Which one is cherry laurel?

[imiami]

The first two pictures for the big leaf,

Big leaf and smaller

Picture four in the first post is Cherry Laurel.

First picture is definitely cherry laurel but I wouldn’t like to say 4 isn’t.

Big one definitely and bottom one certainly looks like it.

Horrible stuff, so invasive and so detrimental to biodiversity.

Third and fourth pictures are just a narrow leaved form of cherry laurel. Maybe 'Otto Luyken' hard to tell.

Are these in your garden?

it is not in my garden, I like those plants and considering get it for my hedge

The problem with cherry laurel is the large leaves, so when used as a hedge and clipped, you just see a lot of 'sliced' leaves. Yes, it's evergreen but it's greedy for water and nutrients.

If you are looking for an evergreen hedge consider beech as at least it's a UK native. Or Holly. Portuguese laurel is a more refined alternative too.

Don't do it, we had 3 small bushes in our garden when we bought the property. Despite regular maintenance, it grow to 7 ft in height and spread the length of the back of the garden. Ripped it out last summer and gained loads of land back!!!

Beech isn’t truly evergreen, but grown as a hedge it clings on to its dead leaves over winter.

Other evergreen hedging plants - privet (sweet smelling flowers), yew (slow growing), Lonicera nitida. There are other alternatives if you’re in the SW.

Don't. Horrific stuff.

Spreads like Ghengis, poisons the soil, no use to wildlife, and a bugger to trim. And boring.

Lovely berries, especially when they’re half ripe and all shades of green and purple.

but you wont get berries on a hedge