Leylandii, thuja or Lawson cypress: the conifer question for a Deal or Walmer garden.
Leylandii is the fastest conifer hedge going and it gives you a green wall in two or three years. It is also the one species you cannot cut back hard once it has gone over height, because it will not regenerate from old brown wood. On the CT14 coast, where a seafront leylandii can brown on the exposed side before the inland side has settled, that limitation matters more than it does elsewhere. Here is how the main conifer options compare for Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown gardens.
I get asked about leylandii more than any other conifer. Most of the time the question is not which species but whether to replace the one already there: a leylandii planted in 1998 by a previous owner, now eight metres tall on a terrace garden near the seafront in Walmer, brown on the Channel-facing side and too wide for the path. The answer to that particular problem is not more leylandii. But for a new hedge on a sheltered inland plot in Upper Deal or Mill Hill, it remains one of the quickest routes to a solid boundary screen.
The difference on this patch is the salt wind and the soil. Central Deal sits on coastal alluvium, not chalk. The heavy, moisture-retaining clay-silt underneath holds water in wet winters and can bake to a crack in dry summers. Leylandii is not particularly fussy about soil and tolerates this reasonably well in a sheltered position, but it has no give at all when it comes to salt exposure. Thuja plicata handles the same conditions without the browning risk and, critically, regenerates from old wood if you need to take it back. Lawson cypress needs sharply draining soil and scores poorly on both counts in the lower town.
The table below puts the four most commonly available conifer hedge species side by side, using the criteria that actually decide the question on a CT14 job.
| Feature | Leylandii (Cupressocyparis leylandii) | Thuja plicata (Western Red Cedar) | Thuja Brabant (White Cedar) | Lawson Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual growth rate (established hedge) | 75–90 cm; fastest of the four | 40–60 cm; dense from the base | 30–50 cm; slightly slower and bushier than plicata | 20–30 cm; slowest; takes 5–6 years to form a closed screen |
| Clips per year to maintain a tidy hedge | 2–3 times (May, July, September); fast growth demands frequent attention | 1–2 times (June and September); once is often enough for a garden hedge | 1–2 times (June and September); similar to plicata | Once per year (late summer); slow growth means a single annual clip suffices |
| Old wood recovery: can you cut back hard into brown wood? | No. Will not regenerate from old brown wood. Over-height leylandii cannot be restored by cutting back. | Yes. Regenerates from old wood better than most conifers. Hard renovation cuts are possible. | Yes. Regenerates from old wood; good tolerance of hard cuts in late winter. | Partial. Tolerates moderate cutting back into older wood, but not as reliably as thuja. |
| Salt wind tolerance (CT14 coast) | Moderate: sheltered inland and second-line-from-coast positions only; browns on directly exposed seafront sites | Moderate to good: handles sheltered coastal sites better than leylandii; not a front-line species | Moderate: similar to plicata; paler green that can show wind scorch on very exposed plots | Low: needs shelter from salt wind; not suited to coastal or exposed positions |
| Soil tolerance for CT14 coastal alluvium | Good: tolerates the heavy alluvium in sheltered positions | Good: handles clay-silt ground and moderate winter waterlogging | Good: tolerates heavier soils; slightly more forgiving than plicata on very wet clay | Poor: prefers sharp-draining soil; struggles on the heavy coastal alluvium of lower Deal and Walmer |
| Winter appearance | Dark green; stays coloured through winter; no leaf loss | Dark green; can bronze slightly in cold or exposed conditions; pleasant aromatic scent when clipped | Brighter, slightly paler green; holds colour through winter | Varied by cultivar: green, blue-grey, gold; holds foliage year-round |
| Bare-root or pot cost (approx., per plant) | £2–5; widely available; 3 plants per metre run | £3–6; more specialist nurseries; 3 plants per metre run | £2–5; good availability; 3 plants per metre run | £2–4; widely available; 3–4 plants per metre run |
| Best CT14 position | Sheltered inland plots: Upper Deal, Mill Hill, Sholden; not seafront or exposed Walmer | Most of Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown; sheltered coastal and inland alike | Most of Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown; a good default where soil is uncertain | Well-drained plots with shelter from coastal wind; limited use cases on CT14 |
The leylandii question on the CT14 coast.
Leylandii is not a bad choice in Deal and Walmer. It is just a choice that needs to be made with clear eyes. The speed is real: three years from a container plant to a four-metre screen is achievable in a sheltered spot. The problem is that maintaining the speed also means maintaining the size. A leylandii hedge that gets away from the shears for two or three seasons, particularly on a terrace garden where the south or west face catches the wind off the Downs Roads, can reach a height where cutting it back is no longer an option. Old brown wood in leylandii does not regenerate. If you cut past the green into the brown, you have a permanent dead patch. The only answer at that point is removal and replanting.
