How to Grow a Cypress Hedge

Dig holes that are twice as wide and just as deep the nursery container. With the edge of your spade or shovel, loosen the sides and bottom of the hole. Space planting holes 6 feet apart.

Amend the soil removed from the hole with 3 inches of compost. This helps provide nutrients to the soil and helps the soil to drain better.

Fill the planting hole with water and allow the water to drain away naturally. This provides water going deep into the soil for the roots.

Remove the cypress from the container. Loosen the sides of the root-ball with your fingers, so the roots can penetrate easier. If the roots are visible in the container, gently tease the roots away from the root-ball with your fingers. If the roots are left to grow in this manner, they will keep growing around the root-ball and choke the tree to death.

Backfill the hole to halfway. Insert the root-ball into the planting hole. Check to see if the top of the root-ball is 1/4 inch above ground level. Add or remove soil until the root-ball is straight and then back fill the amended soil into the hole until it is halfway up the root-ball. Firm the soil down and then finish filling the hole. Tamp the soil down with your hands or feet.

Water each cypress as soon as it is planted. Turn the water on to a slow flow and allow the water to run as you plant the next cypress. Give the cypress hedge 1 inch of water every other week for the first two growing seasons, unless it is provided by rain. A soaker hose works well for keeping the entire hedge watered.

Feed the cypress in the early spring with a time-release fertilizer made for evergreen trees. Mix and apply according to label directions.

Prune the cypresses twice a year, once in midsummer and again in the fall. Remove up to 4 inches of growth of the sides, with hedge clippers or pruning shears. Cut out dead, diseased or broken branches.