Resting behind your Laurels

Cherry Laurel is a delightful name for Common Laurel, despite not getting proper cherries off it – the birds don’t complain, though.
It is such a popular evergreen hedging plant in British gardens that although it’s not native, it’s known abroad as the “English Laurel”.

No one understands good old Prunus laurocerasus Rotundifolia like the British. It might be the best roadside hedging plant of all time. On our small island with her unlimited cars – increasing in number much faster than we can bulldoze new roads for them – good roadside hedging is in high demand.

Before Laurel, the main evergreen broadleaf available in Britain was Holly (boxwood is too slow for tall barrier hedges around a garden), and it’s mostly a case of “everything Holly can do, Laurel can do better”.

Cherry laurel has heavier, bigger leaves than Holly that are better at excluding light and traffic noise. They also stop effectively weeds from getting started in their dense shade. 

And it grows quickly to considerable heights, whereas Holly has medium-to-low vigour and so isn’t ideal for really tall hedges.
There is a splendid laurel hedge outside Bristol providing shelter from the M5 that is around 20 feet, 7 metres, tall; you can’t achieve that with Holly in a reasonable time frame.

Portugal Laurel has smaller leaves, but it does two things better than Cherry Laurel: it grows on really poor, shallow chalk, and it comes through Winter with less leaf damage in the coldest inland spots of the North East & Scotland.
Cherry Laurel is perfectly hardy, but too much cold dry wind and late frost will crisp the leaf margins enough to look natty. It will grow on terrible soils, often growing in construction rubbish or cracks in walls, but it can’t thrive on dry chalk like Portugal Laurel will.

Bay Laurel is more expensive, and is perhaps better known for being grown in shapes like pyramids and lollipops, often in large patio pots, but it’s an excellent hedge plant that thrives in most of the UK, including on chalk.
In the warmer South, it’s great for exposed locations, in the North it’s better in a sheltered but sunny place, and it’s not suitable as a hedge for the coldest inland frost pockets.

And right now, dear reader, this warm October of 2024, is a cracking month to plant out potted Laurel:

• Cherry Laurel is available in pots right now in a nice chunky 80/100cm tall size, but they are selling out as we speak. Order bareroot plants now for delivery at the start of the season in November.
• Bay Laurel is only sold in pots: p9 pots are small plants, but a really cost-effective way to start your hedge & they are vigorous in a sunny location.
• Portugal Laurel has already sold out for 2024 in pots, so order bareroot plants now for delivery at the start of the season in November.