Part of laurel hedge just won't grow

Can anyone help please. We have had a laurel hedge planted between us and our neighbours for around 10 years now. Whilst one end has established itself and grown quite nicely the other end (with the exception of just one plant right at the end) has never taken. We've re-planted it once, but no joy. See pictures.

Any idea what we can do to recover the leggy stragglers we have, or is it a case of pulling out and starting again?

 

It looks as if they don’t like being under the bigger trees. Either because it is too dry or too dark or because something in the soil is being exuded by the trees to deter other plants from growing there.

Maybe try growing other hedging plants such as holly or yew or Euonymus or maybe a mix of several different species.

 

I would also guess they are getting too much competition from the trees, I would imagine its very dry and shady there during the summer.

 

Rather than having a linear hedge in that area you could perhaps consider widening the border to get more sun and plant more of the ornamental grass on the right of one of your photos, to create an informal screen. It looks like a Pampas grass which will tolerate some shade and dryness. Being evergreen it will also screen your garden in winter.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone - yes, competing for water was my main thought but interesting that maybe one of the trees is exuding something that's hurting them. We are a little surprised as laurel is pretty rampant in general around us - there's some wild laurel further over to the left in quite a heavily wooded area that does very well, but perhaps the shade helps keep things moist there.

Do you think that if we had some semi-permanent irrigation to that part of the hedge it would help? Would you try and recover the existing plants or plant afresh?

 

I agree with the others' there's something different in the environment in that section and it 's probably the trees (shade in summer, roots).

If you want to try more irrigation, as a last-ditch attempt before replacing those laurels with something else (maybe fence panels if no hedging will grow there) you could try chopping them down hard to make any new growth come at a lower level. Otherwise, even if you do persuade them to grow, the growth will be up top not on the bare lower sections.