This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Shaping Prunus lusitanica (Portugeuse laurel)
Hi All! I’m hoping for some advice on my portugeuse laurel that I planted a few years ago as a bush and have been trying to train as a small tree. As you can see it is growing a bit lop-sided. I think the reason for this is that on the left side it gets full sun and for the last couple of years there has been profuse flowering mainly on that side (beautiful white flowers) which seems to inhibit the leafy green growth on that side. The leaves also seem a bit yellower and generally not as healthy on that side either. So I had wondered whether to snip out the flowers on that side when they start emerging this year in an attempt to promote more leafy growth - would that work? I also seem to remember that one year I fed it with soluble miracle grow in spring and that seemed to inhibit the flowering that year (could that be true?). I have also considered gently pruning back that side to promote a few more shoots (like one might on a cherry laurel) so that it’ll eventually even up a bit but I’m unsure if this is the right thing to do and don’t want to make it look any worse! What do you think? I’ve never really pruned it before, just removed the shoots from the bottom half to reveal the “trunks” and also removing any obvious “stragglers”!
Many thanks in advance for your help!
Many thanks in advance for your help!
0
Posts
In the sticks near Peterborough
I have a Prunus lusitanica too and really struggle to keep it to a manageable height. It was in the garden when we moved in 10 years ago as an established shrub/tree at a height of about 8ft. Over the years I have gradually reduced the height to around 6ft, but it does put on a lot of new growth every year. If left to it's own devises it could grow to about 40ft so be warned.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/details?plantid=1543
In the sticks near Peterborough