I can post a couple of pics of mine if you're interested. They're all about 4-5 yrs old. I love them, but you need room for them. The grow very fast!

Will break out of sheared growth and resume natural habit after planting. Or buy ones that aren't sheared.

This matures into a giant, dark tree unless maintained as a sheared hedge. Maybe you should be looking at something else anyway. How much height do you require? Unlike coniferous evergreens such as Leyland cypress, broadleaf shrubs such as laurustinus, Pacific wax myrtle and Italian buckthorn are light-reflective (shiny) and therefore more cheerful-looking than shadowy conifers, of which we have plenty to look at around here already - Douglas fir being the dominant native tree on many sites.

Note also that most large communities in western WA are in USDA 8. In this state Zone 7 is found primarily in the mountains. Zip code based hardiness zone finders I have tried have always put me wrongly in Zone 7.

Zone 7 in western WA is not restricted to the mountains. People who live in the Seattle area like to assume that the entire western half of WA is just like Seattle, but it isn't so. There are pockets of zone 7 outside of the Seattle area, so don't be bullied into changing your zone designation. If you're in zone 7, then you're in zone 7.

Leyland cypress is very bushy. I always expect it to knock the fence over when people plant it along a fence.

You could trim off lower branches if you want something more tree like. Or, you could get a tree. What exactly do you mean when you say you want something tree-like?

This is the hedge that has caused neighbours to fight in England where there is very little room and the hedge grows so fast it cuts off the light for the neighbour. I believe it has caused murder. Also, deer eat it.

I'm one of those weird ppl who LOVE Leylands! Big trees are wonderful and there are too few big trees left. I've planted straight Leylands and Castlewellans (awesome fast beautiful with curly golden spring green tips!) Emerald Isles and Naylor's Blue and a really gorgeous Silver Dust.

I've seen Leylands that are kept trimmed very nicely to 6' for walking around and then left natural above 7'

The only thing I cannot understand is why Leylands are not considered wildlife friendly? Anybody know? The birds in my yard perch in them.

Here's a picture of my Leyland Silver Dust which I got last year as a tiny little stick from forest farm ... it's been growing all winter! SO lovely!

young Silver Dust Leyland (left of center)

very young Emerald Isle Leyland

Reg, when are you going to put in that ski lift? You are saying you are in the same winter regime as the west slope of the Cascade Mountains, starting at the Cascade crest. To be in USDA 7 a place has to average 0-10F over a 15 year period. Occasional lows in this range do not count.

I'm a little south of Olympia along I-5. Back in the 80's low temps were minus 3 F one year and 0 F another. A lot of plants died, mature Arbutus unedo's were history, some old rhodies, too, and most plants in pots. I would think that occasional lows do count because it still kills zone 8 plants.
Since this post was about Leyland Cypress I would recommend it for the fastest screen, my deer don't eat it,
and buy them in gallon pots. 4 years ago I planted 1 gallon, 1 ft Leylands and 5 gallon 5 ft ones. They are all the same height now. The gallon size roots in better and is a better buy. In front of them I'm planting other slower growing screening plants. If I have to I'll cut the Leyland's out.

3F and 0F affect the zoning only if they pull the 15-year average down to 0-10F. Many places in the US are being zoned up a zone, because the recent averages are putting them there. The relevance of a "Zone 8 plant" dying depends on what, exactly, the term means in a given instance. At the border of its hardiness in Zone 8? Or hardy to 10-20F? Two common meanings of the designation, in neither case would the loss of plants so classified imply that an area was not in Zone 8.

Why waste time and money on rank-growing trees you suspect are going to be taken down later? Definitely do need to be mindful of the roots on these, like other fast-growing plants nurseries do not keep up with potting them on. Future toppling of those planted with circling roots is not unexpected. Typically a root-bound tree goes over after the top has gotten nice and big, big enough to maybe do some damage.

I have a leyland in a large pot on my deck. It grows slower than in the garden and has stayed very manageable. I'm fond of it and after 3 yrs it is still only about 5 ft tall and thriving.

My apologies.... I checked the label and the tree I have on my deck is "Juniper virginiana Skyrocket." (My previous house had the Leyland. )

Note that 'Skyrocket' is actually a Rocky Mountain juniper cultivar.

>>Reg, when are you going to put in that ski lift? You are saying you are in the same winter regime as the west slope of the Cascade Mountains, starting at the Cascade crest. To be in USDA 7 a place has to average 0-10F over a 15 year period. Occasional lows in this range do not count.

Olympia airport meets this criteria... the average of every winter's coldest temperature is 8.7F from 1949-1995. Too flat for downhill skiing though.

We planted 5 or 6 Leylands about 3 years ago and they are really doing well. They do get some branches that seem to shoot out the side, but eventually the tree will even out a bit. We don't prune at all. We live off the highway and wanted something to screen us quickly. We always have deer on our 5 acres and they haven't bothered our cypress at all. We purchased one from a a very expensive nursery and the rest for 1/2 the price at Lowes (possibly Home Depot). They all look the same now, so don't spend too much!

