new mountain laurel leaves curling and browning

I've never played with soil acidity before and have purposely avoided rhododendrons and azaleas so that I wouldn't really have to, but my daughter, Laurel, wanted a plant of some sort in our garden like her sister, Rowan, has a tree. Rowan trees are pretty common here so that was an easy one for me, but a Laurel? Ideally, I would like a bay standard in my herb garden, but they aren't hardy here in Toronto. I haven't managed to successfully transition one indoors for winter yet, so I thought I would venture into the realm of acid-loving plants.

I don't know whether it's ph or some other thing I'm doing wrong, but the kalmia I planted about 3 weeks ago is starting to curl it's leaves and this morning I found that the leaves are turning brown.

Following my normal wish and a prayer style, I didn't test the soil before planting but just assumed that it was fairly alkaline. (I grew up in this general area, as did my mother -- she and my grandmother love/d azaleas and they always put something into the soil to make it acidic enough for them. Basis for my assumption of ph, as well as for my belief that acid-loving plants are tricky and demanding). Mom said pine needles, so I dug a fair amount into the soil before planting. When I noticed the leave curl yesterday, I went out to get a soil testing kit and it tested neutral. I read in posts here that coffee grounds increase acidity, so I watered some in around the bush. Today, the leaves are turning brown. What am I doing?!

I've been watering, but not soaking. It gets 3-4 hours of sun each morning. By about 11am it's shaded by a big maple for the rest of the day. Oh and, for those of you who didn't read my post about my decimated forsythia, the mountain laurel got a good helping of blood and bone meal about 2 weeks ago. I can't see any pests -- there are no holes in the leaves and the leaves aren't curled tightly as if wrapped around something.

Help, please! Suggestions for some other sort of Laurel plant I could try would be appreciated as well, just in case... :(

Hi fitsandstarts, wow, you have chosen some real nice Scottish names for you kids and plants, we sometimes call these the Calico bush and they have lovely flowers, and evergreen, they like a slight acid soil as do the Rhodi's and Azalias, and you can add acidity to the soil by adding lots of peat, this also helps to keep the soil a bit more moist as this is another preference that the trees/shrubs like, also add a good mulch to help stop evaporation. I know that you are in zone5, and this will have cold to freezeing winters on occasions, however, IF you are having a real hot spring/summer, then I would think your problems are more lack of water right now than the lack of acidity, the later would normally take a wee bit longer to show up, like yellowing of the leaves. IF I were you, I would be inclined to lift your lovely Laurel, move it to a more shaded area if thats pos, make the planting hole much deeper and wider than the size of the rootball, then add a whole lot of peat mixed in with your pine needles, just to get the plant to settle as it sounds as if it has suffered a bit of a shock due to the conditions you have described, I would NOT add any acid plant food just yet till it has had time to recover, but, say in about a month or so, you could give some then, either as a liquid feed or soluable, liqide will work faster and be used up more or less instantly, but the soluable feeds will be slower and over a longer period of time, if it helps, while the weather is very dry and hot, as you plant you can either insert a bit of hosepipe into the hole or say a plastic juice container (large) cut the bottom off the container and put the neck into the root area of the hole, then when you water, fill the drink container/ hosepipe up with water a few times, that way, you will get the needed water to the root area and not run off and spread when it aint going down. IF you cant move the plant, then I would still do the above, but be really vigilent with the watering, they origionally came from semi shaded wooded areas,therefore dampish soil, and a new young tender plant will suffer with hot sun and lack of moisture, you can add the acidity to the planting area as mentioned, if you cant move it. I feel sure that once you get this tree/shrub established, it will be OK, and maturity will allow it to overcome Hot and cold conditions for a short duration. Hope this helps as these are lovely plants and should give many years of pleasure. good luck, hope it works out for you. WeeNel.

Thanks so much WeeNel! Moving the mountain laurel into more shade in that space is easy, as it's under an old Manitoba Maple. The roots may be drier than I think, as well, because of the maple. I like the juice container idea -- I certainly go through lots of those in my house!

Cheers!

Hi fits and start, if you have loads of thes plastic juice containers, then cut the tops off when you start your seeds in pots, place the container on top of you seed pot(bottom side up) and you have a little mini green house, also if you have say some young plant getting eaten buy slugs, use them as a shield/coller by cutting the bottom of, remove the screw cap, this will alow air in, and place it around the plant till it gets strong enough to take a few nibbles from the slugs etc, recycling is they way to go eh. good luck with your new Mountain Laurel, the roots of your shade tree will take up a lot of the soil moisture, take care this year and by next year it will be able to withstand some dryness, but not too much. Good Luck, WeeNel.

Hi WeeNel -- I moved it, peated it, did the juice container/hosepipe thing, and it went into shock, I think for a few days but is now showing new growth. Thank you so much!

Hi fitsandstarts, so happy that you got the new tree moved and watered, it prob had that problem at the start anyway, but the peat should help to keep the soil that wee bit more moist long enough to let the roots get at it, but the juice container will help more as you have better control as to how much water gets to the roots and also it IS getting to the roots, once you see it picks up even more, give it a mulch around the root area as this will stop evaporation in the really warm weather, keep up the watering till you feel the weather start to cool down end of season, the last thing you need in the real frosty weather is for the roots to freeze, start rewatering when you see new leaf start next spring, and try to reduce the amount a little as it gets going, then you will notice by then if it is too dry, you want it to have settled into growing new roots by then and it will be able to withstand a little dryness as it matures, just keep an eye on it, as for the first couple of years with young trees, it is like looking after a baby, it will soon stand on it's own two feet, and you can remove the container when you feel it dont need so much attention, Good Luck and well done. WeeNel.