Otto Luyken (Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’) is a very compact form of cherry laurel. It produces showy, fragrant, erect white spike flowers primarily in the spring, and repeats with light blooming thru the summer months.

Its fragrant white flowers are showy racemes which rise several inches above the foliage in mid-spring. Its glossy pointed tip leaves are steadfast green all four seasons long and exhibit better pest resistance than other cherry laurels in that size class. Presence of shot-hole disease, powdery mildew, and root rot, is mostly the result of poor planting site or exceptionally dry summer weather.

Otto Luyken forms a low foundation specimen or group several into a low hedge. It has a moderate growth rate, 3 to 4 feet high and 5 to 6 feet spread in first 5 years. Utilized it as an evergreen substitute for hollies and boxwoods. Its foliage tends to remain full right to the ground.

Otto Luyken is a relatively low maintenance shrub. It is best pruned immediately after flowering. The black drupes fruits ripen in mid-summer and attract many kinds of birds to your landscape.

Otto Luyken grows best in full sun to partial shade and in a moist well-drained moist soil. Cherry laurel does not tolerate standing water around its base. It copes with an alkaline soil pH, although best in an acidic soil. Its foliage is both salt tolerant and inner city urban pollution.