that were prb'ly planted in the late 70's. They were planted as individuals & weren't diseased. They were actually fairly attractive & unusual-looking trees (considering the ones most often seen are young & closely spaced), but it was apparent they did not have aspirations to become giants like in the UK -- looked like the growth had slowed down quite a bit recently.

I wouldn't recommend them because of the disease problems, but these more-mature, isolated trees were at least interesting, attractive & were not & prb'ly not going to be particularly big.

The hybrid would not be my first guess for the Thuja but at any rate they are already growing out over the lane, will soon have to be cut down or transplanted. Even if they were to now be converted to a sheared hedge they are already beyond the curb and will still have to be allowed to grow at least a little wider every year or they will start to become stubby and patchy from repeated shearing back to the same point.

Thanks, for some reason I always thought that, that was the leyland cypress..

And remember that in these cases - commercial properties - it was almost certainly a "professional" who was hired to "landscape."