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Cherry Skip Laurel Shrubs for Sale - Buying & Growing Guide
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The cherry skip laurel is a cultivar that goes by the botanical name Prunus laurocerasus 'Schipkaensis.' This shrub grows at a rapid rate and has dense, broad, evergreen foliage, making it the ideal plant to use if you want a new privacy hedge. Cherry skip laurel also impresses with its spring-blooming flowers that look like fuzzy white spires. What may be most valuable about cherry skip laurel is its versatility. It can grow in full sunlight or in places that are shaded for most of the day. It also shows a resistance to deer browsing that few other evergreens can boast.
- Shade-tolerant and deer-tolerant.
- Fast-growing in the sun or partial shade.
- Excellent ornamental hedge plant.
Plant Care
Sunlight
Can grow in full sunlight or partial to full shade conditions.
Watering
While drought-tolerant, this plant prefers moist soil. Consider weekly waterings.
Fertilizing
Use slow-release fertilizer annually in spring after the flowers have bloomed. Balanced or nitrogen-heavy fertilizers work best.
Planting and Care
Planting instructions
If you wish to grow cherry skip laurel as a hedge plant, as many gardeners do, spacing is crucial. While this plant grows quickly, the closer you plant each shrub, the sooner your hedge will fill in. Try planting shrubs about 2 to 4 feet apart. You can also grow cherry skip laurel as a specimen plant, allowing its natural form to develop with plenty of open space around it. In either case, you can choose sun or shade and any soil that has good drainage.
Watering and nutrients
A mature cherry skip laurel can withstand moderate droughts. But this plant will grow much better if you keep its soil moist by watering it about once a week. During initial establishment, cherry skip laurel saplings will need water daily.
A single annual application of slow-release fertilizer is all that a cherry skip laurel needs. In fact, more than that can have a negative effect. Fortunately, this species also has mild salt tolerance and no issue growing in alkaline soils.
Pruning
One of the primary selling points of cherry skip laurel is that it responds incredibly well to pruning. That ability is what allows gardeners to prune this plant heavily into neat hedge shapes. The natural vigor of cherry skip laurel’s growth is what allows it to respond to your many pruning cuts with new shoots.
The best time to prune cherry skip laurel is in the spring, after the flowers have bloomed. You can do your pruning at the same time as your annual fertilizer application, which should also take place in this post-bloom period.
Pests, diseases, and animals
One of the most prominent challenges for those growing evergreen hedges is deer browsing. It’s frustrating to spend time fostering a healthy row of hedge plants over the years, only to have a group of deer eat all the foliage.
One of the biggest advantages of cherry skip laurel is that it is deer-resistant. However, that does not mean that the cherry skip laurel faces no threats from pests and disease. It can develop powdery mildew and it may become infested with weevils or aphids.
Achieving maximum results
Despite the many benefits of cherry skip laurel, this plant also has some downsides that you should know about before you use it in your garden. Cherry skip laurel contains a toxin called hydrogen cyanide. While rare, if you ingest enough cherry skip laurel leaves, death is possible.
Controlling the growth of cherry skip laurel is also quite difficult. This plant’s roots are aggressive as they spread through the soil and absorb as many nutrients as they can. At times, cherry skip laurel can grow two feet in a year. For that reason, some regions label it as invasive.
FAQs
Where is cherry skip laurel considered invasive?
Cherry skip laurel is most notorious for its spread along the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest. However, only Oregon has officially labeled this species as invasive. Cherry skip laurel comes from Asia and has an impressively fast growth rate and a tolerance for difficult growing conditions. Those traits are what allow this species to compete so well against native plant species for nutrients and sunlight.
How fast does cherry skip laurel grow?
Cherry skip laurel can add about two feet of new growth each year. That quick pace lets this plant fill in hedges about as fast as any other. Overall, that growth rate amounts to a mature shrub that reaches more than 15 feet tall and spreads about seven feet wide. And while that speed is beneficial for those growing privacy hedges, it also contributes to this plant being an invasive species in some places.
Why is my cherry skip laurel dying?
In most cases, cherry skip laurel shrubs are resilient and difficult to kill. However, there are some issues that can arise when growing this plant. For example, it is possible for dry soil to cause cherry skip laurel to wilt a bit, so be sure to keep the soil moist. Other distressing signs, such as holes or bumps appearing on the leaves, are often signs of shothole borers and scale, respectively.
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Mature height |
10-18 ft. |
Mature width |
5-7 ft. |
Sunlight requirement |
Shade to Full Sun |
Growth rate |
Moderate |
Botanical name |
Prunus laurocerasus |
Shipping exclusions |
AZ |
Grows Well In Zones |
5-10 |
Growing Zones: 5-10 i Growing zones help determine if a particular plant is likely to grow well in a location. It identifies the average annual minimum winter temperatures across the U.S. provided as a map by the USDA.
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