Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken'

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

Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’, otherwise known as Compact Laurel, is the smallest variety of the popular Laurel hedging. Its dense, dark foliage contrasts beautifully with the upright racemes of fragrant white flowers that blossom in the spring, giving way to small cherry-like berries in autumn. Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ is ideal for bringing year-round colour and seasonal interest.

Most common uses for Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ hedging

Compact Laurel is perfect for compact hedges – the clue is in the name! Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ is a versatile shrub, working equally well as a manicured formal hedge or in a more natural, bushy style. Compact Laurel makes a good privacy screening hedge due to its density, which also means it can protect against some wind and noise pollution. It’s a particularly hardy shrub that can handle being grown in most locations, so is a good option for exposed areas, coastal regions or shaded areas.

The evergreen hedge is fantastic for wildlife, who feed off its berries and take shelter in Compact Laurel but do avoid planting Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ in close proximity to livestock, as the leaves are toxic.

Combine Compact Laurel with

Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ makes a wonderful stand-alone feature, so we would recommend planting it on its own.

Growth rate of Compact Laurel

A slow grower, Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ can be expected to grow around 15cm pa, making it an easy hedge to maintain. Compact Laurel suits a final height of 1.2m or less, as it is suited as a low hedge.

Care advice for Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’

Compact Laurel hedges can be given a trim once a year in late September or early October to keep them looking tidy – they are very low-maintenance.

Suggested planting density for Compact Laurel

For information on planting density for Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’, take a look at the product table. In the 'No. Per Metre' column, you can find our recommended plant density. Pot-grown Compact Laurel plants are available to buy all year round.

The majority of our Compact Laurel hedging is UK grown by our horticultural experts who have years of nursery growing experience. However, on the rare occasion that we do source Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ from outside of the UK, we make sure that our suppliers are only the highest quality. At best4hedging, we always strive to make sure that your Compact Laurel hedging plants reach you in the best condition and that they are of the highest standard, all whilst protecting our superb prices, so you know you can buy Compact Laurel online with complete confidence.

• Orders £85 & over (ex. VAT) to mainland UK are delivered FREE* (Exceptions apply - see below for Scottish Highlands etc)
• Orders under £85 (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 to 5 working days of receipt and most the day after the order is placed. We can do “next day delivery” on many of our products for an additional £12 (incl VAT) but please call on 01257 494 491 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 backorders 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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You can order online or over the phone by calling our dedicated Sales & Advice team. 

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Call our Sales & Advice team on 01257 261 243

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