In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

Winters well outside. We have a number of young coming along.

If, however, we return to the winters of 20+ years ago, it will
not overwinter reliably in the colder parts of the country. It
regrows well from its roots, but will not survive having its top
growth killed every winter. I am not sure what it can take, but
my guess is that -15 Celcius, probably even an extended period of
-10 with a wind, will kill its leaves.

I doubt it. Between the 1920s and 1970s I know that those bay trees in
Essex were perfectly OK. I can't speak for any damage between 1920 and
1950, but I never saw any frost or wind damage between 1950 and 1978

I did. And I don't mean just in 1962/3, which killed most of the
ones I knew of, in one case not resprouting until 1964. I am pretty
sure that -15 Celcius will kill all of their leaves and young
shoots, from what I remember of those winters. Bean says that it
gets leaf-loss even at Kew in hard winters.

There may well be different varieties of different hardiness, of
course.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.