Gardeners Tips

If you want a quick wind break or tall hedge then Leylandii may be the tree for you. If you to annoy the neighbors then this is the tree most likely to cause friction.

Key Features of the Leyland Cypress

• Latin name – Leylandii x Cupressocyparis other common names; Leylandii is a cross between Nootka Cypress and Monterey Cypress
• Height – 130 foot
• Type of tree – Evergreen Conifer
• Leaves – sprays of green scale-like leaves
• Flowers – clusters at tips of leaves yellow male & green female
• Fruit – spherical; brown cones
• Bark – reddish grey with ridges
• Family – Cupressaceae

Origins and Distribution of the Leylandii

• Created in Wales by crossing Nootka Cypress and Monterey Cypress .
• Widely spread throughout the UK by plants grown from cuttings .

Uses and Attributes of the Leylandii

• Used in ornamental hedges and garden dividers.
• Useful as a bird sanctuary for nesting and cover.

Gardeners Tips for the Leylandii

• Rapidly out grows its welcome in many gardens.
• The cause of disputes over hedges and light for neighbors.
• Leyland Cypress needs light but is tolerant of high levels of pollution and salt spray.
• Trees do not transplant well. If the plant you are thinking of buying is pot bound leave it alone

Other types of Leyland Cypress and Cupressus species

• Most of the Cupressus genus have a conical or columnar habit
• There are over 30 forms of Leyland Cyprus arising from open pollination and breeding including Green Spire, Haggerston Grey and Naylor’s Blue.(one of the fast-growing, pyramidal, evergreen tree with scaly blue-green leaves held on flattened branchlet sprays. This vigorous conifer can grow over 100 feet tall, though it usually reaches around 80 feet tall and spreads 15 feet in a garden).
• Cupressus macrocarpa are golden leaved and Cupressus funebris is a weeping form

Leyland Cypress comments from elsewhere

• To avoid brown patches, hedge trimming should be carried out during the growing season and hedges should not be cut into older, leafless growth. Leyland cypress can cause skin irritations..
• Leyland cypress only lives for twenty to twenty-five years. I’ve found that trees left to grow large may have limited root support and are the first to blow down during high winds.

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits

leyland cypress cones DSCF7563 by hedgerowmobile CC BY-NC 2.0
Leylandii Sky by steve_w, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The worlds oldest living thing is a tree. Which tree is the question and where is it growing is a supplementary that causes regular discussion. Yewrica is not the answer unfortunately.

Is it the recently discovered Scandinavian Spruce 9000 years old? Or is it the Australian Wollemi or Huon Pine or the Californian Bristlecone Pine. At the moment the general assumption is that it is the pine recently found and dated in Sweden but may be there is an old Yew lurking somewhere.

According to Fred Hageneder in his book Yew a History ‘It was under the great Ankerwyke yew at Runnymede in Buckinghamshire that Magna Carta is believed to have been sworn by the barons in 1215. In 1803 Wordsworth celebrated the great yew in Lorton Vale, ‘single, in the midst of its own darkness’, a tree under which both the great Quaker George Fox and John Wesley preached. In many cultures it is the Tree of Life, and its association with churchyards in Britain and Europe has given it a particular claim on the popular imagination as a living link between our landscapes and those of the distant past.
Fred Hageneder’s fascinating book is the first to cover all aspects of the botany as well as the cultural history and remarkable mythology of the genus Taxus or Yew to you and me.’

How can you compete

Unless you own a forest in a suitably protected climatic environment you can’t compete.The next best thing might be to plant a Yew Tree but rather than the green Yew (‘Common Yew’) seen in church yards I recommend the Golden Yew ‘Taxus baccata Semperaurea’ (AGM). These are very slow growing and long lived like their cousins. .

Golden Irish Yew male trees have the same upright form as green Irish Yew. It was first cultivated in 1880. Unless planted in a particularly moist fertile site it is slow to establish itself. In the south golden Irish Yew benefits from some shade from hot sunshine and drying winds.

Tips for Yew and You

• Use Yew in hedges – they are evergreen.
• Only Female trees set berries and some varieties only come in male form
• The berries are poisonous but are now collected and used in cancer medicines
• They can be used as wind breaks but only grow slowly 4” a year when young
• They like slightly damp shade
• The Dutchy of Cornwall list 14 varieties for sale from the plant shop
• Yew is a good subject for Topiary
• Plants are available from nurseries or look for seedlings near a friends tree
• Be patient with cuttings and even more patient with seeds that need 18months to break dormancy
• Plants like chalky and limestone areas but I have a healthy specimen in slightly acid soil.

yew Mont Gardon by Jos van Wunnik CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 “I feel tired…after thousand years…do I have to start again, receiving starlight for a new period?” I can imagine this old yew feels like this, not getting the attention it needs, leaning on a Gallic tombstone on top of a hill, next to the church of Mont Gardon.

See Yew Root and Branch review

Leaves are the food factories of trees converting light into food via photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by leaves and converted using chlorophyll and water into carbohydrates or tree food. Oxygen is a bi-product of photosynthesis.
Tree trunks and branches of trees are designed to get the canopy of leaves in a position to receive the optimum amount of light.

Common Leaf Shapes

You Can Tell a Tree By it’s Leaf

• Trees are classified by their leaf in that evergreen trees keep their leaves all year around whilst deciduous trees shed their leaves annually usually in autumn.
• Various leaves are described by their shape. The names created often have some reference to the shape Ovate leaves bear a resemblance to egg shaped and Lanceloate to a lance or spear.
• The bottom half of the leaf where it attaches to the tree twig or branch can also have distinguishing features as shown above.
• Leaf colour varies from yellow to coppery red but the majority of leaves are a form of green.

Leaf Texture and Margin

• This infographic looks at the edge of the leaf or ‘margin’.
• Serrations are known as toothed whilst smooth edges are known as ‘entire’.
• Ciliate leaves have hairs, eye lashes or short spines whilst pectinate has spiky edges
• Texture can be another distinguishing features when trying to identify a tree from its leaves. Rough, leathery, fine, smooth, hairy, glossy, spiky etc each tree leaf has its own characteristic.
• The underside of the leaf may have a different colouring

Other Leaf Issues

• The above infographic includes more leaf shapes but shows how leaves are arranged on a stem.
• Bipinnate has sets of pinnate leaves opposite each other.
• Petiole is the leaves mini stem that attaches a leaf to the node or axil.
• Trifoliate has three leaves at the end of a leaf stalk or petiole
• The size and shape of the leaf can be affected by the position and age of the tree and where the leaf is growing.
• Conifers often have needles which are flat or rounded individual or clustered. Alternatively they may have frondy fern like leaves

Notes
Composted and rotted tree leaves do not have much nutritional value. All the food has been given to the tree.
Composted leaves add humus and improve the texture of your soil.
‘Tree Root and Branch Reviews’ in our category section give some description of individual tree leaves

Credits
The Oxford book of Trees – B E Nicholson & A R Clapham
Hilliers Manual of Trees and Shrubs – H G Hillier
Ultimate Guide to Trees – Jenny Linford
Botany of leaves
Special and Extraordinary Leaves