Laurel Sapling Back From the Dead

[Thanatos42]

Hello all,
A friend of mine with a gigantic laurel tree next to his kithchen dug up and gave me a little sapling (about 2.5 inches tall) that was growing at the base of the tree. I rushed it home to plant.

At the moment of transplanting, it was about 2.5 inches of stem and 3 small leaves (.75 inch each) popping out of the top.

A series of unfortunate events have put the guy through a lot.
1. The person responsible for watering our plants while on vacation last summer (2009) didn't come, and the poor things was waterless for a few weeks.

2. During our winter holiday vacation, a massive storm came through and our gutters overflew, the gushing stream of water that then fell from up there went straight into the Laurels pot. By the time we had gotten back, all the soil was gone and all that was left was the sapling and roots.

I retransplanted the sapling with few hopes. 2 of the three original leaves had shriveled up and fallen off and the remaining one wasn't looking too good.

But then, just a few weeks ago, from the base of the sapling (about 1/2 inch up) sprouted 1, then 2 new leaves!!!

The original leaf is looking a bit on the worn side (next to the vibrant green of the new leaves, I'm not surprised!) and I have not seen any new action from the remaining stem.

My question: Should I prune off the old part of the sapling and see what the younger half does? I would like this sapling to grow into a tree some day and would like any advice on how I should treat it at this moment.

[img]https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4102/4760020106_bccecf7ef2_b.jpg[/img]

Thank you very much!!

Paul