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Cherry Laurel hedging
CharleyD
Posts: 440
I've just planted a couple of 4 foot cherry laurel hedging plants to hide a fence that our neighbour has just put up in place of a hedge. The plants have berries on at the moment but when I look around over here (Isle of Man), I don't see many berries on other laurels. Does anyone know the secret to getting laurels to flower and produce berries please?
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Yes, stop cutting it back into a hedge
My big laurels flower, the laurel hedge doesn't
In the sticks near Peterborough
Oh ok, so if I treat them as two separate plants and let them go their own way? What about chopping the tops though to keep them bushy? Do you think I'll get away with that?
Welshonion, I just like the look of them ...
I'd do a chop all round to get them bushy. Have you any idea how big a laurel is if you leave it unpruned
I shall be (or OH will be) doing a big chop on a couple of ours this year as they're going into the electric wires along the road.
The width matches the height
In the sticks near Peterborough
Yes, ha ha, it won't be long before we get our privacy back. I'd read that they grow as wide as they do tall. How long though do you think I should wait before giving them a chop all over, with them being newly planted today?
I'd nip out the ends of all the stems, not much, just a couple of leaf's worth. It will encourage it to bush out. I don't think it's too late in the season to do that. Don't be tempted to just let it go, it could end up a bit 'see through'
In the sticks near Peterborough
Buying female plants is a good way of getting berries! And yes trim them too shape! I'm removing some hedging from a clients garden that didn't have the top pruned out and they are the best part of 40 foot high at least
I'll be on to it tomorrow Nut. Thanks for your help.
Ok Rhod, at the risk of showing my ignorance, (I'll plead that I'm a novice gardener with only a year's experience ) - how do I tell if I have a female plant????
Laurels have both male and female parts in the flowers as far as I know.
They don't come in male and female like hollies do.
In the sticks near Peterborough