Snow has damaged Laurel hedge

skipton

Part of our Laurel hedge has bent over and now broken with the weight of snow and ice. Should we cut them off at the base or further up above the broken branches waiting until Spring to cut the damage wood away?

greyteam1959

Whatever you do laurel will not re grow successfully.
I think you will have to replant to be honest

paddy's_mum

Sorry to disagree but laurel will grow successfully - it's obvious really or otherwise why would there be so many tightly trimmed laurel hedges in existence?

Skipton - with sharp secateurs or loppers, trim away just below the broken part. Then just leave and watch new shoots come in the spring. Within a year or so, you should find that the new growth has filled in the gap nicely.

Don't leave the damage untended or you may find disease getting in. A neat cut will dry and heal over very quickly. Hope that helps.

skipton

Thanks Paddy's mum. We cut the branches back with a cr...p hand saw as we couldn't get to the chain saw so we had to cut them quite high up. The branches are about 15ft to 20ft so the weight of them bending has caused the main damage to the trunks. We had said in Dec they needed drastic action to avoid the very thing that has happened.

Jawuk

mervyn11 wrote: »

Whatever you do laurel will not re grow successfully.
I think you will have to replant to be honest

I've rejuvenated a sizable spotted laurel hedge by cutting it back very hard - it took 3 years to regrow to the size and shape I was after but now looks fantastic, and so much better than when it was high and too open.

emmahip

I inherited some very straggly laurels and was very pleasantly suprised at how well they grew back after a severe pruning. I did prune in late autumn though.

Biggles

Laurel benefits from a good hard pruning from time to time, it's very resilient.

Mine got out of hand a few years ago and, while there were plenty of leaves six feet up, there were just bare stems at eye level.

A good hard pruning left them looking like dead (six-foot) stumps for a few months, but they soon came back better than ever.