Late spring or early summer is the best time to trim most hedges including laurel and leylandii hedges. You can prune a laurel hedge with secateurs – which is not as labour-intensive as it sounds – or with a hedgetrimmer.
How hard can you cut back laurel?
Laurel can be trimmed or pruned to the height you require and, if it grows too big, it can be cut back as hard as you like – right back to the stump if necessary – and it will re-grow quickly into a new hedge.
How do you prune an overgrown laurel tree?
Start by reducing the height using a taught string line to keep it level, the height can be reduced drastically by several metres if necessary (even taking the plants back to stumps) although the work can be split over a couple of seasons if you are cutting the height back by more than one third.
How do I make my laurel bushier?
To prune laurel to encourage growth, we’d recommend trimming the branches and cutting them back several times a year (depending on how fast it grows) by up to a quarter. This makes the bush come back bushier and thicker than before more rapidly.
When should laurel be pruned? – Related Questions
Can you prune laurel in September?
Laurel hedges may be trimmed at any time during the season but its best to avoid the coldest months of the year as the cut edges may be susceptible to frost damage. Many text books advise trimming Laurel hedging plants with secateurs to avoid cut edges to the large leaves, it really isn’t necessary.
Can you shape a laurel?
Remember to trim your laurel hedge into a sort of “A” shape, but with a flat top. A slight taper to a hedge – wider at the bottom than at the top – allows light and air to get to the lower branches, keeping them healthy and covered in leaf.
How do you make a hedge bushier?
Hedges are formed from upward growing plants, so to encourage a thick hedge the growth tips need to be removed. This encourages the laterals to develop. And clipping the laterals encourages them to also become dense with foliage.
How do I make my plant grow bushier?
If you leave the plant unpruned, the stems would simply go on to trail all around, making it look leggier and thinner. Snip off stems that are falling downwards. It will ensure the plant grows fuller on the top. Also, cutting right above the node will help it grow two more stems, making it bushier over time.
What is the best feed for laurel?
When you are planting a new Laurel hedge we always recommend using bone meal, this is a natural organic fertiliser that should be well mixed with the soil. One kilo of bone meal will be sufficient for a 15 metres of hedge planting.
How often should you water laurels?
Ongoing care for your laurel hedge
Your hedge will need plenty of water for the first two weeks so make sure you water them at least every other day or set up a continuous watering system.
What kills laurel bushes?
Use a concentrated herbicide containing glyphosate or metsulfuron as the active ingredient if applying in late summer and early fall well before the threat of frost.
How many times a year should you cut a laurel hedge?
A laurel hedge only needs trimming once a year. The best time to prune is late spring or early summer.
How do you maintain laurels?
Once you’ve planted your laurel hedging plants, you need to make sure they get enough water to keep them alive and growing well. Usually plants only need watering from March to October. During the winter months, they use less water and normally get enough from the rain.
What is the lifespan of a laurel?
It has a life span of approximately 50 years. Laurel Oak thrives in either full sun or partial shade. It grows in upland, sandhill, and dune areas with dry, well-drained, and sandy soils; it is also tolerant of wet and periodically flooded conditions.
Why do laurels go brown?
Frost damage during the winter months can cause brown patches on established Laurels of all types and is usually at its worst when there is a very cold wind with no protective cover of snow to protect the winter foliage.
How tall do laurels grow?
An unpruned English laurel can reach up to 40 feet in height, but keeping it around 10 to 12 feet tall makes it a perfect backyard privacy screen.
Can you keep a laurel tree small?
Bay Laurel can be grown indoors in pots, and outdoors as shrubs and also as trees. It is a slow growing plant and can reach heights of 59 feet in the conditions are right. Although the plant is a tree at heart, it can be kept smaller by pruning the plant or growing it in containers near your vegetable garden.
Is a laurel a tree or a bush?
The laurel is an evergreen shrub or small tree, variable in size and sometimes reaching 7–18 m (23–59 ft) tall. The genus Laurus includes four accepted species, whose diagnostic key characters often overlap.