Tips on young leylandii turning rusty

QuestionsHow to growTrees and ShrubsPlantingTips on young leylandii turning rusty
sumac asked 16 years ago

Hi again Gerry.
It’s hard to get good advice on leylandii, as most people just say that they’re an awful tree, & to get rid of them. However I don’t submit to the bad press they get, & planted very young trees, along my external border, with the intention of not letting them grow any higher than 3 meters.

They were bare root when planted in November last. I am slightly concerned that the tips of the branches on quite a few of them are starting to turn an orangey brown colour.
I took a photo of the problem & uploaded it to here: https://xs226.xs.to/xs226/08150/leylandii955.jpg
to show what I mean. Feel free to use the pic for your database if you like.
I hope it’s not too serious a problem, & that it can be overcome, as a lot of hard work has gone into planting these trees. Thanks again.

1 Answers

Gerry Daly Staff answered 6 years ago
Leyland cypress is a perfectly good plant, used in the right place, which it very rarely is. It can make a find screen to 3 metres but there is a lot of clipping in that. At about 15 to 20 years, it will begin to go bare at the base. Also if it gets too big, it cannot be cut back beyond the green growth because it will not re-sprout.

Leyland cypress would normally be started from pot-grown plants and bare-rooted ones would be slighlty risky. Some have turned brown and are probably dead or dying. Some may recover  but others will have to be replaced.

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