Hi,

I too am interested in propagating mt laurel so I recently did a search and found this.

"Germinate seeds under mist or a plastic tent. Seeds should receive light during incubation. Cuttings from most wild plants are nearly impossible to grow. Serious growers should refer to Dr. Richard A. Jayne's Kalmia: The Laurel Book, Timber Press. Kalmia in now being commercially produced by tissue culture."

I haven't been able to find much on the web about propagation but everything I've read suggest they are not an easy plant to propagate. Air layering may be the best means of propagation but I'm not sure.

Maybe someone here will know more and in the meantime I'll post a similiar message on the plant propagation forum.

The beautiful mountain laurel can be difficult to propagate. Refer to Richard Jaynes book for more specifics based on his experience. Seeds are tiny and seedling are slow at first. As mentioned above, most plants are difficult from cuttings but it might be worth a try, once again refer to Jaynes' book, generally cuttings are wounded on one side.
The "new" varieties created by Jaynes and other are mass produced through tissue culture.

Woodnative,

In the article, which I pasted in part above, the author says;

"Cuttings from most wild plants are nearly impossible to grow."

I have a mountain laurel that was nursery grown, so would mine be easier to propagate by cuttings than one in the wild?

Pardon my ignorance~

Btw, Amazon sells Dr. Jayne's book on laurel for around $25.00. Not in my budget just now. Maybe I can find one at Border's and sneak a peek.

I do the Borders thing with a lot of books!!(although I do own a copy of Jaynes laurel book). I think there is just a lot of variability among the different clones (and wild plants) as far as rooting ability.
Another option is to call Jaynes directly, at Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden Connecticut, perhaps he or one of his staff can give you help in the right direction!

Woodnative,

Thank you I might just do that. As you have said, it may well be worth a try to attempt rooting mine.

It is nice to look over books over a cup of cappuccino in Border's. Now if only they had a copy machine;)

Although it has to be done w/consideration, Mountain laurel can be transplanted fairly easily in mid-spring. I took plants out of a dense understory grove that you couldn't tell anything was removed, and planted on both sides of a shaded step-way. All survived, but recover slowly. They need soil fungi, leaf-litter & acidic humus, so don't succeed well in "lawns".

Both Dirr and Cullina have helpful tips and both say that K. latifolia is tough to propagate. Both reference Jaynes.

Re: Peggy and Woodnative's comments:

Did anyone see the New Yorker cartoon a few years back of a big display table in a Borders-type bookstore with a sign: "Coffee-stained books"?

Slightly off-topic, with apologies to thread,

-- wd

Ah, the Texas Mountain Laurel. My favorite plant in the world, so far. I have propogated by seed and by cuttings with growth hormone. Seeds are the easiest. Though they must be scarified. I have seen the TML along the highways in Vegas, at the family ranch in South Texas and just about everywhere here in the Texas Hill country. I will be propogating numerous TML by seed within the next few weeks for experimental purposes.
Jill Nokes has a book, "How to grow Native Texas Plants"
that helps with the propogation of not only the TML, but numerous additional natives as well.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
- Bill

the texas mountain laurel is a different plant than the one being discussed in this post. i have heard that it is easy to grow from seed unlike kalmia latifolia, which has seed the size of a grain of sand and that is very slow growing and delicate.

I recently got Dr. Jaynes' book, and he says that there is a big variability in the rooting ease or difficulty in rooting k. latifolia from one particular plant to another. I am in the southwestern-most part of its natural range, and it only grows on the bluffs along local creeks. The soil there is VERY sandy and gritty, with about a foot or more of leaves from the beech and oak trees that grow there.
I plan to take some cuttings from them after they bloom - I've tried before and failed, but I've improved my technique lately, so I think I'll try again. I have 5 1/2 wooded acres, so I've got the right amount of shade, but I don't have the gritty soil. If I succeed in rooting some, I'll just have to try to figure out how to give it soil like the type they like - maybe I'll ask permission to dig up some of the soil in the area where they grow and create some type of super well-drained mound to plant it in.
Sherry

Mountain laurels of North Carolina. If you have branches that are low enough to the ground you can lay them down in the dirt cover them thickly with more dirt and usually they will root them selves. Ihope this makes sence. Then just cut the branch and transplant.

