Prunus Lusitanica or Portuguese Laurel Plant – Plant Study
The Portuguese Laurel(Prunus Lusitanica) is an extremely hardy evergreen plant that will Thrive no matter what condition soil this is planted in, this plant may sound familiar to yourselves as it is quite obviously shares its name with the extremely popular Cherry Laurel plants (Prunus Laurocerasus).
While these two plants sound similar they certainly do not look alike, with smaller and darker green leaves that can give the plant a great “formal” look. Commonly used in hedges it will look very attractive and create a great screen all year round. This plant is also very popularly used as a standalone tree like the one below.
The Portuguese Laurels are a slow growing variety of Laurel meaning that for anyone wanting a Portuguese Laurel hedge may need quite a lot of patience, 15cm per year of growth if they are in good conditions means you would be waiting a long time for your new hedge.
Despite its slow growth, “all good things come to those who wait” and you will truly get an amazing hedge! As the final heights of the plant can well exceed a height of 12 metres and widths of 8 metres wide!
Being so hardy the plant really doesn’t have many types of diseases, there would only be a couple of the big ones that affect most leafed plants such as a ‘Powdery Mildew’ or ‘Vine Weevils’, they are both common problems. To control powdery mildew, making sure the soil has been mulched and watered will reduce as much stress on the plant as possible and can help it naturally fight the infection. You can also make sure to destroy any fallen infected leaves to cut down on the number of infectious spores near to the plant. For any infected shoots, the best thing to do is to prune them out as soon as possible and destroy the cutting.
For Vine Weevils there isn’t any natural cure for the plant such as cutting off infected leaves, there are many insecticides all aimed towards Vine Weevils. Please follow all instructions on the label of the insecticides for best results.
Looking on our website at our different Portuguese laurels will surely prove useful as we do try to put on measurements of the different dimensions and sizes of the plants that we offer along with the specifications for planting. Please follow the link below to see all of our Portuguese Laurels:
Thank you very much for reading and if you have any questions regarding the plants on our website or any general questions regarding Portuguese Laurel Hedging including diagnosing your laurels if you suspect anything is going awry, I will be glad to answer them!
Best Wishes
Zachary Henshaw – [email protected]