Are you planning to irrigate? On a dry site leyland cypress will get leggy and not make a dense screen, and won't grow very fast anyways. They are also subject to some sort of fungal disease. There are plenty of terrible looking ones here in Sequim, but then there are nice ones in places that are in good soil and get water. In general I think it is way overplanted as most people don't realize how big they can get.

I would not plant bare-root now. You will have big losses. Plant only containerized stock. Get them planted ASAP, so they can grow some roots before the hot dry weather gets here.

They will need water all summer for the first one or two summers. Don't let the roots get dry. I recommend clearing weeds/grass in a several-foot circle around each one, to avoid competition for water. I use Roundup for this. Cover the cleared area with a couple of inches of bark, to keep the soil cool and moist. If you plant now, you will gain a year of growth, which is worthwhile. The growth in the first summer will mostly be root development. The second year, you will see some above-ground growth. The third year is when serious growth should begin.

I've planted dozens of trees using this method, all through the spring and summer.

Thanks for the advice. I have a call in to our local nursery to see if he has nice trees available. We will have to irrigate if we plant this springtime, but it would be nice to get the extra growth started.

I'd consider Thuja 'Green Giant' instead. Related to our native western red cedar, these are extremely tolerant to PNW weather and will produce far less "mass" than Leyland cypress :-) They have a similar fast growth rate (expected size is 30' in 30 years) and a relatively narrow spread and make an excellent screen. And they are not plagued by any major disease or insect issues.

The blight Ian is seeing may be Cypress tip moth. Leyland cypress forms a pyramidal shape with nearly horizontal branches here, except in parts were cypresses and arborvitaes produce narrow, fine-textured crowns - looking for many years almost as though sheared.

If you're going to plant 'Green Giant' you might as well plant cheaper, more attractive native western redcedar seedlings instead.

Fall is always the best time to plant hardy stock. Be sure to mulch after planting. You will probably have to install irrigation to get the planting started, keep it growing as rapidly as you would like afterward. Low volume sprays heads running from line(s) laid along the row may be all that you need. Your water pressure will have to be taken into consideration when planning the system.

Most root elongation occurs in fall, after tips of top growth have matured. New roots appear in spring, when the top starts growing again. Not so much root growth occurs in summer, winter is pretty much a hybernation period. That's why tops of spring-planted bare-rooted or balled-in-burlap stock may be dwarfed the first summer after planting, their greatly reduced root systems are not adequately restored until the first fall after planting.

I'd recommend another hedge option: arborvitae "Green Giant"

Leyland Cypress rarely look good after a few years, at least in the Seattle area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Giant Thuja

If you're going to plant 'Green Giant' you might as well plant cheaper, more attractive native western redcedar seedlings instead.

Except that the native western red cedars grow much larger both in height and spread eventually, than will the Green Giants and not as rapidly. And "cheaper" is relative - at most nurseries, unless it is something rather unique, the size determines the price, not the specific plant. Comparably sized Green Giants should be selling for the same price as the commercially grown native species. And "more attractive" is such a subjective interpretation......why are Green Giants any less attractive than the WRC's?

As to "looking good", there are many plantings of Leyland cypress in the area that are well established and stunning in appearance. The ones bordering the north perimeter of Lake Washington Technical College are a classic example of ideal Leyland cypress screening - tall, dense and lush. And you see hedged forms all over Seattle and surrounding areas. They do not grow any better or worse than GG's but do get larger and are slightly more prone to some insect or disease problems but not overly so in our area.

'Green Giant' is coarse and described by introducer US National Arboretum as growing large, hence, presumably 'Green Giant'. For general landscape use the point of it is to provide some of the look of western redcedar in climates where that does not grow well or at all.

We do not have that problem here.

It is true that 'Green Giant' is sometimes available at big box outlets in one gallon pots for lower prices. Otherwise, larger specimens, costing more than what many are likely to want to pay for a 300' hedge dominate what is seen at local outlets.

