Start by checking roots for soil moisture problems.

BBoy and Yankee,
Thank you for your replys.

I have checked the roots on my problem shrub. I found no issues. The roots were dry if anything. The soil I have here in DE is more or less sandy. Drainage is never a problem.

Yankee,
You mentioned that you removed leaves and re-growth appeared. Did the new growth come back where the old leaf was removed? Have you used fertilizer on your Schips yet? What type? I have not used anything yet, but I am assuming acidic since they are evergreens. I would hate to have to replace this plant. Local nurseries are charging $75 for a 6', smaller sizes are not available yet. Have you seen any "volunteers" come up from seed? I will let you know if I find any other tricks.

Thanks again for your reply.

I can't say that new growth came exactly from where leaves were removed, but it came on the same branches. That particular bush is now doing well.

I fertilized recently lightly with Hollytone. I read to do so before Spring growth. I have not had any others popping up, but that might be because they were planted after blooming time last year.

I couldn't find much on this shrub at all online. Frustrating...I'm wishing I skipped the schips. I was given a link here on gardenweb and that is below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Schip Laurels:

Soil moisture problems include drying out. Sounds like it dried out and burned up--although without even seeing the plant in question there isn't enough information to be sure of any particular possibility. Was it field grown, with a soil ball? Claylike field soil can dry out between grower and end consumer, not rewet readily. Coarse, soilless potting soil also apt to shed water to finer soil around plant after planting. Plant may dry out before it roots into soil around original root mass left from pot.

Yankee, Thank you for the link. I remember the bushes were covered with seed late last summer. The birds appear to have taken them all from the ground. (I found one). I'll have to put some this fall.

Bboy, The plant was field grown. I didn't think about the soil condition within the ball, good point. This was one of those weekend, buy the plant, dig the hole, add some peat moss, fertilize, plant then water weekend installations with the kids at my heals. I'll check that out and further amend the surrounding soil if required. I will remove the dry leaves and stems and pay better attention to the watering cycle. It has just recently warmed to the point that I can start up my irrigation system. I have a trickle hose around each of my Schips.

Thanks again for your help.

I moved three of my skip laurels last night. Two of them were not doing well, with half yellow leaves all over. The funny thing is, even though they had so much yellow, they also had seeds and the beginnings of flowers. They were very much alive. I removed a lot of the yellow leaves that came easily off. The place I moved them to is a little higher and drier and for two of them a little more protected. Hopefully they'll bounce back.

The original intent for these laurels was to be a screen, but with them being so tempermental, I never see them living up to what I once envisioned. I moved them to the back of the yard and I am probably going to go with arborvitae or something similar for screening where the laurels used to be.