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Leyland Cypress, Thuja Green Giant - when to plant

Leyland Cypress or Thuja Green Giant are best planted before Oct 15, if you are located in VA or north of there. We are primarily talking about Ball and Burlap trees (which is our best seller) since they need to recover from having their roots cut when dug. It is not as risky to plant container grown Leyland Cypress or Thuja Green Giants, of course because their root system has not been wounded in any way. We just planted 147 six foot Leylands in Richmond, VA on Jan 9 and 10 this year. I shipped Leyland Cypress to Long Island and Thuja Green Giant to Westport, CT last fall slightly after the Oct 15th date and all did fine.
When you plant Leyland Cypress or Thuja Green Giant in late fall, use Triple Phos fertilizer, usually 0-45-0 or 0-46-0 to encourage root growth only until spring. You don't want high nitrogen in late winter. If you are fertilizing other than late fall, a good schedule is last week of March and first week of September, either 14-14-14 slow release in 40 lb bags from LESCO or Nursery Special slow release in 50 lb bags. Use 1 lb per inch of truck diameter. There is a good LESCO off David White's rd in Southampton, Long Island, NY. For 12' trees, a 40 lb bag does about 10 or 12 trees, sprinkled around the drip line. If you are planting B&B trees, don't apply slow release down in the hole like I did for many years. It is meant to be top dressing, will dissolve too fast if in contact with that much more water than on top. Good slow release can feed for 4 months if applied correctly. For Leyland Cypress or Thuja Green Giants, I don't recommend Holly Tone even though it is recommended for evergreens.
The very Best time to plant Leyland Cypress or Thuja Green Giant B&B trees is early spring, around April 1. This gives them maximum time to recover before their first test, being the hot summer. However, the biggest test is the first winter. I say that because if you live far enough north to have frozen hoses, all watering usually stops with the first freeze. The cold isn't the test, the lack of water is the test. It is called winter burn. Winter winds dry out the greenery on Leyland Cypress or Thuja Green Giant, so the outer few inches turn brown. Around April 1, it is recommended that you take hedge trimmers and trim off all the brown. Trees should put out new growth and be fine by the end of May. We dig and ship Leyland Cypress and Thuja Green Giant all summer with no problem, so far in 2010 we have shipped a load each week. We try and catch a cooler day around 90 degrees(instead of 100) load the trees wet, and our driver drives mostly at night so the trees arrive cool and happy.
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About the Author

David Watterson has been growing and planting Leyland Cypress, Thuja Green Giant and other trees with his 4 sons since 1995. See our website for info