Cherry Laurel - Help please

KEEPGREEN

Hi all,

Need your assistance please, its been after 12 months from the time I had my Cherry Laurel evergreen shrubs planted, but sadly these shrubs seem in distress and the leaves are yellowing too..they certainly don't look happy . I was expecting the leaves to be lush green.

Any advice would be much appreciated . Thanks 

Fairygirl

Have you got a photo @KEEPGREEN?

KEEPGREEN

Fairygirl said:

Have you got a photo @KEEPGREEN?

Thanks , I can certainly get a photo ...sometime soon 

Fairygirl

If the plants were large, they benefit from being cut back to help them establish. It's a common problem with all sorts of shrubs/hedging.
They need plenty of water for the first month or two as well, and if they got caught up with dry/drought conditions, they'll drop foliage to preserve moisture, and generally look a bit poor.
Yellowing can mean a shortage of nutrients, or it can be too wet or too dry conditions. Planted too close and competition for those things too.

KEEPGREEN

Fairygirl said:

If the plants were large, they benefit from being cut back to help them establish. It's a common problem with all sorts of shrubs/hedging.
They need plenty of water for the first month or two as well, and if they got caught up with dry/drought conditions, they'll drop foliage to preserve moisture, and generally look a bit poor.
Yellowing can mean a shortage of nutrients, or it can be too wet or too dry conditions. Planted too close and competition for those things too.

Thank you FairyGirl ....I am yet to get a picture of the plants . I am looking for some evergreen feed too thinking this might give them some TLC . 

jennie.a.sykes

We planted 5 pleached cherry laurels (potted) in November 2019. They flowered and the leaves looked fantastic until about 2 weeks ago when the leaves started turning yellow. I have read elsewhere on this forum that some yellow leaves are normal but this change coincided with the hot weather - have I been overzealous with the watering? I was about to prune the trees back. Should I prune off all the yellow leaves too?

Fairygirl

@KEEPGREEN- don't feed plants when they're struggling 

@jennie.a.sykes - it's normal for evergreens to drop some foliage, and they'll do it more when stressed. It's pretty hard to overwater laurel, so it's more likely that they're dry rather than too wet. 
Are they still in pots or in the ground?
If they were only planted a few months ago, it can simply be a bit of transplant shock too. Did you water them well after planting? Even planting in late autumn, shrubs need watering, especially something that size. Large specimens of anything are more difficult to get established.

jennie.a.sykes

Thanks for the reassurance. The pots were removed, roots gently loosened and root grow added before planting. We watered the plants daily first 2 weeks but stopped Dec -Feb because it didn't stop raining here. 

Fairygirl

They'll just be settling in @jennie.a.sykes
They are very large though, so don't rely on the rain to water them over the next few months.
You can do your pruning too, and that will relieve the stress on them a bit, and just pull those yellowed, spent leaves off with your hand. Once you see signs of new growth, they should be fine, but keep on top of watering, and do it really thoroughly - a good bucketful for each plant every few days, especially going into summer. Wind is very drying too, so check them well if it's dry and windy. 

jennie.a.sykes

Thanks @Fairygirl - your advice is much appreciated. They have been duly pruned and been given a thorough watering. Happy Easter to you :-)

Fairygirl

Good luck with them @jennie.a.sykes
I hope they come away ok. I should have said that a good mulch of rotted manure, compost, or even bark,  would be helpful too, assuming you can get any. 

Happy Easter to you too