Care-free shrubs: mountain laurel

Mountain laurel is one of the most beautiful native North American shrubs. Here's a simple guide to planting this shrub:

Blooming in late spring or early summer, it sends out clusters of white, pink or red cup-shaped blossoms, each marked with darker spots or splashes.

• The shrub's nickname, calico bush, refers to these colourful splattered and splotched petals.
• With its long, leathery, narrow leaves, mountain laurel looks elegant at the edge of a wood, especially in the company of azaleas, rhododendrons or oakleaf hydrangea.
• It also makes a beautiful accent shrub for shady rock gardens or foundation plantings.
• This evergreen can tolerate a half day of sun, which often improves its flowering, but in hot-summer climates, the plants are healthier when grown mostly in shade.

The wild species grow slowly into large, contorted, rangy plants with woody stems shaped by the light and wind patterns of the site.

• Pink flower buds open to white blossoms with dark pink markings. However, plant breeders in the United States have introduced a whole raft of named varieties in recent years and they now come in tones from white to dark red, as well as several bicoloured forms.
• When adding mountain laurels to a more structured garden, choose modern cultivars that have been developed for diverse flower colours, faster growth and compact growth habit.
• If you want a large shrub with richly coloured flowers, consider 'Bullseye.' It bears white blossoms flushed with maroon on plants that eventually reach 1.8 to 2.4 metres (six to eight feet) tall.
• 'Olympic Fire' is smaller at 1.2 to 1.8 metres (four to six feet) tall but no less striking. The buds are bright crimson and open to pale pink flowers speckled in red.
• A dwarf cultivar, 'Elf', grows less than one metre (three feet) tall but spreads 1.2 to 1.5 metres (four to five feet) and bears shell-pink buds that open to white flowers.
• Smaller still is the deep pink 'Tiddlywinks', which barely reaches 60 centimetres (25 inches) tall and an equal width at maturity.

• Choose a site with good drainage and prepare planting holes by working in an eight-centimetre-deep (three-inch-deep) layer of compost, leaf mould or peat moss.
• Set plants slightly higher than they grew in their containers, water well and cover the root zone with a five-centimetre-layer (two-inch-layer) of organic mulch, such as shredded bark or compost.
• Keep the root zone barely moist for two months after planting, but allow it to become nearly dry between waterings. Soggy soil leads to fatal root rot.
• Fertilize established mountain laurels each summer. Apply a half-strength granular fertilizer designed to maintain soil acidity or apply garden sulphur as needed to achieve a pH of 4.5 to 5.8.
• Limit pruning to trimming off dead twigs. Never cut stem tips, which will keep the plant from flowering.
• By late summer, you may see a few fungal leaf spots. Pick off and dispose of unsightly leaves. The plants will endure this natural stress and grow replacements.

Whichever shrub you choose, mountain laurel is a beautiful addition to any garden. Follow this guide to planting mountain laurel and you'll have beautiful flowers in no time!