Prunus lusitanica 'Angustifolia' - 30cm-50cm

Prunus lusitanica 'Angustifolia' or Portuguese Laurel is one of the most elegant, durable, and highly prized evergreen hedging shrubs for Irish and gardens.While some cherry laurels can grow very tall and wide, Portugese Laurel features smaller, tightly overlapping foliage. This structural growth creates an incredibly neat, dense architectural screen that takes up significantly less horizontal garden space.

Key Features

• Size & Growth: Naturally forms a dense, compact, and neatly branching conical-to-rounded habit. Left entirely untrimmed, it can mature into an elegant small tree reaching 6 to 10 metres in height—far more compact and manageable for residential spaces than the large, sprawling standard species. 
• Colour: It is immediately identifiable by its striking color contrast. The slender, elongated, glossy dark-green leaves feature wavy margins and grow on vivid, deep maroon-to-purple stems and leaf stalks, a combination traditionally likened to the Portuguese national flag. 
• Flowers: In early summer (June), it erupts with slender, cascading panicles of small, sweetly scented, creamy-white flowers that completely blanket the dark canopy. 
• Fruit: Following pollination, the flowers give way to clusters of small fruits that emerge green, turn a shiny red by autumn, and mature into glossy dark purple-black berry-like drupes by winter. 
• Toxicity: All parts of the plant including the leaves, twigs, and seeds contain cyanogenic compounds and are highly toxic if ingested by humans, dogs, and livestock.

Growing Conditions

• Placement: It thrives beautifully in full sun, partial shade, or dappled woodland shade.
• Soil: Its greatest asset is its ability to handle poor soil. It readily adapts to clay, loam, and sand, and is highly tolerant of thin, shallow chalk and alkaline soils where standard cherry laurels turn yellow and fail from chlorosis.
• Moisture & Drought Limits: Prefers moist but well-drained soil. Once fully established, its origins in warm Mediterranean climates grant it excellent drought tolerance. It strictly cannot tolerate permanently waterlogged or boggy ground.
• Hardiness & Sheltering: Fully winter-hardy across Ireland, safely deflecting severe winter frosts and wet conditions down to -15°C or -20°C. It handles wind well, but it prefers a semi-sheltered position and dislikes direct, salt-laden coastal fronts which can scorch the glossy leaves.
• Growth Rate & Maintenance: Moderate to fast-growing, putting on 30 to 45 cm of new vertical growth annually. It requires far less clipping than faster conifers, typically needing just one light trim a year in late summer after flowering.
• Spacing: When establishing a dense, seamless privacy screen or boundary hedge, standard specialist advice recommends spacing at 60 cm intervals (roughly 3 plants per yard/metre).

Wildlife Value

• Summer Pollinator: The profuse early-summer flower spikes are highly melliferous. They act as a massive neon sign for honeybees, bumblebees, hoverflies, and butterflies, supplying them with a high-volume nectar and pollen larder.
• Birds: While highly toxic to humans and mammalian pets, the subsequent winter-ripening dark berries are completely harmless to birds. They serve as an invaluable, high-energy food source for native and migratory birds, most notably thrushes, robins, blackbirds, and starlings.
• Year-Round Protection: Because 'Angustifolia' maintains an incredibly tight, dense weave of rigid branches and leathery evergreen foliage through the worst winter gales, it forms an impenetrable visual and physical shield. Small garden birds heavily rely on its secure framework to roost safely and build nests protected from driving rain and searching predators.
• Deer & Rabbit: It exhibits moderate resistance to deer and rabbit browsing, meaning its lower leaves are rarely stripped along open woodland borders or rural estate boundaries.