On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 22:22:19 +0100, "Dave Painter"
wrote:


"Joe Soap of the Crumbling Spires" wrote in message
.. .
Just moved into a new house and there are 20 foot leylandii at the
bottom of the garden. Is there any way of cutting them back to a more
reasonable size ? We do need the cover as we will be looked directly
onto if we chop them down. Also any idea what we should pay to a tree
surgeon if we should get them cut back?

Leylandii, do not grow from old wood so lopping the top off will cause the
trees to die back.
They need to be trained from an early age, regularly and frequently.

If they are 20 foot now you should be able to take off about two foot, then
in three or four months
take another foot off.
Then you will be looking at taking new growth off every three months.
Hopefully your trees will 'thicken up' and become more of a hedge/bush
rather than individual trees.

My fathers trees did not, they gradually died back from the base until all
that was left were the trunks
about 12 foot high. These have been pulled out and replaced with a garden
fence.

Our neighbour had hers removed when it hit 80 foot after about fifteen years
growth.

I have lopped off a 20 foot leylandiii to about 8 foot and it survived
happily. However I have also cut another hedge of similar height and
most of them died. There are numerous clones of leylandii, some with
more open growth than others, so it could be that some of these clones
are more tolerant of heavy pruning than others.

Doing nothing is not an economic option as they will get much more
expensive to deal with as they get taller. I planted some as a shelter
belt to protect more delicate plants in an exposed farm garden in
1987. The garden has now matured and we were able to cut them down
last year. Out of curiosity we measured them when they were felled.
The shortest was 45ft and the tallest 50ft. ie a MINIMUM of 3ft per
year and this was on limestone heath that dries out quickly in summer.

David