Cherry Laurel Yellowing - Dying?

the_skiing_bear

I hope someone can give me some advice. We recently - end Feb-  had established cherry laurels planted - they are over 1.8m. An irrigation system went in. All was good but we had a problem with over watering - flagged by the neighbour at the back as we flooded their garden. So we reset the timer and reduced the flow which had been set initially by landscaper.

Started to notice the one at the end going yellow- this is where the flooded neighbour lives. There are new green shoots down low on this tree but the top is becoming brown as per pics. We stopped watering completely about 2 weeks ago to allow the tree to dry out. Since then tree has started to look worse with more yellowing and browning of leaves and  this effect has moved further down the tree. I have been using a liquid seaweed fertiliser as advised by local garden centre. We have new turf and are watering the lawn so the trees are getting some water.   The ground around the yellowing tree is still damp to touch. This tree doesn't get any sun down low/around the roots but the others do. 

Any advice on anything further we should do? Be so sad if this tree dies. They are lovely. 

Thank you

sheramber

I would guess the overwatering did the damage. 
Scrape off some of the surface of the higher up shoot and se if they are still alive- green- or dead- brown and dried out).
If they are dead cut   it back to the  fresh green stuff so the plants energy goes into the new growth and not wasted on the dying bit.

the_skiing_bear

the_skiing_bear

The tree is still alive up to the top stem wise. Should we cut back or leave? Thanks 

joannaber

Beware these are very vigorous and will need a lot of trimming. I have some in my front garden and they are a lot of work. I have just discovered mine are covered in powdery mildew as well.

Davesnave

This is the sort of risk you run by planting large, mature shrubs, rather than small ones  that  would grow naturally into their environment, which is also also much more MSE. Just dropping in big plants and relying on someone else's settings for watering has brought you to where you are now, but at least they're laurels that aren't renowned for being too fussy.

This has been a difficult year for plants, so our hedging planted in 2016 has had problems in places through growing too fast, literally snapping its roots in a couple of places in high winds, and ours began as plants 40cm high. There is only one remedy when that happens.....

I would probably reduce by around 1/3 to lessen the strain on the plants. The bushes are doing that naturally by shedding their old leaves. If there are new leaves forming, all should be well in the end

Davesnave

joannaber said:

Beware these are very vigorous and will need a lot of trimming. I have some in my front garden and they are a lot of work. I have just discovered mine are covered in powdery mildew as well.

What would you suggest as an alternative?

Apodemus

Davesnave said:

This has been a difficult year for plants...

You bet! Combination of late frosts, followed by drought and heat and now very wet, windy and struggling to come above 10C during the day here!

You may remember an earlier thread where you linked to a Frosted Thorn (Cretagus prunifolia splendens). I planted a couple of these over the winter and one is showing some promise of coming into flower sometime soon, while the other got badly frosted in late May after coming into leaf, and is looking pretty sorry for itself.  It will survive, but the tip is gone and I would have liked it to be a bit taller before it started to spread.  Both are slightly out of sync with the season, having been beamed-in from nurseries in the South and will acclimatise in due course, but they underline your point about the risks of buying in bigger plants that have not growing up in their final location.

Davesnave

Apodemus said:

Davesnave said:

This has been a difficult year for plants...

You may remember an earlier thread where you linked to a Frosted Thorn (Cretagus prunifolia splendens). I planted a couple of these over the winter and one is showing some promise of coming into flower sometime soon, while the other got badly frosted in late May after coming into leaf, and is looking pretty sorry for itself.  It will survive, but the tip is gone and I would have liked it to be a bit taller before it started to spread.  Both are slightly out of sync with the season, having been beamed-in from nurseries in the South and will acclimatise in due course, but they underline your point about the risks of buying in bigger plants that have not growing up in their final location.

We have a few and one of ours was slightly hit by frost too.

But I was thinking of our mixed hedge of evergreens where, despite being planted as little 0.4m specimens in 2016, two eleagnus,had some of their roots snapped in the winds despite now having trunks thicker than my arm. We let them grow too fast. An autumn pruning might have enabled them to survive. Patience is needed to grow good, tough plants.

Apodemus

Davesnave said:
Patience is needed to grow good, tough plants.

Indeed!  I went off into a local forest yesterday and sourced about 50 young beech seedlings at the two-leaf stage for my new hedge. There are quicker ways, and slower....what I really want is a yew hedge but I’m not that patient!

Davesnave

Apodemus said:

Davesnave said:
Patience is needed to grow good, tough plants.

Indeed!  I went off into a local forest yesterday and sourced about 50 young beech seedlings at the two-leaf stage for my new hedge. There are quicker ways, and slower....what I really want is a yew hedge but I’m not that patient!

The yew patience thing is somewhat overstated. We stuck three hedges in here as windbreaks in about 2013 and they've been well over my head height for some time now; probably about 2.4m now. We trim them so I don't know where they'd be if we didn't. No special treatment beyond watering when young.