Not really had a garden before so my knowledge is severely lacking.
I wont go into details but I have a problem neighbor. I need to block off being able to see into the garden from his raised patio. I have created some planters with boards and put up a screen but this looks terrible and I want something more long term and plant based.
When I was searching for quick growing privacy plants Cherry Laurel kept coming up and apart from the leaves were poisonous if eaten I didn't really see mention of any other negatives. So I went and got 4 rootballs and planted them as shown in the picture
I have put 4 in a row, with the main trunk stems 75cm apart
Now I have spent the money and effort in putting them in ,when I search for Cherry Laurel, all my results are coming back as, this is the plant of the devil and worst thing to have chosen. Wish I did a bit more research but I am here now
As a bit of additional information I have a forest at the bottom of my garden.
So I am looking for opinions on what I should do now? I can see them in front gardens around the neighborhood so are they really that bad?
I am willing to put in the effort to maintain them by trimming a few times a year but will 4 this close together be more problematic. My thoughts are I could take two out, and shape them into a tree to still achieve what I am after to reduce the risk of them becoming uncontrollable. I think I have left enough space between the house and planting them to avoid problems with the root.
If I keep them is there a way to avoid them causing problems for local wildlife
by Maleficent-Sky-5884
17 Comments
75cm is fairly close, 1m is better. But not the end of the world.
But what’s wrong with cherry laurel? It just need pruning to maintain its shape 1-2 times a year.
You can keep it at 5 foot or 15 foot. Its up to you. They’ll never become “uncontrollable” if you prune it annually.
It’s just very quick growing and quite invasive, especially in woodland environments. You’ve brought them now though, and they’re in the ground. If you keep on top of them and prune them in summer and winter, as long as you stop the berries being produced you should be okay.
They spread by birds eating the berries, then pooing them out into the environment.
There is fast growing native plants which you can have a look at. It’s bare root season at the moment which means you can get plants cheaper than usual.
I’ve got some for the same reason as you. Nice dense evergreen, so long as you maintain it, it’s fine. It does self seed around though. We’ve got another one that’s further down the garden planted before we moved in that was left unpruned and had to have a tree surgeon cut it back to shape it. I was thinking of changing it but we’ve got honey fungus and it’s resistant to that.
Firstly, I had no idea that cherry laurel was so bad. Secondly, I didn’t know that cherry laurel is the same as common laurel and English laurel. I have a laurel hedge at the bottom of my garden, a laurel bush in my border and at the front of my house my drive is lined with laurel hedge. All of it was there when I moved in over 11 years ago.
The hedge at the front is about 1.5m tall and we maintain it at that height. I would say the plants were about similar distance apart as yours.
The hedge at the bottom of the garden is well over 3m tall and blocks the view of the property behind it completely. The laurel ball in our border is probably 2m tall by 2m wide and we keep it trimmed and tidy so that it doesn’t get any larger.
Having lived with laurel in many forms for over 11 years, I think your laurel should do what you want it to do, ie screen next door. As long as you keep it well trimmed, you will minimise it producing seed and impacting local woodland. Our laurel doesn’t attract or house any wildlife so yes, there might have been more environmentally sensitive plants you could have chosen. If it is really bothering you and you can afford it, now would be the time to remove and replace it before it gets too big and established. Good alternative choices would be hawthorn possibly. Another choice worth considering would be star Jasmine which is a dense evergreen climber with beautiful scented white flowers although it will take a while to become established and provide the screening you need.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. My garden is quite large and we have a small area of woodland within our property. I haven’t noticed any laurel seedlings in there but that’s not to say it won’t impact further afield. I am considering removing our laurel and replacing it with more wildlife and woodland friendly plants.
Given you’re happy to trim them when needed they should be fine and do the job you want them to do.
My only concern is that, because you should trim both sides to maintain them (as a hedge) they look to be too close to the fence so, when they grow, the branches could overhang the fence into your neighbour’s garden and they’d be entitled to prune them to the boundary.
