Pruned laurel - now what?

Stephanie newish gardener

Hi

Last week I cut a good two-three feet off a laurel 'hedge' which I can now see is actually just two plants, one of which seems to have a nice upright habit and the other one is quite spread out at the base.

It is about the height I want it to be but I need some advice about how to get it to green up again on top.

At the moment the inside of the hedge is about the same height as the front but I think I might need to take it a bit lower in the middle to give room for new green growth.

The problem I have is that it is a really established laurel, been there at least 16 years, so the wood even at the lower height is pretty thick.  Within the plant that has spread out there is lots of thin twiggy growth, presumably new shoots that were competing for light. Some of them were a good 5 feet long, very thin with a couple of leaves at the end.

I think I should probably cut most of them out, cut some of the thicker branches down a bit more, and hope that brings on some lovely strong growth, but I'm not sure.

I've attached some photos of before during and after so any advice would be welcome.

nutcutlet

laurel will regrow from wherever you cut it. I'd cut a bit lower than the desired height.

This was massacred last February and made enormous growth, lots of 2 or 3 ft shoots, over the year, now looks an only slightly gappy hedge again.