Two years ago, when we moved into our new place in Eastern North Carolina, we found one area of our yard that wasn’t hiding the neighbors quite well enough. Friends of ours are landscapers, so I asked them to come take a look and give us their honest opinion. The two most popular for our zone were the Arborvitae and Leyland Cyprus, so we had to choose between the two.
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I’m sure you’ve seen the Thuja Green Giant (Arborvitae) or Emerald Green (Arborvitae) in the nursery magazines you receive in the mail, as well as the Leyland Cypress. They’re all listed as “fast growing” trees and they’re fantastic as mature privacy hedges. They’re both relatively disease and drought tolerant and grow well in a variety of soils.
There were several mature Leyland Cypresses already, and they’re wider than the mature arborvitae, but I didn’t love the way they grow if they have neighboring trees encroaching. There were Leyland Cypresses EVERYWHERE in our neighborhood (sometimes, you can just look around and figure the neighbors might know what they’re doing, or at least the local landscapers). The Arborvitaes seemed to be more of what I had in mind. Tall, slender, fast growing, and I liked the lighter green. But, the Cypresses seemed to be the PROVEN winner in the neighborhood.
So, which do you choose?
We chose the Arborvitae, and I’m about to show you why you should, too.
I have one word for you: HURRICANES.
Not long ago, a strong Category One hurricane came through our area and wreaked havoc on everything including the trees. We went from being able to see one neighbor vaguely in the winter, to being able to see at least five. EVERY LELAND CYPRESS HEDGE in the neighborhood was destroyed by the hurricane. We took down the hedge between us and the neighbors (the trees were essentially laying on our driveway). This is what the trees look like that we haven’t taken down yet in the backyard:
Now, you might argue that the Leyland Cypresses were bigger and creating more drag (they are ABSOLUTELY wider and create more drag) but, neighbors with a mature Arborvitae hedge have the only hedge that survived the storm. I don’t know the mechanics, I just know that our young trees made it and so did the neighbors mature trees that were Arborvitaes.
I know that I haven’t yet seen an undamaged Leyland Cypress in our entire area.
Basically, if you live in a hurricane prone area, our experience has been that the Arborvitaes are more likely to survive than the Leyland Cypresses. We purchased some of them from the local landscaper and some from Brighter Blooms. The ones ordered in the mail always surprise me, because I’m initially disappointed, and then once they are planted they catch right back up.
Happy planting and thanks for joining us! Check out more of our adventures on our Blog!
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