About cherry laurel
Cherry laurel is a very dense evergreen shrub, or a small to medium tree if you leave it alone, with large, glossy green leaves. In spring it carries upright spikes of small white flowers, followed by shiny red cherries that ripen to black. Don’t eat them.
Despite the name, it isn’t a true laurel. It belongs to the cherry family, Prunus, and gets its common name from its likeness to bay laurel. Both get used for laurel wreaths.
It comes from the regions around the Black Sea, in south-west Asia and south-east Europe, and the Victorians planted it everywhere. For a big hedge it’s still hard to beat. It looks best on a large scale, along a long drive or a field boundary.
Growing cherry laurel
Cherry laurel grows in full sun or partial shade, and it copes with deeper shade better than most hedging plants. It likes moist, well-drained, fertile soil and sulks in waterlogged ground or on very thin chalk. Any aspect suits it, sheltered or exposed.
It’s easy to grow. Keep new plants watered and fed through their first season and they settle in quickly. After that, expect 20 to 40cm of growth a year, or up to 60cm in a good spot, which is why it’s the cheap way to a quick evergreen screen.
Cherry laurel care
Pruning
Grown as a single shrub, cherry laurel makes a well-branched framework that needs little or no pruning. As a hedge, trim it to shape one to three times between late spring and late summer, on a dry day. Stop in September to cut the risk of bare patches over winter.
Secateurs or hand shears give the neatest finish because you cut stems rather than slicing through leaves. Leave any hard pruning until March, just before the big flush of growth in late April and May, so the plant recovers quickly. It’s very tough and will regrow even when cut right back.
The leaves are slow to rot on the compost heap but shred easily. Check for nesting birds before you cut. Our laurel hedge care guide goes into trimming in more detail.
Pests and diseases
Cherry laurel is generally tough, but watch for powdery mildew, leaf spot fungi and bacterial shothole, which leaves small round holes in the leaves. Vine weevil and leaf-mining moths can also damage the foliage. Feeding, watering in dry spells and clearing up fallen infected leaves keeps most problems in check.
Is cherry laurel poisonous?
Yes. The leaves and seeds are toxic if eaten, so keep clippings away from livestock and never cook with them. For cooking you need bay leaves from bay laurel.
