Leyland Cypress and Thuja Green Giant are the most popular privacy screen trees because they are the two fastest growing evergreens, are inexpensive compared to other evergreens, and also do not shed as many needles as pines do. The fast growing attribute translates to a less expensive purchase price. You’ll likely pay less for a 12-foot Leyland cypress or Thuja green giant than you would for a Norway spruce since they don’t need to be cared for as long. Both varieties can grow three feet per 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 don’t really like Leyland Cypress either. Everywhere we grow Leylands we also grow Green Giants, deer are very plentiful and never eat any of them. There are forests and fields nearby, it is urban deer with no other food that eat these trees. They usually only damage smaller trees anyway, 6ft 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’s obviously the answer that they’re doing well in your area. One piece of advice is that if you are at the northern end of the growing range of any evergreen tree, it is most important that you plant in the spring because the first winter you should find them partially established or rooted. We recommend if you are in Northern Virginia, not to plant Leyland cypress trees after October 15. Almost every year we send a load or two after that date to Long Island and they have 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 problem, the following spring I like to trim 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 burn is not vegetation that froze and turned brown, it is because the tree was unable to send up enough moisture to support the vegetation during the winter when the ground was frozen, leaving the outer edge of the vegetation brown .

I disagree with the opinion that some have that Thuja Green Giant is much less susceptible to insects and disease. Where I have Leylands and Green Giants growing next to each other, I see that Bagworms are 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 only attacked extremely stressed Leyland cypress trees, for example by planting 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 extreme stress conditions, my opinion is that if Leyland Cypress is planted correctly, with normal post planting care, they are both trees. privacy screens are excellent if you are in zone 6, where both thrive.