landlubber

Hi folks, i am new to this site but desperately need help!
My Laurel hedging is looking very sick. The leaves are brown and curled and possibly have rust on them. Have tried to cut back , then sprayed with various types of pest control sprays, advised by garden centres. results are worse than ever, every time i cut back, good green shoots appear, If I leave it for a week it is as bad as ever. I really don't want to remove them as they form a screen to the boundary giving good privacy. HELP! Please.

 

Don't know what causes this, but I have one patch of laurel which has been badly affected with brown and curling leaves, and now has a lot of holes in the leaves, so something must have been eating it. Another patch of laurel has only trivial damage. My plan is to do very little, and hope it get better. Laurel is usually pretty resilient.

I wouldn't keep cutting your hedge back. That will weaken it, and probably make the problem worse. I would feed it, if you haven't, to help it fight off whatever is the cause of the problem.

 

Cheers Beechleaf, Yep mine have holes in the leaves too. Problem is this is the second year of problems and it is getting really bad now, guess I will stop trimming it for a while and see what develops, I will feed it though, and keep you posted.

 

Landlubber

I used to have a garden bordered by a long laurel hedge and it periodically suffered from various leaf ailments. But laurel is very tough, with a powerful root system, and I don't think I've ever seen one die back in the way that, say, privet does when it gets old. Just keep an eye on it and kill any visible pests that you can identify.

 

Yeah cheers, I too have had healthyish Laurels in the past at different homes, never seen this one before though! I live in the New forest, so Hampshire based like you, it was interesting to know that Beechleaf has the same problem up in Yorkshire! when it stops raining (IF!) I am going to give the whole Hedge a good feed and hope that it rewards me!

 

Landlubber, any chance of a photo or 2 ? :thumb:

 

Hi David!

Well! I really never expected to meet someone SO quickly on joining one of these things,

I thought it was a Gardeners forum, but of course you can have my photo!


Seriously, Yeah, when the rain ceases I will go take some photo's of the plants,

Jan

 

Saucy.:D

 

Hello David
I Have tried to send the photo's of the sickly Laurel, but can't upload them from my PC
Please can you advise me how to do it? Many thanks, Jan

 

Hi again folks, still trying to find out how exactly I upload pics from my PC, when I know, I will show you the real nasties off my Laurel hedging. Jan

 

Please see photos:

 

Marley Farley. Thank you for your assistance , not too hot with a computer! Jan

 

Landlubber

Looks like a bad case of powdery mildew to me. It used to cripple patches of the laurel hedge I had in my last garden. There's some useful info here:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0101/laurel_leaf.asp

 

Flinty, THANK YOU! XXXX Yes it cetainly looks and sounds familiar, will go with the treatment and green fingers crossed! Jan