Gift Wrapped Bay Laurel Trees

Bay Laurel, Laurus nobilis, (sometimes called Aromatic Bay) is a lovely neat and glossy, hardy evergreen tree. A well grown Bay Leaf 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.

If allowed to grow freely, your bay could reach 40' by 30', but they're superb topiary specimens and are easy to keep at your desired size. The leaves have culinary uses and can be dried or frozen, 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're 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.

Browse all our other Garden Gifts, more Ornamental Gift Trees, or buy this tree without the gift wrapping.

Please inform us of your preferred delivery week

To receive it in time for Christmas, we despatch the week of 11th December.
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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.

Features:

Potted Tree, gift wrapped in hessian bag
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Lanceolate grey-green leaves.
Glossy, neat evergreen foliage
Provides structure and formality
Aromatic, culinary stewing herb
Vigorous
Disease resistant
Sun or partial shade
Plant height includes the pot
RHS Award of Garden Merit

Growing Bay Leaf Trees

It's hardy, but may suffer damage in harsh winds and extreme cold so should be kept in a sheltered spot out of the wind. In an exposed situation, are best protected with horticultural fleece for a harsh winter.

Bay needs a well drained soil, but apart from that isn't fussy, and thrives in large pots. Partial shade is no problem for it.

Bay trees suffer very little from disease and are easy to keep in shape with a spring prune.

History & Trivia

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; Daphne had already been hit by Ero's leaden arrow, causing her to be disgusted by Apollo.
The backstory here is that 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 setback to the ardent Apollo, who declared “Always my hair will have you, my lyres will have you, my quivers will have you, laurel tree”, and thus 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".
That is a modern spin on the phrase, however. In the past, resting on one's laurels meant the achievement of retiring at a grand old age after a long and successful career: "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.

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Gift Wrapped Bay Laurel Trees

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