I live in a wooded area of southeastern PA and it is well known to all landscapers. Garden nurseries such as Snipes in PA, or in NJ Vincentown Nursery that sell the varieties of laurel (though most prefer the easier Schipkaensis laurels, that annual fertilizing of the shrubs is recommended in Spring to maintain as well as to promote good foliage and growth. Winters here are not exactly a predictable trend, and even this past season, the leaves in some of the middle sections have turned brownish or yellow. The plants are not completely deer-proof even after they get dense and quite tall. So my posting is based on my own experience as well as those professionals whom I have been in contact with. The soil can be whatever it is but laurels are an acidic fertilizer loving plant like a blueberry, azalea, or rhododendron, and most evergreens as the Holly. So I hold to my comment about fertilizers and schedule. Not many ever commented on their care in the past on the web. Others had similar problems with the laurels dating back to 2006, and not one comment appeared until 2012. So thanks for the reply and concerns. If yours are doing good then good for you. Mine are quite dense, lush and full bearing with flowers, berries, and new leaf growth. Of course every Spring, there is always a very small amount of spent leaves.

You can feed Schip (Skip or Schipkaensis) Laurels as you would most other evergreen shrubs.

==>>> imo no shrubs ever need be fed .. period ...

ken

ps: of course .. pH adjusting is a soil amendment .. not food ..

pps: I live in a wooded area of southeastern PA and it is well known to all landscapers.===>>> never heard of it ....

"but laurels are an acidic fertilizer loving plant like a blueberry, azalea, or rhododendron, "

I'm sorry but the information you have or have been given is incorrect. Laurels, Prunus laurocerasus, are NOT an acid loving shrub. They are members of the rose family (so not at all ericaceous) and in fact, they are not picky about soil pH at all and will grow just about as equally well in acidic soils, neutral or even slight alkaline soils. Therefore they do not require an acid based fertilizer, either. To take it further, they do not require any sort of routine fertilization - as ken mentioned, few shrubs or trees established in the landscape ever require fertilizing. This is pretty much a myth promulgated by the fertilizer manufacturers, not by anyone who knows much about plants :-))

FWIW, I have been a member of these forums since before the Millennium and I have responded to care requests and advise on various laurel cultivars numerous times over that period. If you do a search on this forum you will find pages of discussions.......

My skip laurels are developing round holes on the leaves. What can I do?

@HU-297596717, do some research on shot hole disease. It is a very common problem with Prunus laurocerasus with some cultivars being more susceptible than others. HERE is a link to previous discussions of this issue.

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) I recently planted a row of schip laurel as a boarder hedge. I live in SE Pa with heavy clay soil. Very poor drainage. My question is how often should I water them? I'm concerned about root rot because of the poor drainage.

If it's too wet they won't succeed. And you may have to put in a drainage line in order to get the site to accommodate anything other than swamp plants. Otherwise water the new planting often enough to keep it moist during dry periods, same as with all other new plantings. Poke around in the soil to keep track of how moist it is if you can't tell otherwise.

All fertilization should be based on particular knowledge of existing soil mineral content on each site being considered for treatment. With soil sampling and testing being the repeatedly recommended way to check. And One Size Fits All fertilization recommendations being therefore bad advice. That when followed for a long enough period of time could easily result in overapplication occurring, a toxicity being produced. Commonly overdone phosphorus applications for instance have the nuisance aspect of P leaching very slowly, so that a toxic buildup has to be corrected by excavation and replacement of affected soils.

Thanks for that info. The surface soil isn't swampy but Ive pulled out of the ground other plants in the area and since its a clay soil even though the surface of the soil seemed not too moist the roots were wet.

the roots were wet

= swampy for all practical purposes unless it was due to recent watering