Help for Newly Planted Schip Laurels

Hi all, I know there are a lot of schip laurels planted in our area. They look beautiful and I especially like they fact they are evergreens. I just had a number of SL shrubs planted, and within a week many of them have yellow leaves on the lower half of the plant, and two of the shrubs have already withered. Are SLs that difficult to grow? What am I doing wrong? I have been watering them daily since they were planted. They are planted in a semi-shade location. Please help. I paid a lot of money for them and to have them planted.

Sorry to hear this!

Possible issues-

Poor drainage-how wet is the soil around your SL?

Transplant shock.

Fungus/bacteria in soil/root ball.

Can you take pictures and show us?

Hi, TIA for your help. Here are some pictures.

More pictures. Don't know why i can't post more than one at a time.

My bet is over-watering.

One more.

Over watering?

Check the root balls. They should be moist, not wet.

Don't think you've killed them.  Switch to watering like every third day so that the ground is moist not soaked.

They look better than ours which have been in the ground for two winters!  This winter was hard on schips. lot's of winter burn on the leaves.

Best Regards,

Ron Carter The Secret Garden @ 377

It could also be transplant shock.  This had happened to me once with azaleas.  They rebounded after yellowing leaves and leaf drop right after being planted. Water as rcarter says.  If you can put a drip line or a soaker hose on it and water deeply then that would be better than aiming the hose at it for some time every three days.  

Good luck.  Hopefully the place you bought these from offers a guarantee on the shrubs.

Here is some detailed info about watering newly planted shrubs, based on the size of the shrub.  Worked for me.

(if the link brings you to a more general page, click on "How to water your new landscape planting."

http://www.hawkslandscape.com/landscape-advice-from-the-experts/

I'm not an expert, but that does look like transplant shock. To be expected. The nursery that sold us our schip laurel did tell us to water it every day for the first season. 

I did notice that our SL and just about everyone's in these two towns got burned pretty bad this past winter. 

Feel the ground around the base of the plants. If it is squishy, over-watering is the culprit. Cut back your watering, and feel the ground before you water. If it's very wet, wait until it's barely moist before watering.

This past winter seems to have been VERY hard on a lot of landscaping.

Also hopefully they were planted correctly...ie burlap untied and roping taken off.

Yes, that would be a very good thing.