I turn down leylandii requests on directly exposed seafront plots. The east-facing gardens along Beach Street and the Walmer shore get enough salt wind in winter that the Channel-side of a leylandii browns within a few seasons. The inland face stays fine, but the net result is an asymmetric hedge that looks neglected and, once the browning is established, cannot be recovered. For those positions, griselinia, escallonia or tamarisk are the right first call. See the salt-tolerant species guide for the full ranking.
For an inland Mill Hill garden, sheltered from the worst of the coastal wind by a row of houses, leylandii is perfectly viable. I quote it regularly for those sites. The condition is commitment: if you plant leylandii, you are also committing to clipping it two or three times a year once it is established, because a leylandii hedge left to its own devices for more than a season becomes a different problem entirely. See the cutting frequency guide for the clipping calendar in detail.
Why thuja is often the better call in Deal and Walmer.
Thuja plicata, the Western Red Cedar, has one property that leylandii lacks and that matters particularly on a coastal patch: it regenerates from old wood. If a thuja hedge gets ahead of you, or if you take over a garden with an overgrown thuja that a previous owner stopped managing, you can cut it back hard in late winter and it will shoot from the brown. It is not instant, it takes a season to fill back in, but the option exists. For many Deal and Walmer clients who are not certain they will maintain a strict clipping schedule, that gives thuja a significant advantage over leylandii as a default.
The foliage is different too. Thuja plicata has flattened, scale-like leaves that give off a sharp, fruity, almost pineapple scent when clipped. Not everyone notices this but some people specifically request thuja for a front hedge precisely because of it. The texture is slightly softer than leylandii's coarser upright sprays, which makes it a neater-looking hedge at close range on a terrace frontage.
Thuja Brabant, sometimes sold as White Cedar, is a variety with a slightly slower growth rate and a more upright, columnar habit than plicata. For narrow plots where hedge width is a constraint, Brabant's slightly tidier footprint is worth considering. The old-wood recovery and salt tolerance are similar to plicata. I use Brabant in situations where the garden is too narrow for a conventional leylandii width and the client wants a managed evergreen screen without the annual commitment of two or three leylandii clips.
Nesting season: the same rule applies to every conifer hedge.
Check for active nests before any cut between 1 March and 31 August.
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1, it is an offence to intentionally damage or destroy an active wild bird's nest. Nesting season in the UK runs from 1 March to 31 August. Fines reach £5,000 per nest; the maximum custodial sentence is six months. Leylandii, thuja and Lawson cypress all provide attractive nesting sites for sparrows, dunnocks, robins and occasional blackbirds. The safe clipping window is September to end of February. I do nearly all conifer hedge cuts in September. If a cut is needed within the March–August window, a survey-first walk of the hedge line is required before any machine is started. See the nesting-season guide for the full detail.
Lawson cypress on the CT14 coast: the wrong soil and limited recovery.
Lawson cypress was once the default formal conifer hedge across much of Britain, and you still see it in older gardens in Upper Deal and around the Kingsdown village centre. In those more established, sheltered garden plots with slightly better drainage, it performs well enough. The problem on the lower CT14 coast is the soil. Lawson cypress needs sharp-draining ground and suffers in the heavy coastal alluvium that covers most of Deal town and Walmer. In a wet winter, the roots sit in standing water for weeks and the plant weakens over several years, becoming susceptible to Phytophthora root rot.
The second issue is old-wood recovery. Lawson cypress tolerates moderate cutback into older wood better than leylandii, but not as reliably as thuja. If a Lawson hedge is taken back to brown wood by more than a modest amount, there is a reasonable chance of permanent dead patches rather than clean regrowth. For a new conifer hedge in 2026 in most of Deal and Walmer, I would not put Lawson cypress at the top of the list unless the client has a well-drained sheltered garden and specifically wants the cultivar variety that Lawson offers (blue-grey 'Pembury Blue', golden 'Lutea' and several others).
Before you start clipping: safety notes for conifer hedge work.
Before you start: PPE and tool checks.
Conifer hedges, particularly leylandii, grow dense and fast and require powered trimmers to manage efficiently. Before any cut: wear safety glasses or goggles (flying clippings at face height are the most common injury on hedge work), ear defenders for petrol and corded electric trimmers, and gloves. On a tall hedge, use a long-reach pole trimmer rather than a ladder where hedge height allows; a ladder on uneven ground is a serious fall risk. For corded electric trimmers, fit an RCD adaptor and keep the cable behind you and to one side throughout the cut. Check the hedge for wasp nests before starting, particularly in warm August and September: leylandii and thuja offer deep interior cover where wasps nest without being obvious from the outside. A quick walk and check with a gloved hand parting the foliage at the base will find nests before the trimmer does. See the trimmer types guide for a full comparison of tool options.
