Bay Laurel in Zone 8a

[HunkieDorie23]

I have wanted a Bay Laurel tree for years but when we live in Ohio it wasn't very practical. I finally ordered one and it has arrived but I am not sure if I should pot it or plant outside. We are in the border of Zone 8a/8b so it is solid zone 8. Are there still special care it will need?

 

[ninnymary]

I bought my bay laurel (which is on the left) about 2 years ago. It was in a one gallon container. It used to get morning sun on my deck. I just repotted it and have it in full sun. It has been very easy for me to grow it. I fertilize it with fish immulsion with kelp about once a year.

 

[ninnymary]

I forgot to mention that I'm in zone 8a/8b also.

Mary

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Thank You , Do you ever have to bring it in?

 

[ninnymary]

No, it's always been outside and after 2 winters it hasn't skipped a beat. But we have very mild winters, high 30's-low 40's at night.

Mary

 

[curly_kate]

I think most are hardy to zone 7. I bought one with the plan to dig it up in the fall & bring it inside. I used bay all the time in my cooking, so I'm excited to grow it myself!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

You may also be in a unique position to try some really obscure recipes down the road that would otherwise be impossible. While I have never actually seen one, I understand from some of my books on food that there are some dishes in regional French, Spanish and other Mediterranean cookery that require the use of bay berries, as in berries from an actual bay* (as opposed to bayberries the waxy little things that people use to make candles) . Since I do not think I have EVER seen bay fruit being sold in a spice catalog, I sort of assume that the only way to make these dishes is to have a bay tree that is big enough and old enough to be reproducing. When and if it does, you will probably have a lot of cooking fun (I'm almost tempted to ask that when that day comes someone be kind enough to send ME (who lives too far north to have a bay laurel of sufficient size and age) a few berries to play around with. But I rather suspect that, being a true laurel, the fruit of the bay is probably too oily to keep long enough for mailing by any conventional methods without going rancid on the way. I imagine it's similar to the situation with spicebrush berries (another member of the laurel family); you really need to freeze the berries if you want to keep them long term.)

*though having a central pit (like most laurels) botanically, such fruits would be a drupe, not a berry.

 

[ninnymary]

Pulsegleaner, I didn't know they produced berries. Though mine is a nice healthy size, I've never seen berries on it. If it ever does produce berries I will try to remember to send you some.

Mary

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Very few people do. I suspect it could be they have to be really big and really old, and possibly actually in the ground to pull them off as in their native area), where they are probably some that are full fledged trees, as opposed to the short shrubby size most people keep them. My memory isn't great, but I think the fruit looks a bit like an olive (though probably a bid smaller) But I'm really only going on the shape of the fruits of the other big spice laurel genii, like Cinnamonium ( the only one I've seen in fruit in person was a camphor (the one at the Bronx Botanical Garden is big enough to fruit regularly) But I have it on good authority that the cinnamon tree (both true Ceylon cinnamon and the Cassia cinnamon that most of us in the US are familiar with) does as well.

 

[Sam BigDeer]

Question!!!!?? Isn't there a very close relative of the bay laurel whose leaves look similar but render
much less appetizing results if used in your cooking??
Research TIME!!
Sam