Garden plant advice

Grenage

1404 said:

FreeBear said:

housebuyer143 said:

What you will find and very quickly is it will engulf the side of your house and if you don't cut it back then the large trunks could eventually many years down the line cause problems. I would cut it back hard next to the house to make sure you always have a gap. Keep on top of it and I don't think it will cause issues to the brickwork. It will entwine with that fence though and I imagine it will ruin it.

Not sure about the roots underground but my Laurel is a beast and you will forever be cutting it back. Don't miss a year or it will be a more than a foot taller the following year. 

Laurel is best pruned at ground level and then the roots dug out. Failure to remove the roots will see it suckering and coming back with a vengeance. Had one in my front garden, and despite pruning at ground level a couple of times, it still shot back up. Only after having a mini-digger for the day did it finally go. Laurel is a fast growing thug of a plant, and like leylandii, totally unsuited for a small garden.

For hedging, I quite like myrtle - Fairly compact, evergreen, and no where near as invasive as laurel. As a plus, you get a nice scent from the leaves & flowers. Not as fast growing, but would be better suited as the OP's laurel is planted too close to the fence to bush out properly.

I've just looked up Myrtle and it's a sun lover. Where these plants are gets very little sun. Pretty much always in the shade. 

There's always privet.  Doesn't grow too fast, easy to keep in shape, and shade tolerant.  It's what I have down the side of my house. 

There are many good options.  Anything that establishes and gets to height quickly will be a nightmare to control.

1404

BarelySentientAI said:

1404 said:

Sarahspangles said:

We removed a similar hedge on a boundary, it was starting to damage the footway.  OH had lots of fun with a mini digger removing the rootballs. As it was on top of a terraced bit of the garden, the impact inside the boundary was limited to suckering for the next three years until we’d rooted out all the bits of root that had worked their way under the first terrace.

It’s a common fallacy that a tree or shrub will have a root zone equal in spread to the height of the tree, when it is the pruned or trimmed height you’re going by. If a small tree would naturally grow to 5m, it could still have a 5m diameter root zone. If it’s cut back at 3m to 1.5m it will use its root zone to put back as much growth as possible each subsequent year, since genetically it’s a 5m tree. It might be slowed down a bit in its re growth by having less top growth for photosynthesis, but it won’t jettison roots.

You can restrict the size of a tree or shrub by restricting its root zone, that’s how bonsais are made.

How do you restrict the root zone? Just by regular pruning to prevent the plant ever becoming more than 6ft (in my case with my Cherry Laurels)?

By having it in a pot.

They've only been planted for a month so that could be an option?

Sarahspangles

1404 said:

Sarahspangles said:

We removed a similar hedge on a boundary, it was starting to damage the footway.  OH had lots of fun with a mini digger removing the rootballs. As it was on top of a terraced bit of the garden, the impact inside the boundary was limited to suckering for the next three years until we’d rooted out all the bits of root that had worked their way under the first terrace.

It’s a common fallacy that a tree or shrub will have a root zone equal in spread to the height of the tree, when it is the pruned or trimmed height you’re going by. If a small tree would naturally grow to 5m, it could still have a 5m diameter root zone. If it’s cut back at 3m to 1.5m it will use its root zone to put back as much growth as possible each subsequent year, since genetically it’s a 5m tree. It might be slowed down a bit in its re growth by having less top growth for photosynthesis, but it won’t jettison roots.

You can restrict the size of a tree or shrub by restricting its root zone, that’s how bonsais are made.

How do you restrict the root zone? Just by regular pruning to prevent the plant ever becoming more than 6ft (in my case with my Cherry Laurels)?

If you read my post, pruning actually encourages the roots to grow. You can physically restrict roots, in theory, but you’d need to sink in 450mm concrete flags which is a lot of effort and expense.

This is a nice plant for a large garden but in your case, they’re in the wrong place.

Privet is a boring but better choice, you could interplant now and then remove the laurels next year.

