In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:

If we go back to the hard winters we used to have here, 20-30 years
ago, I may well lose it, but it doesn't mind -10 Celsius or the soil
freezing to the depth of an inch or so.

No reason why - our bay trees were originally planted at the end of the
first world war, and they were still there last time I looked.

They were killed in 1962-3 near Salisbury, and used to get killed in
the 1970s and 1980s in Cambridge (mostly pot-planted ones, true).
My experience is that their top growth is killed by sustained cold
(say, -15 at night and -5 during the day), and that only the best-
established plants will regrow from their roots after their top
growth is killed, at least if the ground froze to some depth. My
mother's large ones (Salisbury) didn't resprout until 1964 (sic).



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.