Trees - Cherry Laurel
Back to Trees

  I have a tree in my back yard that produces a tremendous amount of shade. This past winter when we had the terrible ice twice, caused the tree to lose its leaves. Heretofore it had been evergreen. It came back and was in full leaf all year. It sheds some leaves usually just twice a year. It does produce berries. Now it is not looking too well. It has some blotches on the foliage. What can I do?

  The tree or large shrub is a cherry laurel. They are usually quite hardy, but will lose leaves during a particularly cold winter. The main cause for concern with cherry laurels is poor drainage. If your tree has been around awhile I would imagine that is not a problem. This was a hard year on many plants. For now wait and see how it comes out in the spring. It may benefit from a little pruning to encourage it to get thicker and fuller again. This can be done in the spring. Watch the new foliage next spring to see if the leaves are clean or have spots. Usually they are quite tolerant of our conditions and they make a great screen.

  Enclosed is a leaf from our cherry laurel tree. It is in the center of our deck along with an oak tree. The two trees provide almost complete shade for our deck. This year, however, the cherry tree looks sick. We have watered it often. We are concerned that is might die and we’ll lose our shade. Please let us know what the problem might be and advise us how to correct it.

  The leaves on many wild cherry trees have a similar leaf spot this year. Our cool, wet spring caused many tree problems, hopefully mostly superficial in damage. If a shade tree gets defoliated from a leaf spot disease several years in a row, it can weaken the tree which can lead to more serious problems. One bad year shouldn’t be significant. Rake up the falling leaves. Hopefully, next spring will be easier on our trees and we won’t see these diseased spots. For now, I would not recommend spraying them. Monitor them next spring to see how they do.

Back to Trees