Leylandii hedging plants
Leylandii plants, or Cupressocyparis Leylandii to use their Latin name, are the go-to fast growing hedging conifer for many UK gardeners. Leylandii will put on 60-90cm new growth per year under good conditions, reaching most desired eventual heights in just a few years. They are popular for their attractive flattened sprays of textured foliage with alternatively arranged branchlets, smart appearance (when kept well clipped) and rich green or golden foliage colour. They’ll create an excellent windbreak and screen, absorb and reduce noise levels from outside your garden, soak up pollution toxins such as vehicle exhaust fumes and prevent nosey neighbours or passers by from looking into your garden, all whilst providing a home and shelter for wildlife and nesting birds. Probably the fastest growing dense evergreen hedge, Leylandii should be clipped to maintain its shape and appearance twice a year.
We recommend spending a little time monitoring/straightening any new hedging plants that may have been caught by strong winds in the first year after planting – given their fast growth rate, leylandii plants that have gone crooked are very heavy and hard to straighten again when they have grown. Recommended planting distance is a trade off between how keen you are to have an instant screen and how much you’d like to spend. Plants closer together will coalesce to form a hedge quicker but of course you’ll be incurring the cost of more plants per running metre this way. A planting distance of 50cm, i.e. 2 plants per running metre, is normally a good compromise. Most of our hedging plants are grown in pots and can be planted at any time of the year, providing the ground is not frozen or waterlogged and it’s not excessively windy. Check out our guide to hedging plants for more information and advice.