Jim,

All the mtn laurel around me have brownish spots on their leaves ~ there are alot of laurel growing naturally around my home. I planted a few in my yard which have also developed the brown spots. I went to Lowes a few years ago and looked in one of their books and found a spray that worked reasonably well. It needs to be applied very early in the spring. Unfortunately, I am out of the spray (need to make a trip) but I am fairly certain their Ortho book referenced the problem. ~Shari

Some are prone to this and others remain unspotted. The ones that get it seem to get it every year. I'm not sure how detrimental this is to the laurels, it dowsn't seem to kill them. I've seen them die back to the ground and then resprout vigorously, I'm not sure if the black spot causes this or something else.