On Fri, 4 Jun 2010 wrote:

What would you do with a bay tree that had been allowed to go its own
way and is now about 35 foot high and also very wide, stuck in the
middle of a shrubbery?
I'd like to tame it a bit and they owners don't mind either way (I do
their garden once a week) as it is pushing into some really nice shrubs
but honestly, can you even attempt to chop this down to normal bay tree
size (well I mean normal as in most sensible people's idea of size)

Or right down. It will reshoot from both old wood and its roots.

Yes, I did exactly this a couple of years ago and it's sprouting
vigorously from the stump.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk