sutartsorric wrote:
On 28 Mar, 12:27, 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. Below that, they start to
lose leaves; below about -15, all their top growth will die. As
usual, that is very rough, as it depends on the other conditions
(duration, wind, damp/dry, timing etc.)

/snip of feral sig/

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."

/snip of feral sig/

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

Not for the fens, it isn't. Well, wasn't - frosts in the inland fens
used to last a long time, and the temperatures (allegedly) got too low
for small children to slide on skates. (The slipperyness of skates on
ice relies on the pressure of the skate melting the ice beneath it.

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

No. Even plants which one would call 'fully hardy' have died in some
parts of Scotland this winter.

--
Rusty