When it comes to finding the world’s fastest growing and most effective screen for giving you complete privacy, protection from noise, dust and creating the perfect windbreak, it easily comes down to our Leighton Green Cypress.
It has such a beautiful dense, leafy green foliage compared to any broadleaf Pittosporum, Lilly Pilly, Ornamental Pear or Photinia. It is capable of growing up to 3 meters in the first 18 months when planted from a small sized plant. In fact it grows faster than any other conifer or cypress.
The Leighton Cypress loves being trimmed and shaped into the perfect hedge as low as 1.5 meters and as narrow as half a meter, and doesn’t go bald from continuous or hard trimming. It can withstand such hard pruning without going bald because it has hidden buds in the bark, so no matter how hard you prune it back new shoots will appear. It grows in a rich, green foliage with a hint of blue and provides a backdrop that can accentuate many other green hedges such as the modern Box, complimenting a huge range of foliage and flowers of any colour, shape or size.
Leighton Cypress can be cut into a tall screen up to 7 or 8 meters high. It has a straight, tall and central trunk that makes it ideal for areas where a screen that’s tall and narrow are most needed. We’ve seen loads of fantastic examples of this brilliant hedge at it’s best, one place being at Melbourne’s Kooyong tennis courts, showing a fantastic 6 – 7 meter tall Leighton Cypress that’s less than a meter wide.
The reason these trees are so hardy and fast is that they are an inter-species hybrid between a Monterey cypress and an Alaskan cedar. An inter-species hybrid is a crossbreed similar to a mule, which is a horse and donkey crossed. The mule is much stronger both the horse and the donkey.
Planting a Leighton Green Conifer Hedge or Screen
-Choose a spot that is not water logged or flooded for long periods of time.
-You must have at least 4-5 hours of sun through to full sun.
-Plant trees 1 metre apart for hedge & 2 metres apart for a windbreak.
-Plant 0.5 to 1.0 metre in from fence.
-Keep free of weeds around base. Consider mulching.
-Fertilize every few months for fast growing and rich green foliage. Slow realise fertiliser is great.
-Water in with liquid soil wetter.
-Once established don’t water all the time. An occasional deep soak is best for promoting fast growth.
