Almost two years ago I planted four 4'tall Skip Laurels. The one I planted on the westside along a privacy fence line and under the eastside of an oak tree is doing great and flowers nicely. I did hand water some potted trees, under that oak tree, almost daily during our drought all last summer. Such watering is most likely what provided enough moisture for that Laurel even though I did not concentrate on watering it as much as I focused on watering the potted trees. My other three Skip laurels were planted farther north along the same fence line and the ground sloped slightly for proper water drainage. The problem I encountered was that two of those got too much water from my neighbor's improperly draining backyard rain or yard watering runoff. All three continued to struggle that first season, but by the next Spring I clearly could see two of them were in trouble and needed to be raised. I actually raised all three of those which were planted slightly closer together. I had to baby all of those raised ones with hand watering almost every day, but the one with the worst root damage from previously sitting in too much water, prior to my raising them, still died. This last fall, I replace that one, and even though we have had a dry winter; I did not have to water it much, and it is doing fine. But still this spring those three do not look like they are going to bloom as nicely as the one farther up the fence line and is planted under my mature oak tree. Hopefully if this summer I baby the three elevated ones, they will get the chance to establish a better root system and finally catch up with the other one.

same thing has happened to mine and to most of the skip laurels in the neighborhood, except those that were planted very close to the house and thus protected from the worst weather. hope someone else chimes in here, but i assume it's winter burn and that the new leaves will grow out vigorously enough so that it will compensate for the burned leaves. i heard that spraying in the fall (once temps hit 40s consistently) with wilt-pruf will prevent the leaves from getting as much winter damage. Here is a link that might be useful: wilt-pruf

Once established, yes quite fast. Personally, I would start at 5' and maybe even space out further than that. Even with that spacing, you will have a hedge-like effect in time, even if left unpruned. And remember that spread is front and back, as well as to the sides - leave enough space so they are not fighting with the fence behind or rapidly overshadowing the plants in front. Some pruning to keep these in bounds may be in your future ;-) And I'd get more feedback from others in your area about the advisability of using antidessicants.......the general consensus is they are rather worthless for winter protection. I can't say for sure as I have never used (or ever needed to) but the topic used to come up rather frequently here.

You didn't say how high your hedge needs to be. Are deer a problem? How's the drainage? No for Prunus caroliniana. It is a tree and can get damaged in winter. But there may be other Prunus such as Skip laurel, provided they get enough moisture. It can get 8 to 15 feet. Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' works for many years. Doesn't get much over 4 or 5 feet. But can eventually get white scale and die out. Euonymus is great provided your area is fenced from deer. Golden euonymus, Silver King euonymus, etc. Wax myrtle may work, but can defoliate in really cold winters. Also, snow loads can break them up, which is discouraging, but deer don't like them. You might consider Viburnum pragense. It's a bit course, but with shaping looks fairly good. Takes regular maintenance. Stays evergreen. It's tough and deer don't care for it. Leaves droop in coldest weather. Then there are all the hollies, such as I cornuta 'Burford', 'Needlepoint', 'Carissa', I. cornuta Rotundifolia, Ilex crenata and all it's cultivars, the Blue hollies and all their cultivars.