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Cherry laurel and laurel cuttings for planting up help

james-HYumfQsjames-HYumfQs Posts: 68
in Plants
Afternoon everyone, hope All is well. I should know having a lot of experience with hedge laying but I've never tried before, Can I simply cut some? Laurel shoots from small saplings around the school ground. Plant them up and I think a peat and sand mix and grow them on to then plant later on in the year or the following year as a hedge? We have been buying grisellinia and laurel hedge plants for £14.50 which is very cheap as they are about 80 cm tall. However, in a effort to save the school some funds, we have so much laurel on site that has turned into trees and many saplings that could just be dug out the ground with enough root ball and planted up. Or maybe I could take cuttings and bring them on. We have a lot of rooting powder but just wanted to find out how feasible it is and whether there are certain times of year you can and can't do it. Is it a matter of cutting as low down as possible on an angle dipping in rooting powder and potting up and going from there. Or is it best to dig out the root ball if you can. We have so many on site that I could cut around 60 cm cuttings that look very healthy. Around 8:00 to 10 million diameter thick at the base base some slightly thicker. Would this work. Need about 200 so this is why I was thinking of going this way about it. Thanks in advance. 

Posts

  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 782
    Cuttings take time to establish root systems to support vigorous growth. Would it not be easier to buy smaller established hedging plants to use rather than waiting for the cuttings to form a good root system? I have seen small laurel for sell at a much cheaper price than what you mention but if you can dig up plants with good roots these should work fine as well. I used some laurel which could have been suckers from larger plants that I dug up from the base of an established hedge to fill gaps in a newer one and found with the less developed roots on the ones I dug up the gaps ended up still being there the following year and using properly developed plants to fill the gaps afterwards was much more effective.

    Happy gardening!
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    edited 9 March
    I would try some layering.
    Find branches that are close to or touch the ground.
    Which you have there within the photo.
    If that what you are referring to?

    You can pull off a leaf or two and wound the stem, tuck it into the ground covered with soil and either peg or weigh them down.
    The main plant keeps it fed and watered, provided we don't get drought or is not too dry weather wise. 

    Also there may already be some good ones hidden in the soil and leafmould under the plants there.

    If you have some kind of sticks to tie the wounded stems upright to make a leader/upright cutting that would be good.

    If you find saplings then maybe dig around them like you might if you were preparing to moving a larger plant, they will make more little roots. Then you could move them in the autumn with a stronger root ball.

    This would be less work for you than making and taking cuttings and having to nurture them more carefully.

    Maybe get some brightly coloured labels to mark all the ones you have done be it layers or saplings.


    Good Luck and have fun, so nice to see you trying to save the school some money :)
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    Laurel takes very easily from cuttings and it can be done now but is better in the autumn as the bases callous over winter. I've done it many times and just take a foot long piece, pencil ish thick, pinch the top out before reducing the foliage. Stick it in some free draining compost in a nice shady area and they tend to root in a few months. If you try this time of year I would cover to reduce transpiration but I have seen plenty of people just cut a bit off, strip most of the lower leaves before sticking it in the ground 2 thirds it's depth. It really can be that simple, provided they don't dry out and aren't blasted by the sun. 
  • ErgatesErgates Posts: 2,953
    We have a very long laurel hedge, and in the past when pruning it, I’ve left the cuttings to pick up later. I’ve gone back months later, and found the cuttings lying on the ground with roots sprouting from them! ( it’s quite damp and shady there) I’ve taken to sticking cuttings in the ground anywhere I want to fill a gap. I haven’t really followed that up properly, but I’m not aware that I’ve been coming across any dead branches sticking out of the ground. Maybe worth a try? Can’t do any harm to shove a few in the ground? If too many take, it would be easy to transplant the extras.
  • james-HYumfQsjames-HYumfQs Posts: 68
    Thank you for the help everyone very much appreciated. I'm lightly annoyed as we've purchased quite a few. Cherry laurel recently for some hatch laying style fence lines I've planted. There is so much on site. I could probably get around 300 clippings from all the well established. Laurel. I was just worried about the timings. That's being said it will only be a day or so of my time lost. So next week I will go clipping route powder the bases and put them up and cover and see what happens. To be honest we can get laurel around 30 to 40 cm for £7.50 a plant and there is budget for it. But I just thought it would make sense to use what we have on site though of course it will take a lot longer to establish from cuttings. I've never really tried it on this scale before so it would be interesting so we'll probably just give it a go and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks again everyone. Have a lovely weekend
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