The local wild species, on the other hand, in this time of enthusiasm for planting native plants only can be bought as small as a band or 4" pot from specialty nurseries. Or spontaneous seedlings can be transplanted from local gardens, wood lots or forest lands where such is permitted.

I went to our local nursery today to look at the trees that were available. I did not see Thuja "Green Giant", but there were other varieties of Thuja. We have a deer problem and the attendant at the nursery said that some varieties of Thuja get eaten by deer, but he didn't know which ones. ??? Maybe tomorrow I can talk to a more knowledgeable person. I sure don't want to plant an expensive hedge and have it destroyed.

They may really go for Thuja occidentalis in local plantings. The local native T. plicata may sometimes be hit a bit, here and there, but the kind of spoiling damage seen on the eastern species is not usual with the native. Of the numbers of the trees on the place here on Camano, extending over a substantial acreage, I have seen browsing on part of one, maybe two individuals in one spot.

I'm not sure why Green Giants would be considered any more "coarse" in appearance than our native WRC. Unless skilled in plant ID, most would be unable to tell the two apart at a glance. And while WRC can grow to a considerable height and spread, GG's remain significantly smaller scale.

Of course any of these can be sheared/shaped to the height and width desired by hedging. But as a natural screen, I'd be inclined to opt for GG first, as it tends to be smaller overall at maturity than either of the others. One could also select any of the smaller named forms of Thuja plicata offered by area nurseries, like 'Excelsa', but again these would be offered only in a nursery setting and one would pay the going rate for any similarly sized conifer.

what about Calocedrus decurrens?

sure, it also gets huge, but they tend to grow very narrow. there are a few growing in my neighborhood with a trunk diameter of 3-5 feet, and i swear the total width of the tree is only a few feet more.

do people make screens with the incense cedar?

The 'Green Giant' hybrid does not look like typical examples of the native species. This is not a subtlety, young, vigorously growing specimens can be easily picked out among other arborvitaes prevalent in nursery yards. It reminds me of more coarse cultivars of eastern arborvitae such as 'Aureospicata'. Of course, many people hardly notice differences between generally similar plants.

But we are talking about something a gardener is trying to do.

Incense cedar is quite slow to develop and quite a dominating, vivid green - but the latter is a concern primarily when attempting to use it as a backdrop for other plants. Also quite aromatic. Narrowness varies with location, same as other cypress family conifers such as Leyland, which can be seen both as a very narrow and as a very broad plant in different sections of Puget Sound. In Britain it has been observed that incense cedar is usually columnar near the west coast and broader toward the eastern areas. A planted specimen in Tacoma was determined to have an average crown spread of 49' when 104' tall.

I think Calocedrus is the best recommendation I've heard yet. Its spread and height are certainly no greater than leyland cypress and it's more likely to maintain a good appearance and expected vigor with no water once established.

Personally though my preference would be to plant a mixed planting of a wide variety of (mostly broadleaf) evergreen trees and larger shrubs and wait for them to grow up - even if it takes a little longer to block the view at least you will have something interesting to look at.

I agree with ian_wa. I like the look of a mixed conifer planting. At my Portland place, I used coast redwood, western red cedar, western hemlock, and Chamaecyparis nootkatensis. I also had an incense cedar, which is a magnificent tree that doesn't seem to have any problems. And a couple of grand firs. They all grew extremely well, and got watered once every three weeks or so in summer. All these trees have fairly soft needles, unlike spruce. And they all smell good.

I had a concolor fir which grew beautifully for 22 years, and then died, for unknown reasons.

Arborvitae is an east coast tree and must have water in summer, even after it's established.

Oops, I just noticed that Ian_wa is talking about broadleaf evergreens. Are broadleafs going to get tall enough? How tall are the condos going to be?

i was assuming we were talking about 40 foot condos or so.

if they are shorter, i like the idea of broadleafed evergreens. i am attempting to block my neighbors house with a privacy screen of tall mahonias (japonica, x media), trochodendron, camelia sinesis, and Schefflera delavayi. cost me a bunch for each plant. and SLOW growing. but if i look ahead 5 years or so (when i'll probably have moved away) i hope someone will appreciate it.