Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken'

Compact Laurel hedge (Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken') description

The compact laurel 'Otto Luyken' is ideal for low growing. The evergreen foliage makes a dark foil for the upright racemes of small white flowers in the spring. Soon after flowering, the small red berries will begin to appear, these develop into shiny black cherry-like fruits that are popular with the birds in autumn.

Most popular uses of Compact Laurel hedging

Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' is ideal for compact hedges; it makes an attractive formal specimen but equally can be used for more natural, bushy garden hedging. Avoid planting Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' in close proximity to livestock as the leaves of laurel are poisonous. We're occasionally asked if our customers should worry about dogs and children being susceptible and it is our experience that the leaves of this plant hold no attraction to either. Being evergreen, Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' is perfect for screening and privacy purposes whilst protecting from some wind and noise pollution.

Combine Compact Laurel with

We’'d recommend planting Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' alone as it makes a fantastic stand-alone feature.

Growth rate of Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken'

Compact laurel is slow growing, reaching approximately 15cm a year. Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' suits a final height of 1.2m or less. 

Care advice for Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' hedging

We suggest pruning your compact laurel once a year in late September or early October. Please view the Best4Hedging Care and Planting instructions in our Advice section.

Suggested planting density

For information on planting density specific to Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken', please see the product table above. In the 'No. Per Metre' column, you will find our recommended plant density that has been calculated by Best4hedging's team of horticultural experts.

Pot grown compact laurel plants are available year round.

The bulk of our Compact Laurel hedging plants are grown in the UK by specialists with generations of horticultural expertise, though we very occasionally source Laurel from specialised nurseries in other countries, where we know the quality can'’t be equalled. At Best 4 hedging we always endeavour to bring you the freshest, highest quality hedging plants whilst keeping our prices sensible, so you can buy Compact Laurel plants online with confidence from us.

Delivery Cost

• Orders £60 & over (ex. VAT) to mainland UK are delivered FREE* (Exceptions apply - see below for Scottish Highlands etc)
• Orders under £60 (ex. VAT) to mainland UK £9.95
• At an additional cost, we can deliver to Scottish Highlands & Islands, which we classify as including AB (Aberdeen) and DD (Dundee) postcodes, as well as Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Isle Man. The exact delivery cost is order specific and will need to be quoted by one of our team, so please contact us on 01257 261 243

*For some plants that are too heavy or too tall to be packed in cardboard boxes we use pallet deliveries. In these circumstances, we require a minimum order value of £200 (ex VAT) for free delivery, or you can make a contribution towards the delivery cost. Look out for the information on product pages which explains this further where applicable and if your order is for less than £200 (ex VAT) please call or email us to agree upon a delivery contribution. This requirement only applies to those plants where it is clearly indicated on the product page

Pallet deliveries are always undertaken on an 18-tonne vehicle (similar in size to a standard refuse vehicle). If for any reason you require a smaller vehicle please contact our sales team who can arrange this for you. There will be an additional surcharge applied for small vehicle deliveries

Delivery Timescales

99% of our orders are dispatched within 3-7 working days of receipt and most the day after the order is placed. We can do “next day delivery” on many of our products but please call before placing your order to check.

We can also deliver on a specified date to suit you. Please indicate the date you would like to receive delivery in the notes section of the checkout (or place your order by phone) and we’ll do our utmost to meet that date.

Occasional hiccups can occur (such as broken down vehicles) and although we are very experienced in logistics we cannot be held liable for costs incurred or inconvenience due to late deliveries - see terms and conditions for more information.

You will receive an email or telephone call confirming the dispatch of your order 24/48 hours before it arrives with you.

Exceptions to our quick turnaround timescale

Pre-orders - if you have placed an order that includes products on pre-order, then they will be dispatched to you as soon as they are available. If your order includes pre-order bare roots or root balls you will be notified once they are being dispatched (root balls from mid to late October and bare roots from early to mid-November).

Root balls - lifting root balls involves the use of complex, heavy machinery, this lifting is carried out twice a week in the root ball season so we do still have a prompt turnaround timescale but if your order has just missed one lifting, it will be a few days before we lift again. We are always happy to confirm when we can deliver to you before you order. The benefit of this method of supplying root balls is that they are always fresh and therefore have a higher success rate than root balls that are stored out of the soil.

Weather conditions can affect dispatch - bare root and root ball plants are not lifted if the ground is too cold (it damages the roots) and the delivery of all plants can be affected if the water supply is frozen (because we water all plants before packing). Extremely hot weather can also be challenging and occasionally we hold back orders for species that are particularly vulnerable. We ask our customers to be mindful of bank holidays when couriers are not active.

We'd like to stress that although there are exceptions, the vast majority of our orders are dispatched extremely quickly and we are proud of our logistics developed over many years of delivering plants to tens of thousands of customers.

Returns

We inspect plants carefully before dispatch but accept that very occasionally things may go wrong. 
You can return your plants (within 14 days) for a refund or replacement (we’ll help with the process of returning). If your plants arrived damaged then returns are free of charge. However, we ask that you inform us as soon as possible. If you’d like to return your plants because of a change of plan or if we do not agree that the plants are significantly damaged (the loss of a few leaves in transit or a loose pot on arrival, for example, wouldn't be harmful to the plants), then we may ask you to pay the full or partial return costs if you still wanted to return them. We’re very reasonable and always aim for complete satisfaction as demonstrated by our amazing Feefo customer reviews which can be viewed here.

Should you wish to return any products that you have over-bought, no longer require or purchased in error you will incur both a return cost (different charges for pallets and Boxes) and the original cost of delivery incurred by Best4hedging. Please contact the Service team for charges and/or to organise a return. Plants will be subject to a quality control check from our Nursery upon return before any refund is authorised and processed.

Please note that in the case of damaged plants, if you have not notified us of a problem within 14 days of delivery, we consider you to have accepted the plants and Best4Hedging has no further liability for them should they fail.

You can read more about our returns policy in our terms and conditions here.

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