I have 3 irish Eyes leylands out in the yard right now and I can't decide whether to plant them. I haven't been able to find much info on them online, maybe they're a new variety. But I am desperate for screening on a smallish (.20-acre) lot because the lot behind mine was clear-cut and now has a hulking 4000-sq-ft beige McMansion on it. :-/ I thought I could get away without having an evergreen wall, but considering I need screening and also that all my other plants look sort of adrift without a background hedge, it's looking more and more like I will be putting my Irish Eyes in and hoping they don't take off like crazy!

I've planted 2 young Emerald Isle Leylands, 1 in ground 2 years, 1 1 year. They are both doing well. Both are in partial shade and will have to adapt to shade for their entire lives.

Both have really shot up this fall. Their color is bright happy green.

Have many other types of leylands, straights, naylors blues, lots of castlewellans, a spectacular Silver Dust.

Bought the Emerald Isles for the bright cheerful green color and smaller eventual maturity.

So far so good :-) Leylands take well to judicious pruning so they can be shaped and trained in the landscape. Eventually they can get very large.

Mine (babies) have enjoyed summer sprinkler watering at night and slow-release mild fertilizer. The neighbor has some older ones (5 years) that already do not want as much water.

A lot of ppl dislike leylands but I love them. Mine are fast and healthy. I've pruned an older one and it has healed well.

'Moncal' originated in Britain and probably has an earlier name still in use there. If you see what appears to be the same plant described by British sources you can probably then find out about performance of older plantings there. There is a tall sheared hedge of what looks like 'Moncal' near me, it may be somewhat less vigorous than usual but is clearly still likely to produce a tall tree under suitable conditions. In an ordinary setting there is not much difference between a 100' tree and a 60' one, both are likely to be out-of-scale.

Nurseries have a habit of making out cultivars with no visible dwarf characteristics to have mature sizes considerably smaller than usual for the species.