Bay Laurel Trees, Lollipop & Pyramid

Bay Trees Ready Clipped as Pyramids & Lollipops

Bay Laurel, Laurus nobilis, (sometimes called Aromatic Bay) is a lovely neat and glossy evergreen tree. It is hardy, but may suffer damage in harsh winds and extreme cold so should be kept in a sheltered well-drained spot out of the wind. It holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Bay trees suffer very little from disease and are easy to prune and keep in shape. If allowed to grow freely, your bay trees could reach 40' by 30', but they are superb topiary specimens and are easy to keep at your desired size. The leaves have culinary uses, and spices are made from the berries and the leaf oil.

Our lollipop trees have long narrow trunks with a round head of foliage on top. As the name suggests. They are grown for us by laurel specialists and are of high quality. Please remember that as living natural organisms the trunks cannot be “plumb line straight” and some natural variation is tolerated.

PLEASE NOTE: The plant height includes the pot. Sizes may vary by ~5%.  We always try to pick well matched plants when you order more than one. 

Great for your garden:

A well grown Bay tree is a beautiful topiary specimen providing structure and formality, either in a pot or within a formal planting scheme. Perfect for a statement on a terrace or on either side of doors or arches. You can buy both lollipop bay and 'pyramids'. Both are easy to keep in shape by pruning in spring. They will need a little care in harsh winters and, if placed in an exposed situation, are best protected with horticultural fleece. The leaves can be used for culinary purposes and the prunings can be dried or frozen.

Features:

• Lanceolate grey-green leaves.
• Glossy, neat evergreen foliage
• Provides structure and formality
• Aromatic
• Vigorous
• Disease resistant
• Sun or partial shade
• Plant height includes the pot

Look out for:

Bay trees can be prone to leaf spot, which is often caused by waterlogged roots, or overly wet conditions. When container grown plants suffer from this it is usually an indication that the compost has become old and tired. If this happens, you should root-prune and replant your tree into fresh, well-drained compost.

They can also suffer from peeling bark. This most often follows harsh winters, after which they may develop cracked, peeling bark, especially on the lower stems. The exact cause of this is not certain, but cold weather and other factors such as fluctuating moisture levels are likely to be contributors. Any damage caused is not serious, however, and provided the rest of the plant is growing normally or has recovered from winter damage by midsummer, no action should be necessary.

Did You Know? 

The Laurus nobilis that is cultivated today is a descendant of the wild laurels from forests that grew in the Mediterranean basin 10,000 years ago. They thrived in humid conditions and gradually died out leaving just small pockets in the mountains of Southern Turkey, Syria, Portugal, Spain, the Canary Isles and Madeira.

Laurel was dear to the god Apollo who, struck by Eros' golden arrow, was consumed with desire for the nymph Daphne. But Daphne had been shot by Ero's leaden arrow, causing her to be disgusted by the handsome sun god; Eros and Apollo were old archery rivals, and the latter had mocked the former as a mere cheeky boy, unable to slay fearsome beasts like Python. Just as Apollo was about to seize Daphne, she cried out to her father, "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!", who promptly did what any good dad would do, and turned her into a shrub. This was barely a set back to the ardent Apollo, who declared “Always my hair will have you, my lyres will have you, my quivers will have you, laurel tree." To show his seriousness, Apollo granted the laurel tree its evergreen leaves that, when dry, last for many years without deteriorating. 
For this reason, the Greeks and Romans used laurel leaves to form crowns called Laurea, an honorific used to this day as the English word Laureate (as in Poet or Nobel), and referenced in the exhortation "don't rest on your laurels". This is a modern version of the phrase, however. In the past, resting on one's laurels was synonymous with retiring at a grand old age after a long and successful career, for example, "So thou, paternal Sage, may'st now repose, nor seek new Laurels to adorn thy Brows".

Other common names include aromatic, sweet, or royal Bay, and Roman or true Laurel.