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Laurels wilting/drooping and loosing their leaves

hannahmitchiehannahmitchie Posts: 4
in Problem solving
Hi all! I planted some laurels in our garden for the hope they will grow and help give us some privacy in our garden. However since planting a couple of weeks ago, the laurels have really drooped and I'm getting a lot of yellow leaves which then fall off. The plants look to be loosing their leaves very quickly 

Planting them - dug out a trench as a new area to plant them. The area where planted I added a thin level of stones underneath for better drainage as heard these plants don't like to be sat in damp soil constantly and this area can get a bit waterlogged. Then I added fresh top soil when planting them, so they had new fresh soil.

Watering - twice a week a good soaking but every couple of days if the weather is hot.

Any suggestions/tips would be greatly appreciated, as I'm very much a beginner with plants/gardening!

Many thanks 

Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    edited June 2023
    I'd cut those back, and make sure they have thorough watering every few days over the next few months, unless you're getting good, persistent rainfall. The need good soil, plenty of water but also good drainage until established. A layer of gravel isn't really the way to do it, as it can also create a sump, so it's better to mix finer gravel through the soil mix instead, but what you really need to do is keep adding lots of organic matter on a regular basis which will help the soil structure. Rotted manure, compost, leaf mould, composted bark etc. A good layer of bark after a thorough dampening is also good, as it helps retain moisture, but also breaks down and helps the soil structure. 

    It's not a good time of year to be planting those, unless you're in a consistently wet part of the country. There's a lot of top growth for them to support and the roost will take the rest of this year to establish and be able to support that growth themselves. They'll get very big in all directions once they're happy  :)

    Everything you need to know about them here:
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/656523/help-needed-please-with-laurel-hedge-issues#latest
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • hannahmitchiehannahmitchie Posts: 4
    Thank you! How much do you think they need cutting back by? And is there any feeder that could help at this time of year/season? Very worried we're going to lose these so quick after planting :(
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I would cut each branch back by at least half … steel yourself, have a strong coffee or ‘stiffener’ of your choice, and do it. 

    Then give each plant a bucket full of water poured gently over the soil at the base, if you didn’t do that yesterday. 

    It’s not advisable to feed struggling plants … it’s like giving an ill person a rich three course meal … it’s too much for them to assimilate and they’ll struggle even more. 

    Our fingers are crossed 🤞 


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





  • hannahmitchiehannahmitchie Posts: 4
    Thank you! 
  • hannahmitchiehannahmitchie Posts: 4
    Hi again! So I cut the laurels back , added some compost and some bark  - however the leaves have suddenly started going brown in the plants 😔 I've been cutting any yellowing leaves off, but now I'm afraid I'm going to some very bare plants soon! Any ideas why the leaves are like this? Wondering if it's the heat we're having in the UK at the moment. Thanks for any help, hoping I don't lose these 





  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 782
    Looks like something has burnt them and it is important to water the roots rather than the tops of the plants particularly when the sun is out as fast evaporation can cause damage. Plenty of healthy looking leaves still there so looks like they should recover OK. Roots need time to settle to be able to fully supply the plant with water for new growth to speed up so damaged leaves will stand out more now when the plants are only recently in the ground.
    Laurel thrives on neglect from what I have seen and fussing over them too much can cause its own problems. Leaves going yellow will happen when the plant wants to take nutrients out of them to put to use elsewhere and will happen more while roots are getting established but should slow down once they are and become less noticeable when fresh leaf development accelerates.
    Planted some laurel before it rained a while back with no watering afterwards and only lost a small number of the 50 or so in a three year old hedge that now looks very healthy. Was much less work to simply replace the couple of failures than water them all regularly as is usually recommended.
    Happy gardening!
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
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