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Nick Maclaren · 27-02-2007, 10:56 AM posted to sci.bio.botany

In article .com,
writes:
| On Feb 1, 4:13 pm, "jim" wrote:
| On Feb 1, 6:50 am, wrote:
|
| My wife has a bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) in a pot and, boy, does that
| thing grow SLOW! It's doing all right now though.
|
| I have one that was planted 30 years ago - it is a small tree that has
| now reached a height of about 11 feet.
|
| I suppose it depends on growing conditions and climate; I grew up with
| a pair of trees in the American southwest that were over 70 feet tall.
| The man who planted them back in 1912, though, also expected them to
| grow slowly. We know this because although by the 1970s they had far
| outstripped every tree in the neighborhood, you could still tell that
| when they were originally planted it had been as "gatepost" shrubs on
| either side of an entry walkway!

It does. In the UK, an established bay will grow at the rate of up to
a foot a year - in some places. Ones in pots seem to average more like
2-3". My guess is that those trees had deep soil and ample water and,
of course, very little wind. I doubt that a bay would grow to 70' in
most of the west of the UK before blowing over!

| They are somewhat slow, yes, but I would say, considering their
| density (biomass) to size ratio, they really are average growers; the
| leaves are large and thick for a Mediterranean-climate plant, and they
| populate the branches quite thickly; the branches ramify quite readily
| as well.

They are on the slow side for trees that will grow in the UK, but are
not VERY slow. As they are natural shrubs, they are probably average
growers per area, even if not per tree. I don't know why more people
don't use them for hedging.

Nor do I know why nobody has bred a variety for larger flowers, or at
least I don't know of one. That would be tricky in the UK, as they
rarely set seed here.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.