Planting underneath Portuguese Laurel Standard trees

[CultOfTheAirFryer]

I’m planning to buy some Portuguese laurel 1/2 or 3/4 standards to act as a visual divider in my garden, but don’t know whether to plant them in the ground or in large pots. I would like to plant a small euonymus hedge in front of them, and also grow a climber (maybe a rose or clematis) nearby, but am concerned that nothing will grow that close to the laurel trees.

I see some photos of it working successfully, but also lots of anecdotes online re nothing growing underneath laurel. Does anyone have a view on whether a euonymus hedge and a climbing rose would survive planted close to the base of standard Portuguese laurel trees?

Unfortunately I can’t move them to pots if they don’t work in the ground, or vice versa, as I want them at eye level - the 60cm high pots make a big difference to the height of tree needed.

Attaching photos of the inspiration. Thank you for any guidance!

You could do the baseless pots trick that Bunny Guinness does - she removes the base of the pot so the tree can root into the ground but you get the height and appearance of a potted tree.

I have some Portuguese laurels in my garden and tbh nothing grows directly under them, but they are in a very shady spot. There was a thread yesterday about what to plant under trees which has some good recommendations.

Meant to add, I would have thought it would be a bit dry and shady for roses, but it will depend on the situation, amount of sun, soil type etc

Baseless pots: Bunny Guinness baseless pots playlist

I don't think a rose will be happy. Euronymous is pretty tough and maybe something like pachysandra would be okay?

Where are you planting them? Shaded, full sun, south facing etc. That might make a difference. I’ve got too many laurels as hedging at the front of my house, which is north facing, all quite dark and shady, can’t imagine anything would grow successfully under them there. But I’ve also got a small row of them in the back garden, but trimmed in to a round tree shape not a hedge shape, and under them, at the front of the border, is a row of lavender that I let grow in to a sort of low hedge. They do brilliantly but it is south facing and gets blazing hot. I would show you a picture but obviously the lavender is cut right down atm so not very useful.

Thanks, this is helpful. It’s a pretty shady spot, but far enough away from the house (main source of shade) that by summer the whole strip gets some sun at some point during the day - grass currently manages to grow there so I figure it can’t be that bad. Diagram attached.

Another factor is that 4 giant terracotta pots would throw quite a bit of shade onto the lawn immediately behind, so I’d like to avoid that (and the cost of the pots) if possible.

Interesting that the climber is likely to be a trickier one to land than the hedge. I’d be pretty happy if I could manage the euonymus hedge and some vinca minor as ground cover - I could grow a fancy ivy up the arch if I can’t get anything else to survive.