When to prune cherry laurel?
- Botanical name
- Prunus laurocerasus
- Family
- Rosaceae
Cherry laurel is pruned from May to June. It is planted from September to February.
Cherry laurel is a woody perennial.
The leaves are large, and hedge shears cut them in half, which leaves brown edges all over the surface. The work therefore goes shoot by shoot with secateurs.
The leaves stay on the shrub over winter. In a severe winter they turn brown, which the shrub survives, and no cover is needed.
No part of this shrub can be eaten. The leaves, seeds and stems contain cyanogenic glycosides. Gloves go on for pruning, because that work is with exactly those parts.
Cherry laurel through the year
- pruning
- planting
In short
Growing conditions
Is cherry laurel toxic to cats and dogs?
Yes. Toxic to people and animals, toxic parts: stems, leaves and seeds.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- A white, floury coating spreads over the leaves, first on the lower and older ones. The leaf under it yellows and dries up. The fruit stays small, because the plant loses leaf surface.
- Prevention
- Plant resistant varieties, leave an airy spacing and sun, and clear the debris at the end of the season. Unlike most fungi it is not helped by wet foliage, since it spreads in heat and high air humidity, in a dry summer too.
- What to do
- Oil products meant for powdery mildew on the squash family work on contact. They do not cure a leaf that is already affected, but they stop the spread to healthy ones. On herbs cut the affected shoots back instead, since the new growth comes clean. On ornamental perennials what is left is spacing and moisture.
- Signs
- The half round notches along the leaf edges in summer are the work of the adult beetles and do the plant little harm. The larvae are the danger: white grubs with a brown head eat the roots, the plant suddenly drops its leaves and dies, most often between autumn and spring.
- Prevention
- Most at risk are plants in pots and troughs. In a bed the damage is rarer. At repotting check the roots and the compost and pick the larvae out. You find the adult beetles in the evening with a light, when they crawl over the plants.
- What to do
- Pick the adults off in the evening, set sticky traps indoors and change the compost, removing the larvae as you go. There is no insecticide. As biological protection, water beneficial nematodes into the compost at the end of summer, while the larvae are still small.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Rosaceae).
Sources about the plant: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Oregon State University, Royal Horticultural Society, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, KGZS, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Illinois Extension, University of Maryland Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Utah State University Extension.