Help! Portuguese Laurels

[Motnight]

We bought 6 of these and plante them 10 days ago. They came in 20 litre pots and are between 150 and 170 cm tall.

We have been watering them most days, live in London and there has been no rain. Noticed that for the last few days leaves have been turning yellow. Even for the one tree we have kept in it's pot in a different space. DH has just given them Maxicrop.

Are they doomed? What are doing wrong?

Many thanks 😔.

We had our laurel hedge planted last year around this time. Were told to water it twice a week, if there was a lot of rain we didn't bother.

Sounds as though you may be watering too often ?

Thank you that is really helpful. We were told to water every day for a month!

You can't really over water trees. Did you pull out the rots and make sure the holes were the right size etc. I suspect they're thirsty and struggling to get water given the dry weather.

pull out the roots

Mine were planted in late winter and had quite a few yellow leaves when the new leaves started growing, they have now dropped off and been replaced with new leaves (and are looking really healthy).

May just be that, many evergreens have some leaves turn yellow and drop off in spring as part of the normal renewing of the foliage.

Interested to know the answer to this as I planted some 1.75-2m cherry laurel in February and one looks almost completely yellow

Cherry laurel is very different to Portuguese though.

I find they are tricky to get going. I’d keep up with the watering. Are you watering enough? Like a good ten seconds with a hose for each?

Oh no! Conflicting advice re watering 😮!

What sort of laurel?

All trees will need a lot of watering when planted in the middle
of a dry hot spell. I’d be really surprised if you’re over watering them at the moment.

for context I have three laurels (cherry though not Portuguese) living in my pond atm. They’re just plonked there in the water waiting for it not to be so dry.

Hi Cinders was this question for me or OP? Yes, I'm watering for a good length of time, but only twice a week as that's what I was advised. It has been very sunny here this last couple of weeks so do you think I should up this?

It was just for the OP.

Watering every other day (I thought that dp was watering daily but just checked).

Yeah, I was wondering how much water.

I really should read the OP properly 😳

Ignore me @Motnight . I have cherry laurel.

I planted a few of the same sized Portuguese laurel 3yrs ago, this time of year too. So many of the leaves went yellow and fell off and I thought I'd overwatered and was killing them. However they "recovered" fine and all the plants look amazing now, really full and very green and tall. I think they just went into shock when being planted into the flower bed which can happen. Carry on with the regular watering as they do need it to help get the roots established.

We planted our hedge ten years ago, advice from a landscape architect pal was to water every day for several months, and water daily during dry spells for the first two years. We followed this plan, and it is thriving, and needs no further water at all.

Probably a smidge of transplant shock - they've been living in a nursery in pots (I assume) and now they've been plonked in the ground to fend for themselves and they are having a little twitch.

Laurel is tough as old boots - the house opposite cut their huge ones back to stumps a couple of years ago and they are now nearly back to where they are.

Don't panic, give them time to get their bearings, make sure they don't dry out, it's hard to overwater something in the ground as the water can drain away but go for a good soak less often rather than a sprinkle more often.

Are they in full sun -last year in v hot spells I put in canes and draped fleece to keep sun off plants and pot.