My bay leaf tree

[Jenise]

With encouragement from Jo Ann Henderson and a local friend, summer before last I planted a little 9 inch stub of a bay tree in my yard. I didn't harvest during the first year because, well, there just wasn't enough of it. But it's over four feet tall now and gives me all I need. Was thinking about how well it's done just now when I went out to pick some leaves for my soup: it's over four feet tall now and gives me all I need. If anyone's ever considered growing one but hasn't, you should really add one of these to your yard. As with most herbs, there's nothing like fresh.

Wow...Jenise...that is too awesome. I would love to plant one. Do know if they only grow in temperate environments? I am zone 6 and we get some harsh winters here.

[Jenise]

I am zone 6 and we get some harsh winters here.

Probably no worse than ours, Maria, and yours is shorter! Their reputation is for being a 'tender' plant, but from what I've been able to deduce is that if you protect it from harsh northerly winds, it should be fine. I'm zone 5 or 6 too. Another friend of mine has one that she planted 8 years ago; she was so convinced from the nursery warnings that it wouldn't last more than one season, she put it in a place that was everything they told her not to do. It's thrived.

Thanks Jenise! I will definitely give it a try this Spring. Please KUP on how the plant grows, Jenise. There is nothing like fresh Bay.

Does fine as a container plant in zone 4. Out in the summer, in the kitchen by floor-ceiling windows with a west exposure. Growing slowly but steadily for 4 years. More leaves than I use.
I highly recommend it. Beautiful semi glossy leaves.
I keep rosemary and keffir lime the same way.

My CA Bay Laurel is many years old, about 20 ft. tall and doing well. We've had temps this year down to 19° and it is fine. Last year Gene decided that it was interfering with our RV parking area and trimmed it. It is now a three sided tree, but I did not plant it for it's beauty, and have more leaves than I need with such a large tree.

I am zone 6 and we get some harsh winters here.

Probably no worse than ours, Maria, and yours is shorter! Their reputation is for being a 'tender' plant, but from what I've been able to deduce is that if you protect it from harsh northerly winds, it should be fine. I'm zone 5 or 6 too. Another friend of mine has one that she planted 8 years ago; she was so convinced from the nursery warnings that it wouldn't last more than one season, she put it in a place that was everything they told her not to do. It's thrived.

Sorry, Jenise, but you're zone 8 according to the USDA. To get zone 6, you'd have to go about 75 mi inland, where I'd expect you'd find that winters are a bit chillier than in your fair clime. Here's the map:



Mark Lipton
(zone 5, and bitter)

[Jenise]

I am zone 6 and we get some harsh winters here.

Probably no worse than ours, Maria, and yours is shorter! Their reputation is for being a 'tender' plant, but from what I've been able to deduce is that if you protect it from harsh northerly winds, it should be fine. I'm zone 5 or 6 too. Another friend of mine has one that she planted 8 years ago; she was so convinced from the nursery warnings that it wouldn't last more than one season, she put it in a place that was everything they told her not to do. It's thrived.

Sorry, Jenise, but you're zone 8 according to the USDA. To get zone 6, you'd have to go about 75 mi inland, where I'd expect you'd find that winters are a bit chillier than in your fair clime. Here's the map:



Mark Lipton
(zone 5, and bitter)

Huh. I used to live in what is the Zone 9 shown on your map in Soiuthern California--there's so much difference between there and here that one zone difference doesn't seem possible and this area is generally spoken of as 5-7. Yes, I have a softening marine influence in my particular situation and we're in a rain shadow, but the latter's a summer benefit and does not, so far as I know, make any difference in winter. Which demonstrates my relative ignorance of the whole thing...hey, one of my neighbors is a master gardener person, I'll have to ask her.

Jenise may in fact live in a microclimate zone that closer approximates zone 6 rather than the wide angle zone 8 which applies to this region.

Sorry, Jenise, but you're zone 8 according to the USDA. To get zone 6, you'd have to go about 75 mi inland, where I'd expect you'd find that winters are a bit chillier than in your fair clime. Here's the map:

I'm not sure where Jenise's numbers came from but one constant source of confusion in west coast gardening is that Sunset magazine publishes the nearest thing to the gardening "bible" in the left coast called the "Sunset Western Garden Book" which divides the west up into a different (and much finer) set of zones than the USDA ones. Unlike the USDA zones, which rely entirely on plant hardiness - lowest winter temperatures, in other words - Sunset also factors in things like summer heat, humidity, wind, and so forth. Jenise would be in Sunset zone 4. Laurus nobilis is a Mediterranean plant, recommended by Sunset for zones 5-9 and 12-24 - all ocean-influenced places, west of the first big set of mountains (Cascades in OR/WA, Sierra in CA) along the west coast. In other words, even Jenise might run into trouble in an exceptionally cold winter and Maria wouldn't stand a chance in New Jersey. You can get an idea of how Sunset would treat the rest of the country by the 1's toward the east part of this map of the Pacific Northwest - pretty much everything east of the mountains would be zone 1 if Sunset extended its map that far:

PNW Sunset climate zones.jpg

I take back part of what I said: it seems Sunset now publishes zone info for the rest of the US, too, here: http://www.sunset.com/garden/climate-zones/climate-zones-intro-us-map-00400000036421/.