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Leylandii is the most planted and most regretted hedge in Britain, and it accounts for a good share of the hedge work we are called out to. It grows fast, it screens well, and it is completely unforgiving of being left.
The whole of this page comes down to one biological fact worth knowing before you spend anything.
Why Conifers Are Different
Leylandii, Lawson cypress and thuja carry no dormant buds in old brown wood. Cut into the brown and it stays brown. There is no recovery, no season it comes back, and no treatment that changes it. Yew is the only common conifer that regenerates from old wood.
This is why a conifer hedge behaves so differently from a beech or a privet one. Every year an annual cut is missed, the green shell moves outward and the limit you can cut back to moves with it. A leylandii hedge cut every year can be held at three metres indefinitely. The same hedge left for six years cannot be brought back to three metres at all — not by us, not by anybody.
What We Can Do With Yours
If it has been cut regularly
Straightforward. Cut to the same line, keep the taper so the base stays dense, tops and faces square. An annual visit and it stays as it is.
If it has been left a few years
Cut back to the innermost green — which is as far as it can go without going brown — then held there with a firm annual cut. That usually gets you a good deal of what you wanted, and we will tell you on site how close to your target it can get.
If it has been left a long time
Then the honest options are living with it at a size you did not choose, accepting a brown face that will not recover, or removal and replacement. We will lay those out plainly rather than take the money for a cut that leaves you worse off.
What Our Conifer Hedge Service Covers
- Annual maintenance cutting to a consistent line
- Height reduction to the limit of the green foliage
- Tops cut level and faces cut square, with a proper taper
- Long screening hedges, quoted by length
- Complete removal where the hedge is past saving
- Honest advice, before the work, on how far back it can go
- All clippings removed — conifer is bulky and there is a lot
The Height Question, and the Neighbours
Leylandii is the species behind most high hedge complaints. Where an evergreen hedge over two metres is blocking a neighbour's light, the council's high hedges procedure exists for exactly that, and it expects to see that reasonable attempts were made to settle it directly first.
Almost all of these are better resolved over a fence than through a council. A neighbour who has let a hedge get away has usually done so because it became expensive and awkward, and an offer to share the cost of a proper cut settles a surprising number of them for less than the complaint fee.
If You Are Replacing It
Worth considering seriously rather than treating as a last resort. A new hedge of an appropriate species — yew, beech, hornbeam, laurel — reaches useful screening height in a few years, and will then be maintainable at the height you actually want rather than the height the previous owner's leylandii chose.
Hedge Maintenance Work Across Hertfordshire
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Leylandii Hedge Cutting in Your Part of Hertfordshire
We cover the whole county. Each town has its own hedge maintenance page covering the ground, the plots and the access that shape the work there.
Leylandii Hedge Cutting — Common Questions
Can leylandii be cut back hard?
Only as far as the green foliage. Cut into brown wood and it stays brown — there is no recovery from it.
How often does a leylandii hedge need cutting?
Once a year, without fail. Missing years is what makes these hedges become unmanageable.
Can you reduce the height of mine?
Down to the lowest point with green on the sides. We will tell you on site how close that gets to what you want.
My neighbour's leylandii blocks my light. What can I do?
You may cut back what overhangs your boundary. You cannot reduce its height — that is what the council's high hedges procedure is for, and it expects you to have tried to settle it directly first.
Is it better to replace it?
Often, where it has been left too long. A suitable species gets to screening height in a few years and stays maintainable.
Get a Quote for Leylandii Hedge Cutting
Tell us what needs doing across Hertfordshire and we will quote for the work. Call 07388 094829, message us on WhatsApp or use the form below.