Comments on: Bay Laurel Plants

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:19:20 +0000

George, I’m not sure what you have growing on your bay trees, do you have a photo of it? Are you sure that it isn’t a part of the plant like a bud or blossom of some sort? If it doesn’t look like a diseased area or insect scale I would leave it and just keep an eye on it.

By: George Bartle

George Bartle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:32:35 +0000

We have two Bay Trees outside here in Spain on the Costa Blanca, and there are small yellowish pineapple shaped growths at the junction of the leaves to the branch. Any ideas what they could be, and if they need to be removed. We had the same on a Bay that we had in Kent, England, and it did not seem to detract from the flavour of the leaves. Thanks for any info.

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:33:13 +0000

Hi Joe, evidently Bay Laurel is not the easiest herb to grow from seed. I have never tried and could not find much information on germinating the seeds other than that it is slow going and can take as long as six months before the seeds will germinate. Here is a link to an article about Bay that also includes a paragraph related to growing Bay Laurel from seed. Good luck and let us know how you make out!

By: joe pellegrino

joe pellegrino — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:21:35 +0000

a friend gave me a few “BAY” seeds that he brought from Florence Italy. Thy look like small berries with a black/dark brown ,somewhat hard shell.I would like to plant them and see what happens>
Should i shell them before planting them or soak them with the shell intact for a couple of days before planting.
Any suggestions??
Thanks

By: anynymous

anynymous — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:10:53 +0000

I have a large Bay Laurel fragrant as can be I use for cooking. It it outdoors in the ground and at all times. It survives winters and does make a nice wind breaker. It grows like mad and I had to trim it twice a year. It’s a tree. Hello? Oh I’m in Oregon. Also my rosemary can survive our winters as they are planted in ground

By: dale

dale — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:01:11 +0000

i live in maryland. i planted my bay some 12 years ago. i have moved it once, what i did to have mine grow outside in the winter is i bought a string of lights ( hardware store) and in the winter i would run them around the trunk area and leave them pluged in all winter for the first 2-3 years. mine is growing great i keep it trimed back to about 5 feet.

By: Mary Saunders

Mary Saunders — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:28:14 +0000

What kind of light does it get and where is the light source? At what height do you want it to branch? My citrus, which are kind of similar, do not branch on a side where there’s no light. If you find a spot where light comes at it from more than one direction, maybe you would get more branching. I’m assuming it’s inside. If it’s outside and this is happening, perhaps you can let light hit it laterally, and that might encourage it to branch out toward the light. I hope you will let us know how this comes out, if you try it.

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:56:52 +0000

Hi Cedric, how short did you try cutting the bay plant back previously? I had a well branched tree about six feet tall that I thought died back last winter. It later started to regrow and I cut it back to about a one foot trunk and it did push out a lot of new branches from the shortened trunk. If you are not happy with the way your bay is growing and its form then you may want to take a chance and really prune it down pretty severely in the hope that that will stimulate a flush of growth without harming the plant. Good luck and let me know what you decide and how the plant does for you.