Dead laurel

bouicca21

There’s an old hedge at the front mainly made up of laurel, spotted laurel and a somewhat straggly snowberry, all very much intertwined. The hedge was probably planted in the mid 1960s, so very well established.

The hot spell has left some of the laurel looking as though is been burned.  I’ve cut out some of the dead branches and have come to the conclusion that the spotted laurel is ok.  I’ll continue to cut out the dead bits, but suspect that when I have done that I will discover that the ordinary laurel bushes are completely dead.

I can cut thé laurel right down to the ground but there’s no way I can dig the roots out. Is cutting them right down going to cause any other problems?  Can I leave the roots and plant something else more or less on top? If so what? The hedge is on the west boundary of a south facing garden, it gets a lot of sun and dries out even in normal summer weather.  Clay soil, pretty well neutral.

i don’t want to spend a lot of money - theoretically that hedge is the management company’s responsibility but they won’t do anything about it, so it’s down to me with maybe some help from the neighbours.

Katiehound

Cheapest things would be bare rooted stock in autumn.
I rather like escallonia as it is small leafed evergreen & has flowers which insects love

there's also griselinia. large leaves, comes in variegated which is handsome. Fairly tough. Could grow from cuttings

Brie

We had a cluster of laurel trees die back but within months there was much more growth from the roots.  This was so vigorous I'd be tempted to call it invasive!!!  I'd cut things back as far as it's dead and then leave it to see what happens. If you want something different you might try planting in some honeysuckle or clematis or some other pretty vines that could twine their way along the whole hedge.

bouicca21

Thanks both.  Escallonia is a definite possibility, as there is a very happy one elsewhere in the garden.  If there is a chance that the laurel will come back from the roots, I’ll take it.  Further along there is the stump of a once lovely horse chestnut and that is throwing out healthy new shoots with no signs of disease, so maybe the laurel will too.

twopenny

See what you've got at the end of the dead branches.
Also gently scrape off the bark close to the stem and the main stem itself and see if it's green u underneath which will tell you if it's still alive or not

FreeBear

Brie said: We had a cluster of laurel trees die back but within months there was much more growth from the roots.  This was so vigorous I'd be tempted to call it invasive!!!

I had a laurel out front that I pruned at ground level a couple of times think that it would die. Darned thing kept sprouting up from the roots.... Finally managed to get rid of it when i had a minidigger in to do some "landscaping". Dug out the roots, and bunged them on a bonfire.

Dustyevsky

You will find the laurel returns, vampire like, from the grave. Round my way, the Forestry Commission spend money  drilling out the cut trunks of it and rhododendron, and then inserting glyphosate plugs, all quite often to no avail!

Whatever you plant is likely to have stiff competition.

bouicca21

I shall be very happy if it regenerates itself - it’s by far the best solution.  So I’ll just cut out the dead bits and wait.  

Farway

bouicca21 said:

I shall be very happy if it regenerates itself - it’s by far the best solution.  So I’ll just cut out the dead bits and wait.  

Solves a lot of garden problems