Given that the neighbour is already a problem that could well lead to more problems! (Although they ‘shouldn’t’ cause any ‘damage’ when pruning from their side – they might well not care about that!)
It looks like you have planted them recently, so you could transplant them now, further forward away from the fence. If you do that, possibly space them a little wider, so that they’d be more evenly spaced between the planters with boards on the left and the tree on the right.
Many plants are poisonous when eaten. It is allelopathic which means that it actively inhibits other plants by producing cyanide. This is why you rarely see weeds at the base of laurel hedges. Another plant that does this is couch grass. Cherry laurel is considered bad because in some areas it completely out competes under story plants in mature woods, in those circumstances it’s considered invasive. It’s not bad for wildlife nor invasive in a garden, it just takes up niches of other plants that are better. I’d consider cotoneasters worse for spreading. They’re widely used because they’re so hardy, griselina does bad in frost pockets, portuguese laurel is very slow and temperamental and what happens with cherry laurel is that’ll it run out of nutrients available to it and new leaves look anemic/go yellow.
You’ve probably planted them too close together so the outer plants will do better as they’ve less competition. They’re not going to interfere with the foundations of the house and they can be coppiced back to the ground even when mature and they’ll regrow. If you need a fast growing hedge then it’s probably the best with the above provisos.
I’ve purposely planted them at 2 houses now and never had a problem.
Great for screening, quite hardy and relatively cheap.
Toxic to animals, it’s invasive and grows HUGE not to mention when you prune it back if you don’t cut the stems and cut the leaves they brown, badly. Avoid
Just a heads up that they attract wasps as their leaves secrete a sugary substance which they love to eat. Just in case anyone is allergic. 🍃🐝🐝🐝
Honestly, Cherry Laurel gets a bad rep mostly because it spreads easily if left unchecked. If you’re willing to prune it a couple of times a year, it’s totally manageable. It’ll give you a nice thick screen in a year or two.
Its what you need,reasonably fast growing-needs 2 routine trims a Year-max.Will do the job you want-no problem,I’d say you could have spaced them better/further apart and got wider coverage.
Apart from that minor criticism-all good.👍
Hey, it’s better than bamboo!
Well I personally dislike them but you’re a bit short on vegetation in general there pal so I’d hang onto them for now. We need all the evergreens we can get between now and spring.
Keep on top of it and it’ll be fine, you wanted a screen and it’ll most certainly tick those boxes quickly.
Personally I hate the stuff, and we’ve just moved into a house with 50m hedging of it around the garden. Previous owners haven’t cut it in a few years so it’s 4m high and 3-4m thick in places. I’ve spent the last few weekends literally cutting it in half with a chainsaw. It’s really difficult to kill once established, but some day I’ll cut them out and replace with beech or a native mix of hawthorne Blackthorn hazel etc.
Awful. My neighbour has just one on the fence boundary; it’s massive and grows fast. It’s higher than the house and still going upwards. They turn into full blown trees with a big trunk and enormous spread – just one in that space will completely fill it soon enough. It’s about 3 metres across (just from the one plant).
Also, if you have beef with your neighbour now I’m sure the amount of pruning they’ll have to do coupled with the bountiful deep purple berries that stain will only add fuel to the fire.
At the very least just leave 1 in there and move it several feet back from the fence line.
https://preview.redd.it/lle29pre4i0g1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6eca4cf7135940934c52c3b17e1ead9eddf85f18
Just to reiterate – this is one plant!! Bear in mind, it’s as deep all the way round!
If you let it flower, some birds and insects will be attracted to the fruit and flowers. Some people forget about the flowers and fruits, because it is so often grown and clipped at the wrong time. It should offer good screening and some noise buffering too, as a hedge.
Plant from hell. Be prepared to trim several times per year. Keep on top of the width and height.