The renovation question: what happens when a conifer hedge goes over height.
The most common call I get on conifer hedges in Deal and Walmer is not new planting but existing hedges that have gone over height and over width. The renovation options depend entirely on species.
| Species | Can you cut back into old brown wood? | Renovation approach if the hedge is over-height | Recovery time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leylandii | No. Brown wood will not regenerate. | If green growth remains at the maintained height, cut to that line and hold it. If the hedge is already beyond that point: remove and replant. | N/A: once removed, 3–4 years for a new hedge to close from bare-root |
| Thuja plicata | Yes, with care. Takes back well from a hard cut. | Cut one side hard in February or March. Allow to regenerate through the summer. Cut the other side the following late winter. Full recovery across both faces in 1–2 seasons. | One to two seasons; staged over two winters for a significant reduction |
| Thuja Brabant | Yes. Similar to plicata. | Same staged approach as plicata: one side at a time over two winters. | One to two seasons |
| Lawson Cypress | Partial. Tolerates moderate cutback but not severe reduction to old wood. | Reduce to the point where green foliage is still visible on the cut face. Avoid cutting beyond that into fully brown wood. Stage over two years if a significant reduction is needed. | One to three seasons depending on the depth of cut |
The leylandii removal question comes up regularly in Deal and Walmer. An over-height leylandii on a narrow terrace frontage or boundary between properties can become a neighbour issue as well as a maintenance problem. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8, gives Dover District Council authority to require a hedge owner to reduce a hedge that is adversely affecting a neighbouring property's light or enjoyment, if it is over two metres tall and formed predominantly by two or more evergreen trees. A leylandii hedge that has reached six metres on a terraced street in Middle Street or Nelson Street CA is not just a maintenance problem: it could attract a formal complaint to DDC that results in a remedial notice. See the conservation areas and legal notices guide for the broader legal picture in Deal and Walmer.
For an overgrown hedge of any conifer species, the hedge renovation guide covers the staged approach in more detail, including the timing of hard renovation cuts relative to the nesting season.
My working rule for conifer hedge choice in Deal and Walmer.
- Sheltered inland plots in Upper Deal, Mill Hill and Sholden: leylandii is viable if the client commits to regular clipping. Thuja plicata or Brabant is the lower-maintenance alternative with better renovation options.
- Central Deal town and Walmer, second-line-from-coast gardens: thuja plicata or Brabant as a default. The old-wood recovery and better salt tolerance make them more forgiving than leylandii on the heavier coastal alluvium and in sheltered coastal positions.
- Directly exposed seafront positions in Walmer and Kingsdown: no conifer hedge is right for the front line. Griselinia, escallonia, tamarisk or holm oak are the proven choices. See the salt-tolerant species guide.
- Well-drained sheltered gardens in Kingsdown village or on better-drained slopes: Lawson cypress is a viable choice where drainage is confirmed as good and the client wants a specific cultivar colour or form. Check with a spade: if there is standing water in the planting hole after a wet day, default to thuja.
A note on the video reference for this guide: best4hedging, a UK specialist hedge nursery, has a detailed leylandii overview on their YouTube channel (A focus on Leylandii hedging: All you need to know about Cupressocyparis leylandii) that covers the species' characteristics and maintenance requirements in plain terms. YouTube egress was blocked from this environment during writing, so I have relied on their web guidance and other UK nursery sources for the technical data in this article. The channel authority is verified via web search as a UK-based specialist supplier.
Not sure which conifer suits your plot?
Send me your postcode and a description of the position at hello@dealhedges.co.uk or call 07763 100 477. I will look at the exposure, the soil and the gap you need to fill and tell you which species makes sense before you commit to a planting order. If a hedge is already there and causing problems, I can advise on renovation options or removal. Contact me.
Sources: best4hedging YouTube channel, "A focus on Leylandii hedging" (youtube.com/watch?v=IImv7urAPMI; YouTube egress blocked from this environment, channel authority verified via web search); Hedges Direct, conifer hedging species guide (hedgesdirect.co.uk); Hopes Grove Nurseries, thuja growth rate guide (hopesgrovenurseries.co.uk); evergreenhedging.com, leylandii and conifer comparison; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1 (nesting-season offence and penalties); Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8 (high hedges); British Geological Survey coastal alluvium and shingle mapping, CT14 area.