Cherry Laurel hedge - is it safe?

Hi all,

I have planted 8 grown Cherry Laurels in my front garden. They are 7 ft high and form a screen to a public footpath which runs parallel to my front garden.

The Cherry Laurels are in planters, which l decided to do on the advice of people who said that Cherry Laurels can be beasts years down the line. I also need one of them close to my house as a screen and I didn't want the roots causing issues.

However... I've now been informed that they are poisonous and are a potential hazard for this reason. Bear in mind that they do run as a border with a public footpath used by children, dog walkers etc.

Do I need to replace the 8 Cherry Laurels? And if so, what with?

My front garden doesn't get much sun. So non-poisonous and happy in shade would be the requirements. I also like keeping them in planters so that I'm in control of them.

Many thanks!

 

They are such a common plant that I really wouldn't worry about them. Many of the plants in our garden aren't the nicest things to eat but you never hear of problems.

As to having them in pots, they will likely be fine until they aren't. They can grow massive and are basically trees, so keeping them in a pot is fine if you are careful with maintenance, keep them root pruned and replenish the nutrients but it's hard to do with such vigorous plants. They would be happier in the ground and far easier to manage with just one or two trimmings per year. The key is to not let them get out of hand and they are very easy. Our neighbour has a laurel hedge that's been there 70 years or so, most of that time before they moved in, and they are not gardeners, I'd go so far as to say they hate gardening, but even they can keep it nice.

 

Swapping them would be very expensive and a couple of days of work. Just wish I'd known to think of toxicity before buying them. Not something that even crossed my mind.

What are the alternatives to Cherry Laurels in my situation: screen needed from a public footpath, mostly shady area, would be in rows of planters.

(I have actually just today looked it up and realized that I have a large bush nearby which is Bay Laurel.)

 

Dont worry about it, they will be fine, they are everywhere and the first choice by developers for hedging.
The biggest problem with them is they grow too fast, but as yours are in containers that's not likely to be a problem either.

 

You don't need to replace them @Cardiff Garden . If people decide to cut branches off and eat the leaves, that's their problem!
Joking apart- if we removed everything from our gardens that might be a problem in terms of being poisonous, we'd not be left with much.

The bigger problem will be keeping them happy in containers, even if they're a good size. They need decent, moisture retentive soil, and enough moisture as well to be happy and thrive. Everything is more difficult in a container, especially woody shrubs/trees/hedges that need plenty of water. The foliage on cherry laurel can prevent rain getting in, and it can't soak it up from the surrounding soil when it's contained, so you'll have to be very vigilant with that, especially if they grow well enough to have a decent root system. They may end up being a lot of work if they're not in the ground.

 

Extend it to spiky plants that might scratch people and my garden would be reduced to a lawn, regularly cut to remove flowers that might cause hay fever or attract stingy, biting insects.

 

Someone on a forum did mention that children using the public path which runs alongside my garden and Cherry Laurels may end up eating the berries. Could that be an issue?

As an aside, I went out last night on my bike to find other Cherry Laurels in my area. There is a big junction near me with a lot of it on display. And near that there is a lot more outside a disused unit. It's about 4 meters high and 10 meters across. And one other house on my estate has some outside their house on the front. There is also a new housing estate nearby where they have dotted some around here and there. So it's definitely not hard to find.

 

The type of planters I have bought are plastic ones which can be purchased from B&Q for £81 but are also sold by VidaXL for £65. They are 160x40x38. I put 3 Cherry Laurels in each of these so that they have some room to grow. These planters feature a reservoir in the bottom which stores some water (yet releases excess water). I have used Verve top soil in the planters (£4 per 25l bag from B&Q) which will hopefully retail moisture. Ok addition I have bought 4 big boxes of bone meal from eBay to work into the soil around the plants every few months (only in spring and summer?).

So hopefully these 8 Cherry Laurels should be happy enough. I see them close up everyday as I pass them to get to my front door so I can monitor them closely.

