In article ,
sutartsorric wrote:

I didnt know that either. My bay has survived the winter despite being
in a large pot and next to the shed facing northeast, with night
temperatures as low as minus 10C in January. A few lower leaves are
yellow, but the rest look ok. It had no protection throughout the
winter, so maybe I have just been very lucky.

They aren't as tender as all that - mild frosts, like the occasional
drop to -10 Celsius, aren't a problem. =A0Below that, they start to
lose leaves; below about -15, all their top growth will die. =A0As
usual, that is very rough, as it depends on the other conditions
(duration, wind, damp/dry, timing etc.)

Well, make up your mind.

Earlier in this thread you stated;

"Bay is not very hardy, and used to go brown every year in Cambridge,
but this winter wasn't particularly hard here. Once the bark freezes,
the top will die completely. But they can regrow from fairly deep
roots."

I would have thought that an air temperature of -10C is quite a sharp
frost, not a 'mild' one (whatever that means).

Let me guess. You live in London (a.k.a. the Home Counties)? Perhaps
I am wrong, but you don't know much about the UK's climate. Whether
-10 Celsius is a sharp frost or a mild one is irrelevant, but a winter
that never drops below that is fairly mild over most of the land area
of the UK. Until the current mild spell started (about 15 years back),
Cambridge used to have temperatures below that most winters.

Is there a definition of exactly what "hardy" means, in terms of
ability to survive cold winters?

Yes. You could look it up :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.