Leyland Cypress and Thuja Green Giant are the most popular privacy screen trees because they are the two fastest growing evergreens, they are inexpensive compared to other evergreens, and they also don’t shed a lot of needles like pines do. The fast-growing attribute translates into a less expensive purchase price. You’ll likely pay less for a 12-foot Leyland cypress or Thuja green giant than for a Norway spruce, since they don’t need to be cared for as long. Both varieties can grow three feet a year if properly fertilized.

One of the advantages of Thuja Green Giant trees is deer resistance. While deer don’t eat Thuja Green Giant, they aren’t very fond of Leyland Cypress either. Wherever we grow Leylands we also grow Green Giants, deer are very abundant and never eat any of them. There are forests and fields nearby, it is the urban deer without other food that eat these trees. They usually only damage smaller trees anyway, 6 feet tall and smaller. Another advantage of Thuja Green Giant over Leyland Cypress is that Green Giants are cold hardy through hardiness zone 5, which includes mainland New York, Maine, northern CT, Mass, etc. Leylands is safe through hardiness zone 6, all of Long Island, southern Mass, CT, etc.

There are many websites available where you can enter your zip code and find your hardiness zone. If you see Leylands growing in your area, that is obviously the answer that they are doing well in your area. One tip is that if you are on the northern edge of any evergreen’s growing range, it is more important to plant in spring because the first winter should find them partially established or rooted. We recommend that if you are located in Northern Virginia, do not plant Leyland cypress trees after October 15th. Almost every year we ship a load or two after that to Long Island and they are a good success, but they don’t get planted until November and you can also expect some wind on Leyland Cypress trees planted in late fall. Usually this isn’t a big deal, the following spring I like to cut back the outer 2″ if that’s what has browned, apply slow release fertilizer around April 1st, and they’ll put out new growth and be fine. Winter scorch is not vegetation that froze and turned brown, it is because the tree was unable to send up enough moisture to sustain the vegetation over the winter when the ground was frozen, leaving the outer edge of the vegetation brown. .

I do not agree with the opinion that some have that Thuja Green Giant is much less susceptible to insects and diseases. Where I have Leylands and Green Giants growing next to each other, I see Bagworms being attracted to both trees. It is true that Leyland cypress can develop a disease called Seiridium Canker, which does not seem to attack Thuja Green Giant, whenever I have heard of Seiridium Canker, it would only attack extremely stressed Leyland cypress trees, for example, planting too close together and not placing them at the recommended height according to the space. Since Bagworms can be attacked by both varieties, and Leyland Cypress diseases attack trees under conditions of extreme stress, my opinion is that if Leyland Cypress is planted correctly, with normal care after planting, both are trees. Excellent privacy screens if they are in zone 6, where they both thrive.