>Olympia airport meets this criteriaYeah, you've said that before. But, the fact remains that Olympia simply cannot have the same winters as Alpental and Snoqualmie Pass, the top of Mount Pilchuck and so on. All you have to do is look at the map to see there is a huge discrepancy - all of Zone 7 (in western WA) is in the mountains except for Olympia and nowhere else in the lowlands. Why would Olympia be as cold as the mountains but Centralia wouldn't be? And so on. The Sunset climate maps are much more true to the actual situation, and, of course do not have Olympia in the same climate as the mountains.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunset's Garden Climate Zones

Here's a picture of my back Leyland Castlewellan after it's been in the ground 2 years and 2 months (it is getting big fluffy gorgeous fast!):

We wormcasted that Castlewellan last year and it just went bonkers, shooting up and out like a rocket. Those pics are at the end of this long wet cold dark winter. In the last week its tips are sprouting luxuriant curly gold-spring green growth and it's plumping up. Very beautiful tree already and giving us some privacy. It's already taller than the house behind it :-)

Why are Leylands not considered wildlife friendly trees ???

Native birds anyway are quite specific about concentrating on native species of trees, even within the same genus. You'd think the same species of birds we have up here would be foraging in the cypresses in California, but maybe not. The Nootka cypress is up in the mountains and might be used by different birds than are prevalent in the lowlands here, although again you'd think there would be quite a bit of overlap - birds that nest in the mountains and winter in the lowlands, for instance.

If see few Leyland cypress in outlets here that do not have visibly deformed roots. You should inspect yours before there is toppling, once one of them blows over and smashes something it's too late.

Stakes are usually a red flag, conifers are not climbers (vines). Staked conifers (in nurseries) always have defective roots, in my experience.

Just to add my two cents about zoning... I've seen a few zoning maps that have zone 7a and 7b. It seems where I am, south puget sound right between Rochester & Tenino is 7b (if I recall correctly). We always seem to get a bit more snow and rain than the areas just a few miles out of our little bubble. I am definitely no expert, though!

For a comparatively easy-to-see version...

Here is a link that might be useful: WASHINGTON USDA Hardiness Zone Map

Same map that puts the Olympic Mts in zone 8 hummmmm.

I'm not sure why we make such a fuss about zone maps - they are only guidelines afterall and individual microclimates due to topography, elevation and proximity to bodies of water do come into play. If you get a good sized detailed map of WA state, there ARE pockets of zone 7 in western Washington, most notably in the Olympia area at the southern most point of Hood Canal. And comments from forum participants living in that area certainly seem to confirm this.

And FWIW, all hardiness zone maps are based on the same data, that being the initial climate information compiled and zoned by Henry Skinner of the National Arboretum with the AHS in the early 60's and published as the USDA zone map in 1965. It was revised in 1990 and is currently undergoing another revision based on more recent climatic averages. And yes, that zone map and all subsequent revisions do show the Olympic Peninsula as zone 8 - obviously that may not apply to the top of Mt. Olympus but not too many folks garden up there :-)) And most of the OP is very temperate.....witness the Olympic rainforest and the banana belt of the east side of the Olympics.

Here's what the National Arboretum says about the zone maps:
"The USDA Hardiness Zone map divides North America into eleven zones based on temperature and each is referred to by the zone number, i.e. Zone 5. Additionally, each zone is subdivided into two sections, A and B to further delineate temperature ranges, i.e. Zone 5a. The zones can be thought of as a general guidance as there is no clear-cut delineation between zones. Any location may be warmer or colder based on topography, drainage or wind exposure." (emphasis mine)

Snohomish isn't even in USDA 7 on the USDA map. But I may have remembered them mapping 7 all the way up to the crest wrong, simplified versions put out by others do seem to have a split at the crest but the actual USDA original (which I've only seen close enough to be able to make out such details when I've looked at a full-sized print copy hanging on a wall) may have as many as two other zones between the lower slopes (zoned 7) and the crest.

I suppose going by temperatures instead of their goofy mapping, which breaks down when they try to do it out here, with our varied topography is the only way to make it work. That's reliable when everyone understands that their zone is based on their average annual minimum temperatures for 15 years, and not their lowest temperatures.

I wouldn't support the idea that most of our mountain areas, especially above about 2000 feet or so, are in zone 7. Zone 6 is probably more like it but I haven't found the data to crunch any numbers for weather stations in the mountains, to come up with a real USDA zone. Certainly it's difficult to trust the map in this area. If they're really going to come up with a super precise map that might help, but it had better be accurate.

The map seems to ignore that the South Sound is only really cold when you get away from the water. The south end of Hood Canal is one of the mildest places in the Northwest (Hoodsport is one of the few places with an all-time record low in the teens). The peninsulas north of Olympia are quite mild too, though not as mild as sheltered gardens in central Puget Sound.

>>I suppose going by temperatures instead of their goofy mapping, which breaks down when they try to do it out here, with our varied topography is the only way to make it work. That's reliable when everyone understands that their zone is based on their average annual minimum temperatures for 15 years, and not their lowest temperatures.

yep.

For article that talks about who is making new USDA map and how they are doing it (click on Table of Contents, then article title)...

Here is a link that might be useful: Master Gardener Magazine Preview

For site listed in above article...

Here is a link that might be useful: PRISM Group

Cryptomeria japonica radicans, it's a Japanese Cedar, beautiful and fast growing up to 12 to 16 feet in 5 years. A feathery dark green and a red colored bark. I'm going to be growing some in my new yard.

The existing USDA map does have zones 6 and 7 doing a dance across the west face of the Cascades, I forgot that because of the simplified versions used in some magazines, books and catalogs and web sites.

Although listed as a botanical variety it seems the cryptomeria is actually a clonal cultivar:

var. radicans Nakai. Tree, growth more vigorous than the species, crown much denser, stem vertical, "mast-like", very fast growing; the branches root easily when touching the ground (hence, radicans) and immediately develop another vertical stem ... Very important forest tree in Japan. Propagated from cuttings

--Krussmann, Manual of Cultivated Conifers (1985, Timber Press, Portland)