Conifer Tree

[Tinbasher]

Can someone tell me if a conifer tree will go back to green. i had to cut it back and now there is brown growth in near the trunk

[WendyS]

It may depend on the conifer but not all of them do. Our neighbour has a "feathery larch type" conifer whose branches were overhanging our fence. As they were beginning to be a nuisance last year we trimmed all the overhanging ones back level with the boundary fence and half his tree is now brown and dead.. Don't think that part of it will ever grow green again,

[Thunderbird+]

As stated above, it will depend a lot on the type of conifer you have. many will respond well to clipping but few will do well if cut/lopped back hard. maybe you can get back to us with what species you have. Thanks.

[Tinbasher]

Thanks for your ansers it is a laylandi

[WendyS]

These conifers grow so quickly that they really need to be cut back every year as they grow out of control. (They can grow up to 6 feet a year). Some near us were severely cut back to display brown growth near the trunk. It has taken about 12 months for the bareness to disappear but green shoots have now grown out to cover the bareness. Frankly if I had any of these in my garden I'd get rid of them completely. They will either grow to the point where they annoy your neighbours to death by cutting out all their sunlight and sucking all the nourishment from the soil, or they will send you bankrupt by the annual cost of having tree surgeons in to lop them annually (unless you're prepared to do it for yourself). These conifers have caused so much trouble that legislation has had to be passed to help solve all the neighbourly disputes which have occurred.

[Toureman]

Come on Wendy, someone has obviously upset you, I have a Leylandi hedge, I trim it twice a year both sides and the top and it is a lovely controlled hedge!

[Thunderbird+]

Thanks for getting back Tinbasher, I doubt if the brown growth near the trunk will green up again, 'leylandii' is not renown forspouting fresh growth from old wood, if it had been, say..yew then it may have stood a fighting chance of regrowth after a severe prunning.

To give a bit of background, The leyland cypress is a bi-generic hybrid, a chance cross that rarely occures in the wild but this did occure at Leighton hall in Welshpool, on Mr Leylands estate in 1888, its parents being, Nootka cypress and Monterey cypress, the resulting seedlings became known as Cupressocyparis leylandii and had the properties of both parents of being able to withstand both wet and droght conditions plus 'hybrid vigor, 3 - 4ft of growth a year.

"In a nut shell" its a tree thats widely misunderstood and often planted in an inappropriate place, what you have to remember is that it wants to be a tree of 60ft and is no good to be used to replace a shoulder high privet hedge. It can however serve as a very good tall screen in the right situation and can be clipped to a minimum height of 8ft and its possible to keep it maintained at this hight, as long as you dont let it get out of hand, I would think prunning once a year is enough to keep it maintained at the required hight.