I guess what I'll do in future is as and when they need to be replaced I will replace them with non-poisonous plants (which tolerate shade) as I go.


As an aside, I also have 3 Cherry Laurels on the other side of the garden (away from public pathways) which I bought as mature plants which are also in the same type of planters as the others I have. Those ones came to me in compost, rather than soil. When I water them the water must fill the reservoir and then overflow and visibly pours out of the overflow. This must be a good reason not to use compost for such plants. I've given them some soil where I can but I don't think it's possible to remove that compost now. They do look healthy and strong and they are 5 years old so they aren't doing badly.

 

The fruit used to be used to make a tonic in the “good old days”. I think you would have to eat a lot to have any effect, it certainly has no visible effect on the pigeons, blackbirds and squirrels in our garden

 

Honestly there are much bigger things to worry about than potentially poisoning anybody with your Laurel plants. I am not trying to nasty, you being worried is so unnecessary. I get somewhat frustrated with so much scaremongering ( usually over social media) about plants being lethal. It is a wonder any of the human race are still alive.
I have 2 huge Laurel bushes which could be accessed by passers by but so far no deaths to report after living here for 23 years! Things like Daffodils are poisonous if eaten but I expect that they are only fatal if consumed in quantity. I have ONCE heard of people being ill/ dying from eating Daffodils. They were Chinese I think who bought and cooked Daffodils from a supermarket as they were cheaper to buy the onions!
Another very very common plant that is toxic is Foxglove as an example, ever heard of someone dying from eating it? I haven’t.
Another thing some tree hugger told me was that Laurel leaves were highly toxic if burnt and give off some lethal gas. Hmm well I have burnt, admittedly in a bonfire so not indoors, Laurel every year for the the last 23 years and still alive.
The most “ dangerous” thing about Laurel is it grows like mad and having big leaves does not look good if cut with a hedge trimmer, much better with secateurs or loppers in my case. You don’t end up with half cut leaves. I would add that I am not sure how long the Laurel will be happy in pots.
I lifted a few layered branches of Laurel and grew them on in large pots ( about 15 ltr)to sell at my charity plant sale. It took a while for them to get a decent amount of roots, good enough to sell which took about 6 months. By then they were looking as tho they were needing more nutrients and not that happy. The person who bought them said once they had planted them in the ground they quickly perked up.

 

To fruit it also needs to flower and be allowed to make the berries but when maintained as a trimmed hedge, this process is normally curtailed. Most evergreen hedging plants produce berries, normal bay certainly does, and there are only a couple I can think of that are edible.

 

That gas @hailbopp is cyanide but it gases off pretty quickly and harmlessly. I've seen people concerned about it as well but it's also contained in apple seeds and no one worries about them (you would have to eat an awful lot of seeds to kill yourself though).

 

I have seen records of the Dutch eating daffodil bulbs in the 1944-45 famine.
Apparently you can eat tulip bulbs see Eating flower bulbs during Second World War - Historical Cooking Classes
There have been extensive studies of the after effects of this famine both on survivors and their descendants, especially those whose mothers had been preganant during the famine.

 

Thanks, I normally eat an apple core and all including pips, still alive!

 

My daughter used to do the same re the apple pips @hailbopp . She's managed to survive too

Laurel is a very common hedge round here, as it loves our climate, and even if left to produce flowers/berries, it's unlikely anyone would eat enough of them to do any harm @Cardiff Garden. That still isn't your responsibility - it's the parents'. My children were always told 'you don't pick and eat anything without checking beforehand that it's safe'. They were also told not to touch anything that was obviously part of someone's garden, but I expect nowadays, many parents don't bother doing any educating - everyone else's job.

Bone meal alone is for root development - it's Blood, Fish & Bone you would apply lightly in spring. It's always better to add organic matter regularly for container shrubs so that you're helping the soil quality and therefore benefiting the plants longer term. No woody plant will do well long term in compost alone, as you've discovered. They might stay alive, but won't thrive. They need a soil based medium.