Landscaping

Reply to: I get a little tired of the seeing perennial posts here condemning Leyland Cypresses. I liken it to an apartment owner who buys a Great Dane, and upon discovering that they made a poor choice, goes on a crusade against Great Danes, making blanket condemnations of them. For the right person, a Great Dane would be a great choice of a dog. I planted my 46 Cypress 11 years ago. I keep them trimmed to 12-15 feet high and about 6 feet wide. They suit my needs perfectly and I have absolutely no regrets about planting them. Yes, once a year they take a lot of work to trim them, but I knew that before I planted them. Last week a windstorm came through my area, bringing gusts of over 50 MPH. Driving around the next few days revealed widespread damage: broken limbs and toppled trees. All 46 of my Leyland Cypresses came through unscathed, although I was a bit worried at the height of the storm. The only pest problem I've had has been a Spittlebug infestation that was easily eliminated with Sevin. I keep them trimmed as described in bboy's link. They are still full and dense down to near ground level. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2275/2338017996_13376f82c4_o.jpg I use the Cypresses to wall off my backyard from my neighbors. They've exceeded my expectations. I made a great choice. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2147/2152301578_7444d187d6_o.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2251/2151510919_8d6e6b3865_o.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2400/2152301098_0f9be312ea_o.jpg Joe Here is a link that might be useful:

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Reply to: Yeah, if they were planted properly, and far enough from the property line to allow access all around, you could maintain them as a sheared hedge. I guess you'd also need to top them regularly. But how much time or money would this cost each year?

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Reply to: Yes^. And at the end of the day, those two you ask about are simply not the only options. I like straight-species Thuja occidentalis (also native where you are) myself, although if I were working in a slightly milder climate-like yours, for instance-I might well elect to go with the GG's Nice plants, just not winter-hardy enough for up here. +oM

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Reply to: Two different plants. 'Nigra' is a cultivar of Thuja occidentalis, or northern white cedar. 'Green Giant' is an interspecific hybrid of Thuja plicata, or western red cedar, and Thuja standishii, aka Japanese arborviatae. All such plants are commonly called arborviataes, an old Latin epithet meaning tree of life. Drinking tea made from the foliage of such plants saved early explorers from the disease scurvy, being high in vitamin C. Oh, should mention, none of these are true "cedars", that being yet another conifer grouping. Read up on the characteristics-much info available online. And while what follows is opinion, it is the opinion of a lifetime lover of all things Thuja: I really hate 'nigra'. Multistemmed, the foliage doesn't hang right on the plant, there's just nothing I like about it. But please, I'm obsessive about this stuff! I would like GG if it was winter-hardy in the area whee I do my work, but it has proven not to be. I also much, much prefer the look of wild plants. Just straight species T. occidentalis is already a dense and rather slow-growing plant. What they've done with their selections, ie landscape cultivars, is taken that characteristic to an extreme. There are places for such, but like I said, I'm into something else. Finally, where are you? That will have at least some bearing on what you end up using. +oM

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Reply to: As your photo shows material sold as 'Nigra' these days produces a small foliage spray, develops an open habit on many sites. And does not have the vigor of the coarsely foliaged (large leaved), soon tall 'Green Giant'. The contemporary 'Nigra' also often has a distinctive bluish cast, as though early description(s) of the cultivar as a darker green than usual were instead based in a general impression produced by this feature. And not the variety actually being a deeper green. Or maybe instead the bluish kind seen now has nothing to do with the original, dark green introduction of a long time ago. At any rate neither of these other plants on the market today is much like the dense, narrow, rich green 'Smaragd' (emerald or emerald green in Danish). Doubtless the narrowness, density and pleasing coloring of this latter is why it has become so prevalent. With many consumers planting rows of it instead of paying for fencing.

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Reply to: My neighbor has a GG hedge, full sun, about 6ft apart. The hedge is around 15 years old and 20ft tall. No question, being planted in a row definitely slows their growth rate once they start touching, but either way, he has started rounding/trimming the tops for the last 5 years to keep it from becoming the green monster wall... It's starting to become pretty imposing. A solo specimen would probably be 30ft+ after 15 and twice as wide as his are. As pointed out, there are examples of 60ft+ Green Giants as the US Arboretum, even some hedges nearing that height, though I don't know the planting distance. GG's do extremely well in the east, other than potentially shorter sunlight hours/intensity, there is nothing on this coast that will slow them down. They are great.

