The one species that won't forgive a bad cut.

Why conifers are different

Ask us this and we'll give you the same answer every time: conifers carry their green needles only on the outer few inches of growth. Cut back past that zone, into the bare brown wood underneath, and that face of the hedge will not produce new needles. Ever. It stays brown. This is true of leylandii, thuja, Lawson cypress and most cedars, and it's the single most common mistake we see from DIY jobs and less careful contractors around Borstal and the older parts of Delce.

What's included

• Assessment of how far the green zone extends before we quote a height or width reduction
• A staged two-year plan where the reduction needed exceeds what the green zone allows in one visit
• Routine annual or twice-yearly trimming to keep a conifer hedge within its green zone permanently, so a staged reduction is never needed again
• All arisings cleared - conifer clippings are bulky and we account for that in the quote, not as an add-on afterwards

Pricing

Routine conifer trimming sits in the same £120-£400 band as any other hedge trim. A staged reduction on an overgrown leylandii boundary typically runs £350 – £950 per stage, quoted as a full two-visit plan up front so you know the total cost before we start stage one.

Ask us: my leylandii is 15 feet tall and touching the roofline. What are my options?

Realistically one sound option: a staged reduction over two winters bringing it down to a height we agree together (rarely below 8-10 feet if you want to keep any green cover at all). We don't take hedges out, and a one-visit hard cut on something that size almost always leaves a permanent brown skeleton, so staging is what we'll recommend and quote honestly. Full detail in our leylandii reduction Q&A.