With spring’s approach, gardeners are ready to wield their spades. One of the most common requests is “something for privacy.” Gardeners are not unfriendly people — we just don’t want to see quite so much of our neighbors and vice versa. Dense and fast-growing, Leyland Cypress and White Pine are two trees commonly chosen for a privacy screen.
Before you purchase or plant, please take a hard look at the intended location. White Pine, Pinus strobus, grows two or more feet each year, with a mature height up to 150 feet and a 20-40 foot spread. Leyland Cypress, Cupressocyparis leylandii, is a hybrid between Monterey Cypress and Alaska Cedar. It grows three to four feet per year, with a mature height of 70-100 feet and a 20-foot width.
Sadly, the popularity of these two screening trees leads people to plant them where they do not belong: under utility lines, too close to neighbors’ yards, or too close together. In a few short years, utility companies do what they must do to keep pumping the juice to our homes. It is not the fault of the utility workers. If they don’t prevent limbs from falling into their lines, they are eviscerated when homeowners lose power, telephone, or internet during snow or ice storms. Necessary trimming sometimes results in ugly, deformed trees. The people screaming the loudest during outages are sometimes those who would not allow tree trimming on their property.
Leyland Cypress should be planted 20-25 feet apart. Trees which mesh together will shade each other, resulting in dead brown needles and dropped lower limbs. A too-close planting invites dieback, blights, cankers, and damage from bagworms. A heavy bagworm infestation can kill a full-grown tree.
Whether it is the two trees described above or any other trees, please take note of their ultimate size. Do not plant under utility lines, too close to service boxes (electrical, internet, telephone), or so close to the neighbor’s property that your trees will encroach onto their side within a few short years. Otherwise, you may be forced to see some of the sad, sad sights shown in these photographs.
Planted underneath utility lines, a portion of these Leyland Cypress trees was pruned away, leaving half the tree intact. Unbalanced and weird.
Half the tree limbs on either side of this street were removed so that they would not fall onto the street.
Pruned pines and a split hardwood make way for electrical lines (suburban area).
Anxious for a quick privacy screen from the street, this homeowner planted many Leyland Cypress trees, spaced four feet apart. Three-fourths of them should be removed. I’m giving them the benefit of doubt, and assuming they plan to remove some of them once the trees’ growth spurt begins.
This old Oak was likely a small tree when these lines were strung. With time, limbs were removed for the integrity of the lines. Necessary but sad.