Laurel

[Finlaggan]

Hi I'm looking for a quick growing screening plant that has some density to it. It will be in a planter (1.5m long) is laurel a good idea? If so any particular type? Thanks.

Hmmmm -how tall do you need it to be? Personally, I really dislike laurel. I realise this is heresy to some here, but I think it smells bad when cut, and looks boring, and grows like billyo. Could you go for something that gives you a bit more interest - flowers, nicer foliage, a lovely shape? There's no reason to abandon aesthetics just because you need a screen -why not make the screen itself attractive?

Our neighbour's have a laurel hedge and I covet it, evergreen, lovely bright colour, looks lovely (to me).

I have just had beech hedging planted last year and really regret it as it's so brown over winter and spring.

This looks like my neighbour's hedging, it is this colour all year round.

I hate my beech

I much prefer beech hedging to laurel.I love the fresh green crinkled leaves emerging in spring . Laurel looks awful when trimmed as the cut edges turn brown

It's personal taste of course, but for me, beech>laurel. But does it need to be a hedge at all in the OP's case? It's for a small planter...

Oh yes, sorry, I missed that. I am projecting my beech issues on to the thread

And I am definitely projecting my laurel ones! I had a laurel hedge at the back of my old house and I really had it in for it. It was huge. One day, I decided I was going to reduce its height by half, so I went out and really got busy with my saw. Throughout the work, I could hear this clanking noise the other side of the hedge. It was only after a couple of hours, when I got fully through part of its thickness that I realised there was a very cross bull in the field behind...

If you want to block something out (neighbours? wind? ugliness?) laurel could solve the problem. But it needs room, lots of room, unless you are going to be constantly trimming it. It will get upwards of 20 ft wide and high if left unchecked.

Elaeagnus ebbingei or E pungens maculata are easy, indestructible and can be trimmed to shape though not tidy growers. Portugal laurel might suit. Viburnum tinus? All reasonably fast dense evergreens. Griselinia or Olearia traversii might work, depending whereabouts in the country you are

We have laurel in our garden and it hadn't been trimmed back in a good while when we moved in last year, now I'm faced with the task of trying to slim it down as it takes up a good 3 metres of one side of our garden. Hoping that even if I take it right back to branches new shoots will grow and then I'll just be able to keep on top of it.

I like trethew's idea of a viburnum tinus - gives you flowers, berries, and dense glossy leaves.

If you have sun, Exorchorda 'The Bride' (mentioned on another thread right now, which is why I thought of it) gives bang for your buck this time of year. It does need some space, however.

I have laurel, it's a bugger for reseeding. So you need to keep on top of it.

Wow lots too think about!
I liked the idea of laurel because it's evergreen, I need something to act as a screen between us and the neighbours as he's always hanging around on the other side and you can see into our living room from where he stands (I'm not a fan of the neighbours in case you hadn't guessed, but that's another thread).

So the criteria is: something quite tall, evergreen, that will be suitable in a planter 1.5-1.8m long and as wide as it needs to be.

to not too...