Laurels - Newly Planted

conorgillen

Hi,

I just planted some 1.5m high mature laurels to form a hedge 9 days ago and some of them are going yellow and black as can be seen in the photos. Any advice on how I keep them healthy? Also how often should I water newly planted mature laurels? Thanks in advance.

Lyn

You might like to have a look through this thread, tells you how to plant, cut and generally look after laurels to get the best out of them.🙂
https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/656523/help-needed-please-with-laurel-hedge-issues/p1

Fairygirl

Cut them back by about a third, at least.
They're difficult to establish when you plant them at that size. 
They'll need thorough watering a few times a week, even if you have some rain. Only really persistent rainfall would suffice. 
There's a thread about laurels on the forum that we direct people to as it's quite in depth.
I'll see if I can find it and give you the link 

Fairygirl

Beat me to it @Lyn 

Lyn

@Fairygirl. I’ve already done it 😀

Dovefromabove

And when Fairygirl says 'watering' she means a really good soaking ... a bucket full of water for one or at the most two plants 2/3 times a week minimum.  Probably more in the summer.  Establishing a hedge from mature plants is hard work.  That's one of the reasons you need to cut the hedge back ... so the roots don't have so much foliage to support before they get established.  The other reason is, of course, to encourage lots of sideshoots so you get a nice thick hedge and not a row of spindly trees. 

Fairygirl

Lyn said:

@Fairygirl. I’ve already done it 😀

I know - I was just about to post and saw you'd done it!

Yes - as @Dovefromabove says - not a wee dribble from a watering can - a good bucketful at a time