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Recipient of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, the Portuguese Laurel is a beautiful large flowering evergreen that can be grown as a large shrub or highly attractive small tree. Its deep rhubarb color stems are clothed in leathery, high-gloss dark green leaves year round. In summer, abundant cylindrical spires up to 10 inches long are packed with small fragrant white flowers followed by cherry-red berries that mature to deep purple. The birds will definitely thank you for the berries gobbling them all up when they're ripe. With no pruning this laurel will grow to about 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide, which is excellent for use in design as an evergreen privacy screen or to frame the corners of homes and other buildings. That said, plants can be maintained at about half those dimensions with an annual pruning. As it grows taller, lower branches can be removed to a desired height to form a highly attractive small tree. Can also be maintained as a clipped formal hedge or to various topiary shapes such as column or pyramid. Portuguese Laurel is much more sun, wind, heat and humidity tolerant than the Carolina or English laurels and we've seen no insect or disease problems.