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Reply to: yup.. unicorns ... riddle me this batman ... how do you plan on hovering at 20 feet.. to keep a GIANT tree from growing any higher ... will the cost of a cherry picker be part of the plan ... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cherry+picker&t=ffcm&iax=1&ia=images as to width ... well.. anything is possible .. but you are signing up for a LIFETIME of pruning ... and what i have found as i get older ... is that all the bright ideas i had when i was 40ish ... dont seem to have had much foresight ... now that i am on the dark side of 55 ... in other words ... who the heck is going to prune them now??? the GGs i planted were 6 inches tall in 2000 .. they are easily 20 feet tall now.. and 10 feet wide ... i seem to recall.. i planted them on 6 foot centers ... planting them 3 to 4 feet apart.. seems rather close ... but then.. you plan on shearing them ... my gut tells me.. you are thinking about the wrong plant.. for your site ... btw .. always include location .. with ground freeze in my z5 MI ... they dont grow for 5 months of the year ... crikey if they grow year around in your area ... you might be shearing them 2 or 3 times per year ... lifes too short to be fondling your conifers that many times per year .... imo ... ken

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Reply to: We are major yardies, and have had many of the plants suggested to you in this thread. At our last house, we planted Emerald Green Arborvitae as a "living fence" and it was gorgeous. I had a smaller cultivar of viburnum planted as a specimen- think it may have been "Anne Russell" grafted onto a standard. So fragrant! But, Limelight Hydrangea is far and away my favorite. You cannot beat those amazing limey-white blooms! A smaller cultivar similar to Limelight is "Little Lamb." Probably not big enough for your privacy needs, but might work as an underplanting if you layer it in front of Arborvitae for the privacy. One advantage to that idea is the Arborvitae are evergreen, so you won't lose your "fence" in the winter. A final hydrangea suggestion is "Annabelle." Still a prolific bloomer, but smaller than Limelight, with pure white blooms that age to green before browning. I would personally steer clear of a Leyland Cypress hedge, as they are susceptible to disease. You may lose one or two, and then your hedge will always be spotty, or you'll have to replace with plants that will never be the same size. Not to mention, they are quite wide. If you don't have room for a Limelight hedge, you certainly don't have room for Leylands. A great alternative is Thuja Green Giant, which is a hybrid cross between Emerald Green Arborvitae and Leyland Cypress. Thuja has the form of the Arborvitae, with the looser foliage of the Leyland, and they are faster growing like the Leylands as well. Personally, I prefer the beautiful, dense foliage of the Arborvitae, but they are both lovely plants. For any of these choices, you need to be sure to spray twice a year for bagworms. That's the only maintenance needed. We found our Arborvitae took about 3 years to fill in/achieve height very nicely with attentive watering, and were a dense barrier in 5. We started with 5-6 ft trees. Parting thought: you could not pay me to put another privet in my yard. Ugly and high maintenance. Never again!

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Reply to: 1. in our area? not really 2. I'm a big fan of mixed property line screens, but they have to be well thought out or they look like Home Depot had a year-end sale and someone had a gift card 3. I'm sure someone will disagree with me (this is the internet) but I think trimmed/sheared arbs look like dog crap. There are plants that take a lot of shaping well, and then there are arbs and junipers 4. Nigra's fine, I guess. We planted a privacy screen for a client and ended up with a 50% loss, but I'm attributing that to not listening to their designer that they were drowning them all summer. So don't drown them. Other than that they're a perfectly fine, boring pointy evergreen that gets the job done. Big question though - what's the deer situation like? If you're in Loudoun you can cross Emeralds right off that list, right this second.

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Reply to: I disagree entirely!! Arborvitae are often planted quite close for privacy screening and due to their typically very narrow profile, they work well with this sort of application. The standard spacing for Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd' (aka Emerald Green), the most widely planted arborvitae in North America, is 3 feet on center!! You cannot successfully move them at this stage........nor do I think it is at all necessary. They can take some mild shearing to restrain side growth, should that be necessary (and I don't see that it is). And you can even out the heights but you will want to do it gradually over time. I would start by removing some of the top growth on the tallest but no more than 8-10 inches to begin with. Repeat as necessary seasonally until they are similar in height.

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Reply to: Hi florahua - thank you for your question. These Arbs were approximately 11' to 12' tall at time of planting. We took this picture about 1.5 years after planting so they are almost 13' in this photo.

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Reply to: Thanks for the question. That is a line of Thuja occidentalis 'Nigra'.

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Reply to: Thank you for the info GLENNA PARTRIDGE GARDEN DESIGN ~ not sure how I lost track of this for so long! I will have to do some research and see if the Smaragd/Emerald Cedar will grow in our region. Thanks so much. TJF

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Reply to: These are Thuja occidentalis fastigiata zone 3. I have the same at my place.

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