Cherry Laurels - prunus laurocerasus

:thumb: Hi Patricia, the leaves do give off a poisonous gas - cyanide! It's probably not enough to hurt in the care on the way to the tip - unless it's a very long journey! So just leave a window open if you are concerned.. The berries are poisonous if eaten and I've always understood that the cyanide given off by burning laurel can be very dangerous - so better to risk the trip to the tip.:wink:

Otherwise I have a large Laurel hedge that I love. I prune it laboriously by hand once a year & you can smell it as you are snipping, but it isn't enough to hurt us.. :wink: I just never never burn the leaves as then it can be dangerous..!! So my answer is leave them in & enjoy them & don't let them get big, then you won't have much of a pruning problem.. :thumb:

 

:dh::wink: I know it burns well Pete, but I made a pact with my neighbour years ago not to burn it in the garden.. They were not impressed with it's burning & smoking properties... :hehe: :dh: So I take it up to the huge compost area up at the farm where we put all the leaves etc for mulch... :thmb:

 

:lollol: Oh Pete what would we do without you....?? You are right the scare mongers are always hovering there.. I don't worry myself, but.. My neighbours were upset by it years ago it was easier to do this & as my SiL has a huge huge compost area for leaves & grass cuttings for his acidic mulch heap, but it is so big as he fills it from his business as well he turns it with a tractor..!! :dh: Yes the Cyanide does break down as there is so much heat in there from the grass mowings & he ends up with some beautiful well rotted mulch I can tell you... :wink:

 

:gnthb::D Well of course Pete... :D

 

Pete is right. There is also cyanide in many other things - e.g. the pips of apples and a by-product of producing sugar from beet. Although laurel contains cyanide there is no danger in having it as a hedge - unless you decide to cut off the leaves and crush them inside a box with your head stuck inside there.

Burning laurel on a bonfire is also no problem - I burn it all the time. The small amount of cyanide in each leaf is burnt and/or dissipated during the burning process. Fresh laurel leaves do produce smoke when burning (as do all leaves) but normally the smoke dissapears quickly as the leaves burn at a fast rate because of the volatile oils in the leaves.

Laurel leaves left to dry (or the old ones collected from under the bushes) are good to help get a bonfire going but a word of warning - if you have a very large amount of dry laurel leaves you should add them to the fire in batches otherwise your fire can become uncontrollable.

A neighbour once had a bonfire heap that was about 5ft in diameter and 5ft high with most of it dry laurel. He set light to it and didn't step back quick enough. Not only did his hair get singed but within 20 seconds the flames were 40ft high and his fence started to look unhappy. I had warned him in advance but he didn't realise how volatile laurel is. Fortunately I saw that he was going to light his bonfire and had already started to get my hose ready. He only lost one fence panel.

 

Well I didn't see it & I wondered what made Patricia ask the question... Yes many things are poisonous in our gardens I know & I am quite happy about them myself, but I know other people are not so happy so do try to respect that & especially when they are your neighbours of 40 odd yrs.. We all have our quirks & foibles as is a gardeners want I think... Oh well I just love gardening whatever... :thumb:

 

I wouldn't worry at all about laurel being poisonous :flag:. A large percentage of garden plants have some poison in them and I don't think you would want to eat them anyway.

Some bamboos contain Taxiphyllin which is a cyanogenic glycoside which is the same as in yew. Some bamboo shoots are eaten (popular in chinese food) but these are usually the non-poisonous ones. Cyanide in one form or another is known to be contained in a few thousand plants. It (linamarin and lotaustralin) is contained in high amounts in cassava but that is still a staple food in some countries. In the quantities that we would consume in cassava chips, for instance, it is unlikely to have any effect on our health and the way they are processed removes most of the poison.

Some bamboo leaves are quite poisonous to pets but most animals know not to eat them and most of the poisonous ones are generally not sold in garden centres.

A good rule of thumb is:- if it is sold in a garden centre or similar place then you shouldn't really be to bothered. The only danger in most cases is if a baby chews on 'poisonous' plants.