Hi I have a similar issue to many other posters on this thread, although mine is with a Bay Laural hedge (rather than cherry laural). I planted these 2m bay laurals a month ago.
The raised planter is c. 30 cm wide and 40 cm deep and is open to the soil below. The soil is clay (as far as i can tell) and i put come fish blood and bone in when planting and mulched with manure. I'm watering it every few days but its holding moisture well so may not need constant watering.
The intention is to create a hedge that will 1) screen the ugly wall and 2) screen c. 50cm above the wall. Our neighbour's patio is just over the wall and the wall comes to about chin level on their side so screening above the wall is a priority. I pruned each growing shoot back when planting and they are growing strongly now, with lots of new shoots just below each cut and buds breaking further below each cut.
I know the advice given above is to cut the plants right back to half or so but my concern is that bay is much slower growing than cherry laural and it would be years before i get screening above the wall. I thinking of cutting say half the shoots back to the level of the top of the wall and half back to 60/70 cm above the ground so that they would fill in lower down. Does this idea make sense.
Ok, I’ll have a go at an answer for you. I will be blunt, I do tell it as I see it😀😀 Bay grows quickly, I have a huge bay tree that grow like mad when I cut it back.
If they were mine I wouldn’t have put all that fertiliser on them as new planted trees, you’ve encouraged top growth too quickly, they are growing tops before getting a good root system growing. I would scrape off any manure you can, cut the whole down by half and give a lot of water to wash down the fertiliser you’ve put down the holes.
As they start to shoot out again, pick out top shoots and sides, they’ll soon grow and will be healthier and thicker in the long run.
Next Spring you can give a sprinkling of bone meal and some well rotted farm manure around the edges, not touching the trunks.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Just to add, these trees will grow very deep, they needed to be planted at least 2’6” from the wall, but I don’t know what you can do about that now, hopefully they won’t have the wall down.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
They look like raised planters and quite narrow. Any type of mulching will do. It doesn’t look like a huge space so something like composted bark mulch should be fine. It’s already quite fine and will break down into the soil without over feeding the soil which is what Bay Laurel prefers.
Hello again, so my new laurels are still not happy one month on. If my leaves are going like this, what am I doing wrong? 😢
Hello All, I hope everyone is keeping well? Just an update on The Girls, as my husband calls them. So I've decided the above silvering and drying of leaves is basically the effects of sunburn from the strong sun we've been having on my little, unsuspecting laurels.
As they've settled and started growing and the weather's turned, things are going back to lime green.
Now I'm trying to decide whether I should swap out two of the plants not doing as well as the others for the two spare plants I have growing under a tree near the shed (which are romping away despite the fact I've basically ignored them 🙄).
Would be interesting to see if when I dig one up that's struggling whether there's an issue with my planting causing it to struggle. 🤔
These are the plants on the left of the drive, in what I would consider the better soil, but full sun all day. Nearly 80% are happy and growing well. 20% are putting new leaves on but not really creating shoots from the bottom
Typically, the plants on the other side of the drive are looking even better, in rubble strewn soil Mr Jones had to use a pick on to help me dig it over. I cut them down hard at planting to try and give them a fighting chance to get established and they are now lovely green mounds and will probably outstrip the others next year 🙄
These are the two spares loving life near the shed under a tree 🤷
Posts
I have a similar issue to many other posters on this thread, although mine is with a Bay Laural hedge (rather than cherry laural). I planted these 2m bay laurals a month ago.
The raised planter is c. 30 cm wide and 40 cm deep and is open to the soil below. The soil is clay (as far as i can tell) and i put come fish blood and bone in when planting and mulched with manure. I'm watering it every few days but its holding moisture well so may not need constant watering.
The intention is to create a hedge that will 1) screen the ugly wall and 2) screen c. 50cm above the wall. Our neighbour's patio is just over the wall and the wall comes to about chin level on their side so screening above the wall is a priority.
I pruned each growing shoot back when planting and they are growing strongly now, with lots of new shoots just below each cut and buds breaking further below each cut.
I know the advice given above is to cut the plants right back to half or so but my concern is that bay is much slower growing than cherry laural and it would be years before i get screening above the wall. I thinking of cutting say half the shoots back to the level of the top of the wall and half back to 60/70 cm above the ground so that they would fill in lower down. Does this idea make sense.
I'm in Cork (south Ireland)
Thanks
Bay grows quickly, I have a huge bay tree that grow like mad when I cut it back.
If they were mine I wouldn’t have put all that fertiliser on them as new planted trees, you’ve encouraged top growth too quickly, they are growing tops before getting a good root system growing.
I would scrape off any manure you can, cut the whole down by half and give a lot of water to wash down the fertiliser you’ve put down the holes.
As they start to shoot out again, pick out top shoots and sides, they’ll soon grow and will be healthier and thicker in the long run.
Next Spring you can give a sprinkling of bone meal and some well rotted farm manure around the edges, not touching the trunks.
that's a bit concerning about the wall! I'll hope for the best
I'll cut them back and take away some of the manure mulch. Would you mulch them with something else?
Lots of people think they need to keep feeding plants, most times it’s really not necessary.
Just an update on The Girls, as my husband calls them. So I've decided the above silvering and drying of leaves is basically the effects of sunburn from the strong sun we've been having on my little, unsuspecting laurels.
As they've settled and started growing and the weather's turned, things are going back to lime green.
Now I'm trying to decide whether I should swap out two of the plants not doing as well as the others for the two spare plants I have growing under a tree near the shed (which are romping away despite the fact I've basically ignored them 🙄).
Would be interesting to see if when I dig one up that's struggling whether there's an issue with my planting causing it to struggle. 🤔
20% are putting new leaves on but not really creating shoots from the bottom
These are the two spares loving life near the shed under a tree 🤷