In the current version for 1.10.2, placing leaves with the unbreakable wand works fine until you need to break one. That update causes a chain reaction triggering all leaf blocks placed by the wand to decay. Seems as though somehow it's placing them as natural leaves, rather than as player placed leaves.

This is making building a hedge maze a bit more challenging. :-/

Can confirm this is happening in 1.12.2, version 0.11.1.245 as well.