I've germinated these guys from seed but never had luck raising them to flowering size. The seedlings are REALLY tiny and susceptible to rots, overwatering, underwatering, you name it. Still, it was fun to try and people definitely are successful with this species. Go for it!

HI;

Here in NY you can also ground layer. Though, sometimes you may be able to take a clipping *AND* take some soil from the area where the mother plant is to start the cutting. Often, it seems to me, folks start a cutting in soil completely differt from where the plant has lived. Starting in the same soil, then acclimating slowly to the area and soil you wish it to grow by duplicating as close as possible the soil in which it originally grew. eg. woodland type acidic soil with a lot of leafmold. If it's growing under a evergreen grove, it may prefer pineneeles as the main acidic material. Some are more adaptable than others. But if you're having a problem, it's worth a try.

JoyW

Does anyone know where to purchase white flowering Mountain Laurel, specifically kalmia latifolia 'alba'?

i've never seen that one for sale. most garden centers that carry mountain laurel offer the cultivar 'snowdrift', which has pure white flowers.

Thank you for the name of a white flowering cultivar! Someone mentioned to me recently that Frank's Nursery and Crafts offers them and that they sell out fast.

Looking for some advice...
I have a large mountain laurel on my property. It is a beautiful specimen, but appears to be struggling (lacking leaves) and competing with the larger rhodos around it. Could this be due to rhodos blocking out sunlight? It is a wooded area so it is in an understory location. I am considering pruning some of the rhodos so it can get a little more sun, and so I can SEE it! Is this what I should do? I also have a couple native flame azaleas that could be having the same problem. What can I do to get these to flourish?

Kalmias grow very well in this area and we propagate by cutting with about 10 per cent success rate.

Helpful thread!

I just bought a nursery-grown mountain laurel. As I was spreading out the root ball, the plant broke in half (sob)!
Was able to plant the main stem, and with luck it will recover, but wonder if there's any point in trying to save the broken stem. If I did, would it be best to root it near the main plant?

Thanks so much!

Hi,

I carefully read this useful thread after I had the same thing happen as pgtips back in 2004 (the last message in the thread - 3 years ago!). Well, not exactly the same thing because in my case, my mountain laurel was planted for a couple of months and just today I found a large broken off piece sitting beside it. What caused it I don't know. I would think a critter but dunno for sure. The interesting thing is that the broken off end of the stem on the separate piece looks "healed over" yet the branch and leaves look to be in perfect health so far?! I made a fresh cut at on the branch and stuck in water inside but it looks like it will be a real longshot from what I've read in this thread. It's starting to get colder here already so I can't just stick it in the ground.

Any advice? It sure is a large branch (about 1/3 the size of the whole plant) and I sure hate to just throw it away.

Thanks!

Iam New to this site so hi to everyone.
My question is I have 3 laurel's and this summer was so dry that one of them is all brown I think its dead but does anyone know if it will sucker out from roots if I cut it all the way back. (any help )

No, it won't sucker from the roots. If it is still alive and you want to renovate it it's best to do it slowly over a few years as these are very slow growing. Any hard pruning will cause it not to flower for a few years.

Plantfreak how did you get the seed to sprout?I have some seed in an envelope and wasn't sure the tiny dots were seed or chaffe from the dried pods.How did you keep the soil moist but without all the stuff that causes damping off?Did you give the seeds some time in the cold before sowing them?Anyone else who has anything to add, please do.Poaky1

poaky- the seeds are tiny!! Are your seeds fresh?
I have germinated the seeds under fluorescent lights, using a soil wiht a lot of peat/sand and a small terrarium or pot inside a ziploc bag. Sprinkle the seeds on the surface..........they start out slow!! As they grow you can separate them into small pots or space them in a larger pot, until early fall when I plant them out in the garden in a moist (but not wet!), semi-shady spot.