1404

Sarahspangles said:

1404 said:

Sarahspangles said:

We removed a similar hedge on a boundary, it was starting to damage the footway.  OH had lots of fun with a mini digger removing the rootballs. As it was on top of a terraced bit of the garden, the impact inside the boundary was limited to suckering for the next three years until we’d rooted out all the bits of root that had worked their way under the first terrace.

It’s a common fallacy that a tree or shrub will have a root zone equal in spread to the height of the tree, when it is the pruned or trimmed height you’re going by. If a small tree would naturally grow to 5m, it could still have a 5m diameter root zone. If it’s cut back at 3m to 1.5m it will use its root zone to put back as much growth as possible each subsequent year, since genetically it’s a 5m tree. It might be slowed down a bit in its re growth by having less top growth for photosynthesis, but it won’t jettison roots.

You can restrict the size of a tree or shrub by restricting its root zone, that’s how bonsais are made.

How do you restrict the root zone? Just by regular pruning to prevent the plant ever becoming more than 6ft (in my case with my Cherry Laurels)?

If you read my post, pruning actually encourages the roots to grow. You can physically restrict roots, in theory, but you’d need to sink in 450mm concrete flags which is a lot of effort and expense.

This is a nice plant for a large garden but in your case, they’re in the wrong place.

Privet is a boring but better choice, you could interplant now and then remove the laurels next year.

Pivet requires sun, apparently? The front garden in question is almost always in the shade. There is some evening sun and some morning sun (assuming the sun is out at all).

What about putting my Cherry Laurels in planters? Two planters which 3 Laurels in each of them. 

MysteryMe

I just think you are creating a whole world of pain for yourself leaving those in situ. I'd dig them up invest is some good quality large trough type planters to run along that side of your garden. 

1404

MysteryMe said:

I just think you are creating a whole world of pain for yourself leaving those in situ. I'd dig them up invest is some good quality large trough type planters to run along that side of your garden. 

That's what I'm thinking. I'd get the benefits of the Cherry Laurels but I'd be in control of them.

Sarahspangles

1404 said:

Sarahspangles said:

1404 said:

Sarahspangles said:

We removed a similar hedge on a boundary, it was starting to damage the footway.  OH had lots of fun with a mini digger removing the rootballs. As it was on top of a terraced bit of the garden, the impact inside the boundary was limited to suckering for the next three years until we’d rooted out all the bits of root that had worked their way under the first terrace.

It’s a common fallacy that a tree or shrub will have a root zone equal in spread to the height of the tree, when it is the pruned or trimmed height you’re going by. If a small tree would naturally grow to 5m, it could still have a 5m diameter root zone. If it’s cut back at 3m to 1.5m it will use its root zone to put back as much growth as possible each subsequent year, since genetically it’s a 5m tree. It might be slowed down a bit in its re growth by having less top growth for photosynthesis, but it won’t jettison roots.

You can restrict the size of a tree or shrub by restricting its root zone, that’s how bonsais are made.

How do you restrict the root zone? Just by regular pruning to prevent the plant ever becoming more than 6ft (in my case with my Cherry Laurels)?

If you read my post, pruning actually encourages the roots to grow. You can physically restrict roots, in theory, but you’d need to sink in 450mm concrete flags which is a lot of effort and expense.

This is a nice plant for a large garden but in your case, they’re in the wrong place.

Privet is a boring but better choice, you could interplant now and then remove the laurels next year.

Pivet requires sun, apparently? The front garden in question is almost always in the shade. There is some evening sun and some morning sun (assuming the sun is out at all).

What about putting my Cherry Laurels in planters? Two planters which 3 Laurels in each of them. 

Privet, Berberis (small varieties) and Euonymus will all be fine on a north facing aspect.

A tree in a planter is fine, if dull! But it will need regular water and feeding.

stuart45

Would root barriers work for them?

1404

stuart45 said:

Would roof barriers work for them?

Just googled roof barriers. You mean plant them in the ground but with a membrane around them to stop the spread of roots? 

stuart45

Sorry, I meant root barriers. That's predictive text's fault.