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?

"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 ?

There is no height low enough for a Leylandii. They are the foulest modern
weed by a long chalk.

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?

One hell of a lot more than you think

Franz

It cost me £150 to completely remove a leylandii hedge, about 40 feet long.
It would have cost the same to cut them shorter. I was more concerned about
the width the hedge took up, so we chopped them down completely. Pros and
cons, because now neighbours overlook us from 5 surrounding houses.




"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?

"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.

YMMV

Dave

In article , Dave Painter
writes

"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.
This either isn't true at all or is rare, I've seen many trees cut back
severely and continued to grow well

They need to be trained from an early age, regularly and frequently.
Agreed, for best results

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.
I took 9' off my neighbours in one go without any ill effects and the
trees continued to grow

Then you will be looking at taking new growth off every three months.
Only during the summer of course

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.

YMMV

Dave



--
David

On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 23:51:51 +0100, David @chapelllllhouse.demon.co.uk
wrote:

Leylandii, do not grow from old wood so lopping the top off will cause the
trees to die back.
This either isn't true at all or is rare, I've seen many trees cut back
severely and continued to grow well

Agreed, Some years ago an 18' leylandii hedge (all round the garden)
was lopped down to 6'6", One died a couple of years later, the
rest were fine


--
®óñ© © ²°°³

On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 23:51:51 +0100, David @chapelllllhouse.demon.co.uk
wrote:

Leylandii, do not grow from old wood so lopping the top off will cause the
trees to die back.
This either isn't true at all or is rare, I've seen many trees cut back
severely and continued to grow well

Agreed, Some years ago an 18' leylandii hedge (all round the garden)
was lopped down to 6'6", One died a couple of years later, the
rest were fine


--
®óñ© © ²°°³

Not true in my case. We got tree surgeons in to do the job. They told us
we could chop off one-third of the height at any one time; then give the
trees a year or so to recover, and then take off another third of the
height. We've done this successfully (touch wood) on our hedge. Now we
trim the hedge back twice per year (spring and autumn).




"Dave Painter" wrote in message
...
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.

YMMV

Dave

In article , David@chapelllllh
ouse.demon.co.uk writes
In article , Dave Painter
writes

Leylandii, do not grow from old wood so lopping the top off will cause the
trees to die back.
This either isn't true at all or is rare, I've seen many trees cut back
severely and continued to grow well

They don't generally grow back from old wood, but they won't die back
further just because you've chopped them. We took about 10ft of the top
of ours last year with no problem.

They need to be trained from an early age, regularly and frequently.
Agreed, for best results

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.
I took 9' off my neighbours in one go without any ill effects and the
trees continued to grow

Then you will be looking at taking new growth off every three months.
Only during the summer of course

And it doesn't need to be that often. Ours has about two foot of green
growth horizontally, so I could cut it back at least a foot with no
problem. Though if I kept it trimmed back, I suppose I might have a lot
less, and would have to trim it more often. But I'd sooner trim a nice
soft leylandii 3 times a year than a hawthorn once a year!


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

In article , Kay Easton
writes
Snipped
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.
I took 9' off my neighbours in one go without any ill effects and the
trees continued to grow

Then you will be looking at taking new growth off every three months.
Only during the summer of course

And it doesn't need to be that often. Ours has about two foot of green
growth horizontally, so I could cut it back at least a foot with no
problem. Though if I kept it trimmed back, I suppose I might have a lot
less, and would have to trim it more often. But I'd sooner trim a nice
soft leylandii 3 times a year than a hawthorn once a year!

Agreed and as I have said before I find the Laurel much more of a task

--
David

If they are not bare trunks then you can be severe with the pruning. Do it to
about 2 feet les than the intended height. The top will grow back to that
height with soft growth that can be pruned.

We had the same problem with several much taler trees. They were cut down to
about 10 foot and all the branches removed. We used the trunks as the 'posts'
for a rose swag. 2 rows of rope. Very successful

Peter Bridge

If they are not bare trunks then you can be severe with the pruning. Do it to
about 2 feet les than the intended height. The top will grow back to that
height with soft growth that can be pruned.

We had the same problem with several much taler trees. They were cut down to
about 10 foot and all the branches removed. We used the trunks as the 'posts'
for a rose swag. 2 rows of rope. Very successful

Peter Bridge

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

David @chapellllhouse.demon.co.uk wrote in message
...
In article , Kay Easton
writes
Snipped
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.
I took 9' off my neighbours in one go without any ill effects and the
trees continued to grow

Then you will be looking at taking new growth off every three months.
Only during the summer of course

And it doesn't need to be that often. Ours has about two foot of green
growth horizontally, so I could cut it back at least a foot with no
problem. Though if I kept it trimmed back, I suppose I might have a lot
less, and would have to trim it more often. But I'd sooner trim a nice
soft leylandii 3 times a year than a hawthorn once a year!

Agreed and as I have said before I find the Laurel much more of a task

--
David

Well i suffer 150 ft of mix of Leylandii and Lawsons one side and a decent
neighbours Laurel hedge the other ........Trimming back the laurel is no
problem but ooooooooooooooh those bloody conifers and all the darned mess
they create

In article , bnd777
writes


Well i suffer 150 ft of mix of Leylandii and Lawsons one side and a decent
neighbours Laurel hedge the other ........Trimming back the laurel is no
problem but ooooooooooooooh those bloody conifers and all the darned mess
they create


Just cut them down Barry
--
David