On 28 Mar, 14:33, wrote:
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.

Er, no - sorry. I live about 120 miles from London.

I looked up frost and the BBC weather pages gave this,

"Frost severity
There are several degrees of severity for frost with a slight frost
0°C to minus 3.5°C, a moderate frost from minus 3.5°C to minus 6.6°C,
severe frost from minus 6.5°C to minus 11.5°C and a very severe frost
below minus 11.5°C."

That places -10C into the severe frost category, and seems to back up
my theory.