Plantfreak, or anyone else who has an answer. What do the seed or baby leaves of Kalmia latifolia look like? If you can't post a photo, just try to describe them. Do they look anything like the adult leaves? I sowed some in pots and some outside in shade. We've been having so much rain, that if they're going to germinate, they should definitely do so. I am afraid to weed in the area I sowed seeds outside. Thanks for any help.

Here are a couple that I have. Sowing the seeds into moss would help - even if that means lining a flat or container with moss first. These were dug out already growing in moss and then the layer of moss (with dirt) was put into a container with a top (it was a clam-shell plastic container from take-out). The first one seems younger than the second one. Both of them have a dime nearby for reference. Not the best picture on the first one, but I think you can still see what the first set of leaves would look like:

Hope that helps. Those white stringy things in the second picture are dog hairs!

The shape looks right but I only noticed 2 roundish leaves on mine. I sprayed Neptune's harvest kelp on the seeds/ soil just before they sprouted. Maybe that helped germination or was a coincidence. There should be no other seeds in the pot, so I will assume it's K.L. until it proves otherwise. The leaves are about as big as a piece of perlite and I thought it was but looked closer and recognized it's green, not white, and are tiny leaves. How do I care for the babies next winter? Do I overwinter the pot outside, the pot is a quart nursery plastic pot only half full of potting soil. I have seeds other places also, but this pot should have no other seeds but K.L. Thanks for the baby pics.

I bought what was supposed to be mountain laurel seed back in Sept. I planted them and they started to grow pretty quick. As I do with all plants, I began to research these plants to see what the seedlings would look like and was surprised to find my seed wasnt ML after all. Could someone be so kind as to help me ID this "thing" I have been growing...lol...I know it isnt ML according to Esh's pic. Ive searched every weed site I know and every plant site I could and havent been able to ID this. Thanks!
Sorry, just signed up minutes ago so I have yet to navigate the site to know how to post pics in posts. The link will take you to my photobucket for a pic of this "thing" in question

Here is a link that might be useful: unknown plant/weed

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/GaBabyDoll/P1180001.jpg[/IMG]

Hope this works

Oh well, didnt work. So anyway, hope someone knows what this is. I emailed the lady I bought the seeds from but havent heard back from her yet. The seeds were so tiny I could hardly see them. I just had to sprinkle them on top of the soiless mix and didnt bother them until I seen sprouts, then I transfered them to the pots theyre in now.

Try posting it on the "Name That Plant" forum. The link below has a good tutorial on picture posting.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Post a pic

Hurricane Sandy hit us last night. I came out this morning to find that the main stem of my Kalmia Latifolia had snapped right off and the plant was up the street. I just planted the darn thing it last week too. Is there anything I can do to save it? Or is this pretty much money down the drain?

They are tough plants. If you have a root ball, you can probably plant it and have success. When houses are built in the mts. here, rhodes and kalmias are routinely dug up, with the root balls, left standing the many months it takes to build the house, and then replanted, with good results.

Mother Nature delt a terrible blow to your area. Good wishes to all who were affected.

Glad to hear they're tough. I'm amazed that the plant is still green and looking lively after all that happened to it. The main stem snapped off of the root ball entirely, but the part of the stem that broke does still have a very tiny root attached. I nestled the broken stem back into the disconnected root ball hoping it will reattach. I treated it with a rooting hormone and a fulvic/humic acid mix in hopes it will gain some steady footing before the frost comes. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

I have a question, i have on established plant in my garden, at the end of the season all the leaves got leaf spot and now are covered totally in brown spots.
What should i do with it? SHould i pick all the leaves? should i leave it be?