They’re so thick and bushy you can run around nude in your backyard!
Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees can grow two or more metres per year once established. Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees are a select form of Acmena smithii and are exclusive to Hello Hello Plants. Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees have deep green, dense, fine foliage and copper red new growth and can grow two or more metres per year once established, and love to be clipped and shaped.
They grow in full sun through to light shade and withstand mild frost, wind, heat and drought. They thrive in almost any soil including heavy wet and occasionally waterlogged soils.
Plant your trees at a 1 metre spacing, keep free of grass and weeds around base and fertilise regularly and irrigate when dry
Psyllids
Psyllids are the only pest that attack Lilly Pilly. Fortunately, the Neighbours-Be-Gone Tree is a resistant strain, when grown in the right conditions and maintained properly. Psyllids cause little pimple-like blisters on the newly formed leaves, and the damage they cause is usually only cosmetic. Spray with foliant if attacks occur. Generally, if you keep your Neighbours-Be-Gone hedge healthy, it generally won’t suffer attacks.
Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees: a perfect fast growing hedge or screen
Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees can be used to create tall screens, large hedges, and large topiary. They can be planted in pots or confined areas. Although they have the potential to grow into large trees, their size can be contained by regular clipping. The trunk and roots only grow to serve the needs of the crown of the tree, so the trunk and root system will remain small if the tree is being kept small by regular trimming.
Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees are long-living trees that don’t become woody or sick from long-term regular pruning. A well-maintained Neighbours-Be-Gone Tree hedge or topiary can last for many decades.
Neighbours Be Gone Lilly Pillies now for Sale:
The history of Neighbours-Be-Gone
Chris and his wife Marie flew to Los Angeles 20 years ago now, for a well-earned holiday. Whilst they were holidaying in LA they couldn’t believe how many Acmena Smithii hedges they saw, as this is an Australian native plant. Chris observed that the people of LA are very creative with their lilly pilly hedges, and they found beautiful hedges, screens and topiary shapes used in almost every street of LA.
Whilst driving around Chris took several pictures with his digital camera of these great lilly pilly hedges, screens and topiary shapes so that he could bring them home to Australia show our customers the versatility of this beautiful tree. He observed that all the screens were wonderfully lush and green, with bright new bronze growth developing and that the screens were thick and dense with foliage growing right down to the ground, making them a totally solid screen. Chris spent most of his holidays filming and photographing the them.
Developing the Neighbours be Gone hedging and screening tree
Upon his return to Australia, Chris worked to breed the Neighbours-Be-Gone Tree, which is a select form of Acmena smithii that are exclusive to Hello Hello Plants. Neighbours Be Gone is actually a trademark that belongs to the Hello Hello group of companies.
At that time, the main hedge being grown in Melbourne was the Silver Sheen Pittosporum, and Lilly Pilly’s were a product that was shipped down from Queensland. They were expensive, and many of the Queensland varieties did poorly in Victoria.
Chris wanted all the qualities he found in the lilly pilly hedges that has flourished overseas, in a lilly pilly variety that would thrive in Melbourne and Victoria. The criteria were that it must be fast-growing, clip well, have dense, dark green foliage, and nice bronze/red new growth. It must also be resistant to Psyllid attack which causes little blisters on the newly formed leaves.
Classic Neighbours Be Gone ads
In the early days, the Neighbours Be Gone hedging lilly pilly was promoted on TV and radio by saying that they were so thick and bushy, you could run around nude in your own back yard!
Chris decided that he must shoot some footage of the hedges of LA and bring it home to Australia to create a Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees Acmena Smithii TV ad. When Chris was driving around LA discussing and looking at which Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees to shoot for their TV ad Marie was concerned that Chris was going to be arrested. All of the homes in Beverly Hills are protected by security response and armed guards, so you can imagine people’s surprise when Chris knocked on their doors asking them if they would mind if he could run around nude behind their Neighbours-Be-Gone Trees!!
One particular hedge located just off Melrose Ave in Los Angeles had caught Chris’s eye. Chris filmed the hedge of a lovely South African woman, who told Chris that she really loved her hedge because it gave her good privacy and she couldn’t understand why everyone in LA didn’t have one! He also Chris found a young couple in a suburban street in Hollywood who allowed him to shoot his “nude” ad. When we ran the ad on TV in Melbourne, the “Nude Up with Neighbours Be Gone” ad became Chris’s most famous and successful ad.
