Gerard Blanc wrote:
Hi,

The Laurel hedge plants at each end of the hedge in my garden are 7
feet tall but the ones in the middle are only 4 feet and not very
bushy, while some have almost completely died. I've replaced dead
plants in the middle section of the hedge with new plants 3 times
over 6 years because they all died in succession. The hedge has a
watering system so they've definitely had enough water but thinking
it could be a drainage problem on the third occasion I added
drainage. Doing this helped the new plants for a while and they put
on 6 inches of growth in the first year, however this Spring, a year
and a half after being planted, three of the new plants died and now
the plants either side are not thriving. These older plants were 5ft
tall when planted and have only put on a foot of growth in 5 years,
they aren't very bushy and on close inspection seem a little sick.
They grew a little earlier this year but the new leaves are small
while some branches have died. I recently dug a 1.5 ft hole in the
garden near the hedge and half filled it with water, it almost
completely drained in 3 hours, so the problem doesn't seem to be
drainage. The hedge is 13 years old and overall is a nice deep green
colour and the plants at either end are doing well, it's just the
middle section approximately 16 metres long which isn't. The problem
isn't food and they definitely have enough water and drainage doesn't
seem to be the cause. Thinking a disease might be responsible, I dug
up one of the dead plants and the roots were fine and well developed
- I broke a fork trying to get it out!

All of the hedges belonging to my neighbours which face the road are
also not doing brilliantly, so it seems it might be something to do
with the road. The road however is separated from the hedge by a
public footpath and a green verge and new trees planted on the verge
by the council are doing alright.

I really need a mature hedge to give me privacy and I am thinking
about having mature 2m plants put in which will cost approximately
£5000.00. Naturally I want to minimise the chance that these new
expensive plants will die and wondered if anyone knew of an expert I
could pay to identify the problem and suggest a solution.


Are the plants far enough apart that they aren't just competing themselvs to
death. The end plants doing OK suggests to me the plants could be too close
together, since the end plants won't have so much competition.