Portuguese Laurel Trees and Pleaching

[matt1980]

Hi, I’m a newbie to the forum and to gardening, and really hoping someone will be able to give me some much needed advice regarding some new Portuguese Laurel Trees. I have recently planted 10 of these trees, 1.4m apart, along the back of our garden for screening from neighbours. They are already 3.2m tall and I don’t need them to grow any taller, but I do want them to thicken out and over time meet to form a hedge on stilts.

Is the best and most effective way to do this to pleach the trees? Or should I just trim the foliage part of the tree as if it were a normal hedge?

Any advice anyone can offer is greatly appreciated.

[rainbowgardener]

Pleach meaning to interweave the branches and braid them together? This is the look you are going for?



Apparently those are "pleached" trees, but they don't look much different than just letting them grow into each other.

In general to get a solid hedge, you just plant closer than the recommended spacing, so they will be growing in to each other's "territory." 1.4 meters is very wide spacing for this. They may eventually grow together, but it will take a lot longer than if they were planted closer together:

All types of laurel should be planted between 2 and 3 feet (60-90cm) apart. If you want a quick screen then plant your laurel hedging plants at 2ft apart but if you are willing to wait a bit longer, you will get just as dense a hedge by planting at 3ft apart. Often a good compromise is 2'6" (76 cm) apart.

http://www.laurelhedging.com/faq.html

I think to keep your trees looking like the picture would be a high maintenance project. You don't happen to have a full time gardener on staff, do you?

[321Garden]

Hey, you can saw off the bottom branches of your Portuguese laurel to the desired height. These laurels can push out new growth from old wood, so will have to maintain the elevated hedge look.
Trim the top of the hedge to your desired height. The more you trim the top, the more the hedge will fill in. I recommend trimming the tops at least twice a year, after the new growth flushes out. Usually this is done in May/June and again in Sept/Oct. I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada -- not sure if you are on the other side of the world!!