# Hairy Laurel (Kalmia hirsuta) > A knee-high evergreen laurel of Southern sandhills, bristly in every part, with pink saucers spotted in red from May into July. Also called sandhill laurel, hairy mountain laurel, Kalmiella hirsuta, Chamaedaphne hirsuta. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hairy-laurel/ ![Hairy laurel (Kalmia hirsuta) pink saucer flower with red spots among bristly leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/hairy-laurel-h1610-800.jpg) *Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0 ยท [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AKalmia_hirsuta_flower.jpg)* ## Facts - Type: Shrub - Mature height: 1 to 2 ft - USDA hardiness zones: 8 to 9 - Grows wild in: Sandy barrens and dry uplands - Native range: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina - Sun: Full - Soil moisture: Dry, Average - Growth rate: Slow - Traits: Rare, Evergreen, Showy flowers - Sold as: Saplings, Seed Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them. ## Availability Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed. ## Notes Hairy laurel is a low evergreen laurel of the Southeast's open sandy savannas, sandhills and pine barrens, from South Carolina to Florida and Alabama. Stiff bristles cover its shoots, leaves and flower stalks, and its pink saucers open one or a few at a time along the stems rather than in big heads like our mountain laurel. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Mississippi and imperiled in Alabama and South Carolina. Plant it in a sunny, sandy bed or a rock garden, where its summer flowers can be seen up close. ## Size, growth and what to expect No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as slow, like our mountain laurel, about a foot a year. It is a small evergreen shrub 1 to 2 feet tall, rarely 4, spreading to erect, with tiny leaves under half an inch long. Pink saucers about half an inch across open singly or a few together along the stems from May into July. Each is red near the anther pockets, with a ring of red spots, and the bristly sepals stay after the corolla falls. The seed is dust-fine. It grows wild on the coastal plain of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, and rarely Mississippi. Its home is open sandy savannas, sandhills and pine barrens, where ground fires once swept through. ## How to grow Hairy Laurel Hairy laurel needs full sun on open, sandy, acid ground, like the sandhills and savannas where it grows wild. It is tender, so it suits warm gardens. Set plants 2 feet apart and keep them 2 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires. Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the sandy soil back in, and mulch lightly with pine needles, clear of the stems. The seed stays dormant until heated, as by a ground fire. Tests broke that dormancy by holding the damp seed at 140 to 194 degrees for 10 minutes to 19 hours, the hotter the shorter. Then sow the dust-fine seed on the surface of moist peat at room temperature, in light. Water through dry spells in the first summer. It needs no pruning. Each flower carries both male and female parts, and its anthers sit in pockets of the corolla until an insect springs them. Its relative mountain laurel sets more seed with pollen from another plant, so plant two hairy laurels from different parents for seed. Its relatives mountain laurel and sheep laurel are highly poisonous if eaten, so treat it the same and keep it from grazing animals. ## Sources - [Flora of North America, vol. 8: Kalmia hirsuta](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250065669) - [Jaynes 1968, Breaking seed dormancy of Kalmia hirsuta with high temperatures, Ecology 49: 1196-1198](https://doi.org/10.2307/1934514) - [Baskin and Baskin 2002, propagation protocol for Kalmia hirsuta, Native Plant Network](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=ericaceae-kalmia-1952) - [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Kalmia hirsuta](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=KAHI2) - [Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), from Bean: Kalmia hirsuta](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/kalmia/kalmia-hirsuta/) - [NatureServe Explorer: Kalmia hirsuta](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.161569/Kalmia_hirsuta) - [Alabama Natural Heritage Program: Alabama Inventory List 2023](https://cosam.auburn.edu/biology/alnhp/_assets/2023_trackinglist.pdf) - [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Kalmia chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Kalmia.pdf) - [Flora of North America, vol. 8: Kalmia, the genus treatment](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=116931) - [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Kalmia latifolia and Kalmia angustifolia](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/kalmia-latifolia/) ## Read before planting - [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md) - [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md) - [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md) - [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md) - [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md) - [Native trees and shrubs for butterflies and moths: host plants first, nectar second](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-butterflies-and-moths/index.html.md) ## Related - [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Hairy Laurel, add ?species=hairy-laurel with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=hairy-laurel&zone=8&sun=part&moisture=average. - [Companion species for Hairy Laurel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=hairy-laurel): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard. - [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=hairy-laurel - [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Hairy Laurel is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=hairy-laurel - [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Hairy Laurel needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=hairy-laurel:2 - [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Hairy Laurel flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.