The Lemon Fool

I have a row of these [38] at my garden side, planted earlier this year, now at about 5/6ft high. The last 4 were bought later, and are much shorter, as they had been clipped for some reason, now 4ft.

As it happens the short ones are at the garden end, where I want privacy. I am thinking about digging up 8 and interchanging them. Would this be a good idea?

I have been watering them for most of the year, and giving them more blood fish and bone that you could throw a stick at. And compost, and manure.

Thanks.

any that you move will be set back perhaps by a years worth of growth
portuguese laural grows like lightning (I have it on 3 sides of my garden and get fed up trimming it 3 times a year)
its about 8-10 ft high and i am sure it grows at least a foot a year if not more..it is well established though

i am no Monty Don...but would suggest that you leave the shorter ones untrimmed...it will only be a year before they catch up with the others

after that you too will curse the speed of growth and hedge cutting!!

but they do make a great hedge for privacy

We put Portuguese laurel in 4 years ago. The first year they didn't do much mainly because I kept taking out the growing tips to make them bush out.

The second year we started with nice bushy plants but not very high, I fed and watered them and they grew about a foot, maybe some grew more.

The third year they got attacked by some sort of caterpillar which like new growth and leaves. I was busy with other things and it was a while before I noticed. It set them back but after spraying they romped away and grew a foot.

This year with no setbacks they have grown strongly. The tallest are now up to 7' which is the desired height others aren't there yet but all being well they will be next year.

It seems that once they get their roots down they romp away with very little attention. I wouldn't move any plants in your situation. They will move but the larger the plant the longer it takes for them to establish. If I moved them I'd probably cut them back quite hard to give them a better chance of survival. All in all I think you will achieve your aim more quickly by leaving things as they are.

Thank you. This advice is quite unexpected, but I see the logic and am glad I asked. I'll just leave them.

I agree with the advice.
However, I wouldn't really want a large laurel hedge.

Reason is the size of the leaves. When cut with a hedge-trimmer, the leaves get sliced, then the cut edges go brown, and it looks a mess. The laurel we had in our previous house I used to trim with secateurs, cutting the individual shoots. Time-consuming, but there was only a 15' run about 6' high, so it wasn't a problem.

In the garden where we are now we have lonicera nitida hedge along the drive, very amenable to cutting and shaping, and grows pretty fast. Here's part of it.



Cutting three time a year... yes, but that's about par with most hedges, except perhaps yew and even that will look a bit bohemian pre-cut.

V8

88V8 wrote:I agree with the advice.
However, I wouldn't really want a large laurel hedge.

Reason is the size of the leaves. When cut with a hedge-trimmer, the leaves get sliced, then the cut edges go brown, and it looks a mess. The laurel we had in our previous house I used to trim with secateurs, cutting the individual shoots. Time-consuming, but there was only a 15' run about 6' high, so it wasn't a problem.

Ah yes, but if I understand it correctly, Portuguese laurel isn't a true laurel but a rosaceae. Yep, it's a rose!

One laurelly thing it doesn't have is cyanide. The true laurel is loaded with the stuff, and it can be a right pain in the bum when you've got a skipfull of it. We only tried to burn it once - the smell was appalling, though I'm not sure whether we poisoned the neighbours.

Nice lonicera, by the way!

BJ

I've burned hundreds of cherry laurels in my conservation work, the cyanide is denatured by the heat, so isn't a problem. Bonfire season is returning, and they are quaking like aspen when I approach.

In our woodland, the only good laurel is a dead one!

It isn't a Laurel hedge, it's Portuguese Laurel, as some have noticed.

The old hedge was of the first variety and indeed the leaves were big and hard to cut, which is why I went to so much trouble to dig it out. This one has much smaller leaves and is easier.