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Laurels Issue

resres Posts: 58
in Plants
Planted circa 200 Laurels pot grown May '17; plants still struggling and wilting etc in present heatwave.

Any advice on how to resurrect and get them to grow to healthy plants?
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  • LynLyn Posts: 21,906
    edited June 2018
    Cut them down to 2’ and water well.  Without a photo it’s difficult to tell what they need! 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • resres Posts: 58
    Photo by my phone is not great; the plants leaves are very droopy and some plants lost a lot of leaves.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,863
    Try with the phone photo ... they usually work ... we need to see the plants and where they are ... we also need to know how you've been caring for them since they were planted. 

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





  • resres Posts: 58
    This shot of some actually doing ok; at the edge of a woodland with many trees. Just cut back a lot weeds and fed, watered + lightly compost.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,863
    edited June 2018
    If you want them to bush out and form a hedge you need to reduce the height by half in order to encourage lots of sideshoots.

    But how can we tell you what's wrong with the unhappy ones without seeing them ? 
    However, if they're that close to large trees they'll definitely be suffering from a water shortage. 

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





  • resres Posts: 58
    Watered this recently and appears to have gone worse...
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,699
    edited June 2018
    Your shrubs are too mature and with the heat followed by a dry spell and then a heat wave. I think the only way to solve this issue right now is to prune them down by half of its original size. Lay a very thick layer of mulch down and still continue with your watering, which is basically a lot of water deep into the root area in the late evening time at least every other day unless temperatures drop below 21 degrees, then you can slow down on the watering.
  • resres Posts: 58
    Ok thanks, these are the tallest, majority circa 1m in height; what shall i do with them?

    Assuming mulching will retain the water, what mulch type is best?
  • LynLyn Posts: 21,906
    res said:
    Ok thanks, these are the tallest, majority circa 1m in height; what shall i do with them?


    As Dove and Borderline has said. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • resres Posts: 58
    Would that black weed control material with stones on top help or make matters worse?
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