Hi all, brilliant thread. I’ve read it all with interest. I had 10 8ft laurels planted in February/March. Most of them are doing well but 2 of them look totally dead, and their leaves are completely shrivelled but as advised in previous threads, I’ve scratched the bark and it’s green below. I’ve fed, watered and talked to them but my question is ‘will they grow back on the current wood?’ I understand most people state cut right down, but I’m not after a hedge, just height to obliterate windows from neighbours windows.
I wish you had read the thread before you bought them. They cannot possible become well established whist they are feeding all that top growth. The only thing is to buy some 3’ plants for the gaps, in November, then cut the tops off by a few inches. By next summer they will be growing up well. They are too close to the fence, they grow into huge plants with very large trunks. In a couple of years they will have that fence down. Sorry to be blunt, but that’s the nature of Laurels.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Hi all. Great thread. I am hoping for advice and suspect I know the answer. Do I need to cut these right back? I planted them in the autumn and the advice I got with them was to not prune for a year but now I think that is wrong. Thanks in advance.
I have the remnants of a laurel hedge that I can’t get rid of. Once established, they are so vigorous even chopping back to the ground and attempting to kill the stumps failed to stop them growing back. Now I shape them into big balls. The more you prune the faster and thicker they grow. The second pic shows all the new growth from a brutal hack back this winter.
Hi all. Great thread. I am hoping for advice and suspect I know the answer. Do I need to cut these right back? I planted them in the autumn and the advice I got with them was to not prune for a year but now I think that is wrong. Thanks in advance.
Take the sticks out and cut them in half.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
They cannot possible become well established whist they are feeding all that top growth. The only thing is to buy some 3’ plants for the gaps, in November, then cut the tops off by a few inches. By next summer they will be growing up well.
They are too close to the fence, they grow into huge plants with very large trunks. In a couple of years they will have that fence down. Sorry to be blunt, but that’s the nature of Laurels.