Portuguese Laurel vs Cherry Laurel: Which Is Better for Your Garden?
Both are called laurel. Both are commonly planted as evergreen screening and hedging. Both are available at most nurseries and garden centres. Beyond those similarities, Portuguese laurel and cherry laurel are quite different plants — in their appearance, their growth habit, their ultimate scale, and the purposes they're best suited to. Choosing between them is a decision that will shape the garden for years.
This guide compares them directly across the factors that matter most to gardeners making a buying decision: growth rate, maximum size, pruning response, shaping potential, soil requirements, and overall suitability for different uses. The verdict is honest, and in most contexts it is clear.
The short version: Cherry laurel grows faster (30–60cm a year) with big 10–20cm leaves — good for fast, large-scale screening, but it needs at least two clips a year and looks coarse close up. Portuguese laurel grows 20–40cm a year with finer 5–10cm leaves, holds a clipped form on one to two clips a year, and suits standards, entrances, driveway borders and small gardens. Both are fully UK-hardy; Portuguese laurel also handles chalky soils better. For anything seen at close range, choose Portuguese laurel.
At a Glance: The Key Differences
Leaf size. Cherry laurel has large, glossy, paddle-shaped leaves — 10 to 20cm long. Portuguese laurel has smaller, more refined leaves — 5 to 10cm, glossy on the upper surface, with red-tinged stems. At a distance, Portuguese laurel has a finer, more elegant texture.
Growth rate. Cherry laurel is the faster grower — 30 to 60cm per year in good conditions. Portuguese laurel typically grows 20 to 40cm per year. The difference in vigour is meaningful if speed of establishment is the priority.
Maximum size. Cherry laurel will reach 8m or more if left unclipped. Portuguese laurel tops out at 6 to 8m but is much easier to keep at a maintained height of 1.5 to 2.5m through regular clipping.
Shaping potential. Portuguese laurel's smaller leaf size and denser branching habit make it far better suited to precise clipping into standards, balls, and formal shapes. Cherry laurel's large leaves look crude when clipped — cut leaves turn brown at the edges, which is less visible on Portuguese laurel's smaller foliage.
General character. Cherry laurel is a vigorous, somewhat coarse plant well suited to large-scale screening. Portuguese laurel is more refined, more controllable, and more appropriate for smaller gardens and any situation requiring architectural precision.
Growth Rate in Practical Terms
Cherry laurel establishes quickly and is often the go-to choice for buyers who want screening fast. In a good growing season, it can add 50 to 60cm of new growth. This speed is useful in the first two or three years — a bare boundary becomes screened quickly. The problem is that the speed doesn't slow much thereafter: a cherry laurel hedge requires at least two clips per year to stay manageable, and in a wet summer three clips may be needed. The maintenance demand is proportional to the vigour.
Portuguese laurel grows at a pace that is easier to stay ahead of — one to two clips per year is genuinely sufficient for most maintained hedges and shaped specimens. Established standards and trained forms hold their shape well between clips, which is why the species is so widely used by specialists who train plants into specific forms that need to remain precise for many months between maintenance visits. The growth rate is the maintenance demand, and Portuguese laurel's is notably lower.
Soil and Shade Tolerance
Both species are flexible in their soil requirements and both tolerate shade reasonably well — which is why they're commonly planted beneath trees or in north-facing positions where less tolerant species would struggle. Cherry laurel has a slight edge in very heavy clay soils, where its vigour allows it to establish even in difficult conditions. Portuguese laurel performs better on chalky or alkaline soils, where cherry laurel can show chlorosis (yellowing of the leaves due to iron deficiency).
Both species are fully hardy across the UK, with no meaningful difference in winter performance in normal conditions. This is one area where they are genuinely equivalent — a well-established plant of either species will come through a standard UK winter without difficulty, including in northern England and Scotland where some other evergreens struggle.
Where Each One Excels
Cherry laurel is best for large-scale, fast screening along boundaries, on large rural properties, or in situations where the principal requirement is a dense barrier established quickly and the refined appearance of the hedge is less important. It's a utilitarian plant — effective and unfussy, but coarse at close range and demanding in its maintenance requirements once established.
Portuguese laurel is the better choice for almost every other situation: shaping into standards and formal forms, front garden and entrance planting, driveway borders, smaller gardens where scale matters, and anywhere that the hedge or planted form will be seen regularly at close range. Its leaf size, branching density, and restrained growth rate make it genuinely suited to precision planting in a way that cherry laurel simply is not.
The verdict: choose cherry laurel for fast, large-scale screening where maintenance intensity is acceptable and visual refinement is not the priority. Choose Portuguese laurel for everything else — entrance planting, shaped standards, borders, smaller gardens, and any application where the plant needs to look precise and considered at close range.
Related guides:
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Portuguese laurel better than cherry laurel?
For most front garden purposes — shaped standards, entrance planting, driveway borders, smaller garden situations — yes. Portuguese laurel's smaller, finer leaf, denser branching structure, more refined appearance, and more manageable growth rate make it better suited to precision planting than cherry laurel. Cherry laurel's main advantage is its faster growth rate, which matters when large-scale screening is the primary goal. Where structure and elegance are the criteria, Portuguese laurel wins consistently. It also performs better on chalk and alkaline soils than cherry laurel, which can show chlorosis in those conditions, making it the more reliably suitable choice across a wider range of UK garden soil types. If you're planting in a context where the plant will be seen regularly at close range — as an entrance specimen, a driveway standard, or a garden feature rather than a distant boundary hedge — Portuguese laurel is the better plant.
Which laurel is best for hedging?
It depends on the scale and context. Cherry laurel establishes the fastest and provides quick dense screening — ideal for a large rural boundary where you want cover quickly and won't be looking at the hedge closely every day. For a front garden hedge, a driveway border, or anywhere that the hedge is seen at close range and needs to look precise and well-maintained, Portuguese laurel is the better choice: its leaf texture clips more neatly and the maintained hedge has a more refined quality that holds well between clips.
Is Portuguese laurel better for small gardens?
Yes, significantly. Cherry laurel's vigour makes it difficult to keep at the scale a small garden demands — it wants to grow large, and keeping it small requires frequent intervention that becomes increasingly hard to stay ahead of. Portuguese laurel's more restrained growth rate means it stays within its designated space much more comfortably, and its finer leaf texture looks proportionally right in a smaller setting where cherry laurel's large paddle leaves can look out of place.
Plant Portuguese laurel with confidence — browse our Border by the Metre for structured evergreen planting by the linear metre. Delivered free to your door.
