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Sick Skip Laurel

sharlow218EW37IpYjsharlow218EW37IpYj Posts: 2
in Problem solving
I have a 7 year old Laurel whose leaves started fading over the winter.  This spring the new growth came in green, but has faded like the rest of the shrub.  I’ve tried spraying with neem oil and used Bayer tree and shrub soil treatment to no avail.  Any ideas of what the issue could be?  I’ve never had issues in the 7 years since it was planted.  

Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Bumping up. Can't say l've ever seen anything like it before. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    The leaves don't look the right shape for an ordinary laurel .......... could it be a variety of Acuba japonica ... the Spotted Leaved Laurel?

    https://www.plantdelights.com/collections/aucuba

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Dovefromabove said:
    The leaves don't look the right shape for an ordinary laurel .......... could it be a variety of Acuba japonica ... the Spotted Leaved Laurel?

    https://www.plantdelights.com/collections/aucuba
    I agree it doesn't look quite right for Laurel but Aucuba has opposite leaves, maybe we'r being distracted by the odd colour


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    edited June 2022
    Elaeagnus of some sort? - I had one that looked similar and the spring foliage had a sort of dust on it that went during summer. 



    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Desi_in_LondonDesi_in_London Posts: 731
    I was thinking eleagnus (sp??) as well from the pic , but did look up skip laurel -- which does have pointier leaves than the normal prunus laurocerasus (hadn't heard of it before, and never seen one in real life so no idea if it gets some specific pest/disease vs the "normal" cherry laurel ).
    Kindness is always the right choice.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Ah! Well done @Desi_in_London … having been an art student and gone my fair share of skip giving in the past I’d made an assumption 😒 … definitely hadn’t made the connection between ‘skip’ and ‘schipka’ 😂 … 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    😁 me neither - I thought it was skip plunder :)

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • sharlow218EW37IpYjsharlow218EW37IpYj Posts: 2
    I think it may be spider mites!
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    That was my first thought, but it's really way too early in the season for such a bad infection.
    If there were that amount of them you'd be finding tiny webs all over the branch tips.
    You can check for them.
    You'll need a magnifying glass and look underneath the leaves - if the mites are there you should be able to see them. They're almost transparent, but you should be able to spot them with magnification.


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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