The one on the right does look like Nandina. The one on the left needs a better photo. But it isn't a Euonymus because that has opposite foliage. On enlargement it appears to have toothed leaves. Is that the case? Could you give us a closer, clearer shot?

The leaves do have shallow serration:

Agree with Nandina for the second. The first looks rather laurel-like......possibly Prunus carolinaina?

Parent plant may be visible nearby.

Looking at the leaf shapes, serration, and vein pattern, Prunus caroliniana is unlikely.

Another candidate is Rhaphiolepsis indica.

Wondering about Ilex vomitoria for the one on the left. Your basic Yaupon holly -- spread by birds.

Ilex vomitoria is a good lead in terms of leaf texture and the pale central vein. But it seems to miss the red stems on new growth - all the pictures we find have green or light brown stems.

Young holly stems can take on a reddish cast in cooler weather. Another to consider might be Ilex crenata which volunteers readily in our woods. But given that Yaupon is probably native in your region, that's more likely.

We were fairly skeptical of the Ilex crenata connection, until we noticed significant similarity to our very own 'Compacta' cuttings (on the right vs. the volunteer on the left), in particular the dark red stems:

There are many similar volunteers in the area, so they must represent a fairly consistent genotype of some stable hybrid or cultivar that comes true from seed.

But there are also other volunteers, more different but still showing some resemblance in leaf form and texture:

Hard to tell whether they would be related or something completely different.

In the last picture does the top right plant have aromatic foliage when crushed?

No. All three of those are very similar to each other, but the one in top right has darker leaves (resembling Laurus?).

That's the one I asked about, the reason being it looks a lot like Laurus nobilis. But it's a bit fuzzy and I don't know if they grow and fruit where you are. They come up around here a lot.

We wish Laurus nobilis were sprouting here like sweetgums :-) . Indeed they are here a marginal rarity for zone pushers like us. There are two nice specimens between 5-7 ft at the NC Botanical Garden. Our own plant had the misfortune of being planted out just before the recent two Arctic blast winters in a row, but it seems to have stabilized at about 1 ft.

BTW, the leaves of the volunteers are a little shinier than those of L. nobilis.

I see. I get a lot of bay babies on my allotment. There are plenty of big bays around here which bear fruit. 7 feet would be a tiddler ;-)

In your 'three-some' pot, those, especially the one on the right, look more like Prunus caroliniana to me. But it's out of focus.

Looks like Dave in No VA has nailed it on both counts. We just found a full sun specimen nearby that looks a lot like his Ilex vomitoria and also resembles our first volunteer:

The leaves of the trio of volunteers also look like Prunus caroliniana:

Thanks to everyone who participated in this challenging and exciting detective work. An honorable mention to GardenGal48 for the prophetic identification of P. caroliniana - even before we posted a picture she knew that we must have it among our volunteers :-) .

If I'd seen that close up I'd never have thought of Bay. Serrated edges would rule it out.