Laurel hedge maintenance questions

Sconsey

Hi,

I planted a Portuguese Laurel hedge a few years back. The plants were about a meter tall when I planted them, they have since grown to about 3 meters. Couple of problems…they have become very bare at the bottom half, they've gone from a very healthy looking 2 meter tall hedge to a scraggy looking 3 meter hedge. They are also too wide now for my liking. I did very little pruning or management in fairness.

Ideally I would like to encourage growth of leaves in the lower half, reduce the width of the hedge and reduce the height if necessary.

I do not know how to approach pruning, I don't want to destroy the hedge. If I reduce the width of the hedge by pruning, would you expect the leaves to grow back closer to the middle (there is nothing int here at the moment only branches, I assume because of no sunlight)? Would reducing the height of the hedge encourage the growth of leaves again lower down on the plants? Any other general advice, is now a good time to do this?

Thanks

looksee

You can hack portugese laurel to the ground and it will re-sprout. You need to reduce the hedge by at least half, and take the sides in too. You may argue that you want it fairly tall, it will be as tall as you want within a season of cutting it back, two at most.

With all hedges you have to start cutting them back way before they get to the height you want.

standardg60

A pic would be good here OP.

But generally, if you leave a hedge to it's own devices it will grow up and out and drop it's lower leaves because as you say they're no longer receiving any light. A good hack should sort them. Start at the bottom and cut back so the branches spring level, and then work inwards as you go up at approx 20°. Bring the height down to wherever the branches are stable.

Madd002

Hedge needs to be cut end of March when new growth has sprouted top and sides, and maybe again around Oct if new shoots have appeared again,if not they become woody sparse and harder to maintain.

Each year new growth is about 2ft, but when I cut, I cut down to last years previous cut where old wood is and I use that as my guideline to keep a neat hedge.