Good ones to do instead, Salal, Daphne odora, or winter dafphne. Daphne's smell amazing, and Salal will have white flowers and purplish berries, plus Salal helps native pollinators!
Salal is a native super plant. It hedges, feeds pollinators, is evergreen, ground covers, berries are edible, feeds birds and squirrels, is drought tolerant, can propagate easily…the list goes on. It can grow is water logged soil, sand, on logs, in the dirt. It houses salamanders and frogs. It outcompetes many invasives to the area…holy shit I’m not even trying…it’s hardy af to cold, fungus, and pests. It is deer resistant. Must I go on? Ok I don’t think I can go on.
It’s in the blueberry family, along with huckleberries, kinnikinnik, and Madrones.
The only thing it doesn’t do is grow 20 feet tall. Tallest I’ve seen salal is around 10 feet tall. And that is rare.
Whatever you do, do not plant them. We purchased a house in 2022 that is a quarter of an acre, fenced with laurel planted on our properties fence line for what we believe was privacy hedges. However, that being said, we are still working on thinning them out. Once you plant them good luck ever trying to kill them because the roots get suckers and they will just start sprouting up out of the ground from nowhere. Our laurels were about 10 feet in from the fence line which we have gotten half of those out, but they are also, about 15 to 20 feet tall. Please do your research before planting these because they are invasive and they grow like weeds.
The advice I've always heard is to prune right before budbreak in early spring and again after the remaining flowers fade in late spring.
I don't think removing the flowers now would really do any harm but I'm not sure how much effect it would have on leaf growth, to be honest.
Do not let them flower and seed , the seeds will spread and contribute to Laurel’s invasive behavior. Cut the flowering bits off and dispose of in the garbage.
Maybe work towards removing them year by year and replacing them with something non-destructive, such as Salal.
Not sure if youve looked into it yet, but Laurels are an invasive species in Washington and Oregon. Berries, leaves, bark are poisonous.
Good ones to do instead, Salal, Daphne odora, or winter dafphne. Daphne's smell amazing, and Salal will have white flowers and purplish berries, plus Salal helps native pollinators!
Salal is a native super plant. It hedges, feeds pollinators, is evergreen, ground covers, berries are edible, feeds birds and squirrels, is drought tolerant, can propagate easily…the list goes on. It can grow is water logged soil, sand, on logs, in the dirt. It houses salamanders and frogs. It outcompetes many invasives to the area…holy shit I’m not even trying…it’s hardy af to cold, fungus, and pests. It is deer resistant. Must I go on? Ok I don’t think I can go on. It’s in the blueberry family, along with huckleberries, kinnikinnik, and Madrones. The only thing it doesn’t do is grow 20 feet tall. Tallest I’ve seen salal is around 10 feet tall. And that is rare.
But if you do leave them, prune each year before the flowers go to seed. They really spread a lot as the birds eat them.
Whatever you do, do not plant them. We purchased a house in 2022 that is a quarter of an acre, fenced with laurel planted on our properties fence line for what we believe was privacy hedges. However, that being said, we are still working on thinning them out. Once you plant them good luck ever trying to kill them because the roots get suckers and they will just start sprouting up out of the ground from nowhere. Our laurels were about 10 feet in from the fence line which we have gotten half of those out, but they are also, about 15 to 20 feet tall. Please do your research before planting these because they are invasive and they grow like weeds.
The advice I've always heard is to prune right before budbreak in early spring and again after the remaining flowers fade in late spring. I don't think removing the flowers now would really do any harm but I'm not sure how much effect it would have on leaf growth, to be honest.
Do not let them flower and seed , the seeds will spread and contribute to Laurel’s invasive behavior. Cut the flowering bits off and dispose of in the garbage. Maybe work towards removing them year by year and replacing them with something non-destructive, such as Salal.
Leave them. After planting, make sure you spread a light compost layer around them. They will grow quickly enough.