I'm hoping someone can tell me what this fir tree is. I measured it earlier when I took the pictures and it's 16ft 3 Inches high. It's really too big for the front garden and the lilac tree is right behind it which sadly isn't doing the lilac much good. The pictures are in parts as I had to take them on my mobile phone and the screen isn't big enough to fit the whole tree is clearly. I have no idea what tree it is apart from being a fir tree. It seems very healthy and we did cut the branches back last year but it's grown very bushy again and I'm pretty sure it has shot up heigh wise in the last 1-2 years. Hopefully someone can identify it for me. The pictures are the top, middle and bottom of fir tree.
Thank you again Ron. You're very knowledgeable and I appeciate it. It does look like we're going to remove him as he's blocking too much sunlight and too big for the garden. It's a shame really as he hasn't done anything wrong apart from the obvious. Touch wood the neighbours will not moan about the size of it. Thanks again.
The use of Leylandii (actually Cupressocyparis leylandii) for hedging has led to much neigbourly disputes and controversies, over the tendency of these trees to grow.....well.....like trees. That is - tall, unsightly and "unruly". In fact, there has been so much disputes surrounding this one species alone (at one point, there were an estimated 16,000 such disputes), that the is a provision (part 8) in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, in which local authorities will be able to decide if a hedge is stopping someone's reasonable enjoyment of their home or garden. A neighbour can lodge a complaint if a hedge is evergreen, more than two metres high and blocking out light, access or reasonable enjoyment of his/her property and has taken reasonable efforts to settle the issue with the hedge owner. Now, there are many arguments about whether this law is enforceable or not, but it does come with a penalty of 1000 pounds, and the additional cost of trimming it if the local authority were felt compelled to do the job because you don't. If you have an over sized Leylandii in your yard, and you sense your neighbours' discontent, then you know where things might lead to. The problem is that the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 also probihits local authorities from ordering works that involve reducing the hedge to below 2 metres in height or its removal. Now, "removal" is the crux of the problem - if the local authority were to reduce the height of the hedge so drastically such that the hedge dies anyway, is that tantamount to "removal" of the hedge?
And then you end up with this . . . Cupressus × leylandii 'Anne Boleyn' (left), and Cupressus × leylandii 'Louis XVI' (right)
Thank you both for your help and all the information you have given me weekend gardener. If I remember my mathematics correctly 2 meters is about 6 and a half feet or 7 feet so the tree is too big. Much to big. I do think the neighbours will cause trouble about the tree. Especially the one next door to me as I live next door to a row of shops. Several years ago he complained on a weekly basis to myself and family that the lilac trees were blocking the view to his shop for prespective customers which was ridiculous as they weren't that high; probably only about 5ft and most of that was the blooms. And about 7/8 years prior to this his Father cut one of our fir trees down in our front garden at 6am. We had no idea until the machinery woke us up. So because of the previous history with the family, I think it's best if I aire on the side of caution and cut the tree down to the ground. Does anyone know how I can go about cutting this tree down? I was thinking of doing it in sections; first trimming back the green foilage with seceters and then in individual sections with the saw. This may be a long shot; but do you think I could dig the stump up or should I just cut it to the ground as low as possible? I don't think topping the tree would be a good idea if them pictures are anything to go by. It ruins the tree doesn't it? It's sad really. Thank you again :-)
The RHS web site has a good page on developing and managing Leyland hedges. With these the top is cut. But this is a solitary specimen, so if there is no room for it there it should just be removed. These are fast-growing and therfore comparatively cheap so it would not really make sense to transplant it. And unless it is to be kept as a sheared specimen - for as long as it lives - it would have to be moved to a setting where a tall tree would be in scale.
We're definitely going to remove it. I'm going to try and do it tomorrow first thing in the morning. That should give me most of the day to remove it. Thank you again :-)
It's a real band wagon tree down this way. I find that nurseries sell to meet demand willingly. In our area, they get 45 feet wide in 20 years. One of the more common trees to lean over and break in Oregon, especially the ones for which pruning was neglected.
Like much other container-grown stock many, if not most are rootbound when purchased and planted. Even field-grown stock is liable to have been kept too long in a band, liner or small pot before being "finished" in a field. Fast-growing subjects like Leyland cypress are almost guaranteed to have been left too long in a pot at some point in the production or sales sequence.
The tree was removed today. There's only a small stump left luckily. Since the tree was removed I've noticed how much work the garden needs. The tree must of been covering most of it up. Another job for me over the next few weeks :-) I think the tree was bought as a christmas tree originally. Thank you for all your help. :-)
