Too massive for where I put them, they are FAST IN NJ, and 5 feet is still too close in my opinion. I like them but need a landscaper just for them. They are completely winter hardy and DEER PROOF, heat tolerant, etc. Nice cultivar, reason they are popular. They do attract bees when in flower but so do my Magnolias and I like honeybees. They do form a dense wall here for privacy.

Great to hear! Just what we needed as deer are a problem for my neighbor. Just clarifying though this is for ’Schipkaensis’ and not the species cherry laurel right?

That is the same cultivar that I have, but it is the same species as common Cherry Laurel. It's just a genetic variant of the species. Deer won't touch them, poisonous due to the cyanide. Animals are not stupid and are fine, kids", who knows.

" Deer won't touch them, poisonous due to the cyanide. "

I hate to tell you but that's not true. It may not be a staple part of their diet but deer routinely nibble on them here, specially in spring when they begin to push tender new growth. A LOT of plants contain cyanogenic glycosides but almost exclusively in the seeds or pits - all Prunus species, most stone fruits (apples peaches, apricots, almonds), hawthorns, nandina, daphne, amelanchier and photinia to name a few common selections.. Deer can and will nibble or consume all of these - leaves and fruits - and happily live to tell the tale to their friends and neighbors..

They have NEVER TOUCHED mine here in NJ, too much else to eat. I live with herds of deer, yearlong. In any event, Cherry Laurel growth is so exuberant, it will not matter in the least. I would PAY the deer to eat mine in NJ at this point! Not sure I would have planted them, in fact, if I had known how successful they would be in wanting to be HUGE, in a hurry. Still, visitors always ask me what they are as they are an impenetrable, dense, living green, property border.

Ok, I didn't know if that cultivar grew as fast because Monrovia says 6-10 ft tall in 10 years and thats less than a foot of growth a year.

In the town I live in deer don't touch them even in the winter, I see them eating bare deciduous branches but not cherry laurel. But in the town I grew up in as a kid just 10 minutes away the cherry laurels in some residences bottom half is all bare and chewed up