If you have traveled around the county lately then you have surely seen the show that the native Mountain Laurels are putting on. I travel Route 55 between Eldred and White Lake often, and it is the best showing I have seen around the county. 

Part of the reason for the great show is that the deer have chewed many of the leaves off during the winter so that there is no foliage in the way of the beautiful blooms. The leaves will grow back quickly after the bloom season as the deer usually have better things to eat during the summer and right now they are eating plenty. The fawns are out and nothing is safe right now, so spray it all to keep it safe. If you check out Wikipedia, they say that laurel is poisonous to deer, but I have never seen a deer die from eating laurel and they do it every year. 

Forty years ago mountain laurel was a protected species in New York and some New England states due to over-harvesting of laurel greens in the winter to make wreaths. When I started in the garden center business back in the 1980s, we couldn’t even sell mountain laurel. Thankfully the laurels have made a remarkable comeback and can once again be seen throughout the county and for the last fifteen years or so we have been able to sell laurels again too. Through years of selective breeding the modern laurels are much darker in color from the native laurel with their light pink bulbs that open to a white flower. 

Mountain laurel grows throughout the east coast from Maine to the panhandle of Florida and partners well with other evergreens like rhododendron and azaleas. Azaleas have an early spring bloom-time, with rhododendrons blooming in late May-early June and laurels blooming in mid-June to July. So planted together you can give yourself three to months of steady color in the landscape. Like large leaf rhododendrons, laurels can grow well in semi-shady areas as well. Looking at the woods along Route 55 outside Eldred, I can see laurels growing in the woods as far as the eye can see. Now that is not to say they would do well under a pine or spruce, laurels do well under deciduous trees like oak, maple and ash, as they lose their leaves for the winter and the laurel can soak up the winter sun. 

Laurels are happy with acidic soil and although I have read they do not like heavy clay soil, they seem to be doing quite well in Sullivan County and that is the type of soil we have the most of, what I like to call “Sullivan County garbage hardpan”. I planted a laurel this spring in my “Sullivan County garbage hardpan” and it seems to be doing very well, even though some of the leaves did get nipped by the deer. Apparently no one told the deer laurel are suppose to be poisonous. Mountain laurel is a slow-growing shrub that requires little pruning. Dead or broken branches can be removed anytime but pruning for shape should be done in the late spring, just after blooming is completed, because the laurels will start to form next spring’s flower buds by late-August to mid-September. 

Spent flower clusters should be deadheaded after the blooms fade to encourage new leaf growth, but mostly because it makes the plant look nicer. If you’ve missed a few years of pruning and your mountain laurel plants get too tall or gangly for your landscape, cut it back almost fifty percent in the fall to rejuvenate it. Have a great week in the garden.