On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:02:38 +0100, Moonraker
wrote:

On 18/04/2011 22:51, wrote:
In , wrote:
On 2011-04-18 20:00:38 +0100, said:

I had this culinary Bay tree for the last 15 years. It is planted in the
ground and has grown to about 4 meters high.
I have just noticed that the Bay tree is dead or dying. Suddenely all
leaves are turning brown. Is this something to do with the hard winter
that we had? can it be saved?

You don't say where you live which is *essential* to asking for help
and advice on plants and what to plant etc. But for now, do nothing.
You bay tree may well resurrect itself. It's worth waiting all of this
year and well into next spring.

I doubt that you will have to wait that long. It may well lose
all of its leaves and resprout, or the entirety of its top growth
may die. But, if that happens, it will almost certainly reshoot
from its roots, and you will have select one or more shoots to
grow, and prune out the rest.

But, as Sacha says, the first step is to do nothing.

In 1962/3, my mother's bays died and I cut them down. Nothing
happened in 1963, but 1964 saw a forest of shoots. Within a few
years, there was a thicket.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Well that has given me hope, mine is in a pot and looks totally dead,
now I will wait, though be it rather impatiently!

They really are tough. I'm in the West Mids, and my "main" one, about
a metre or so high, is in a container, and not a really sunny spot. It
suffered a lot of browned leaves both this winter and the previous
one, but looks like recovering. Meanwhile, I left ten seedlings 6-10"
high in a metre-long trough under the south-facing wall of my house
through the winter, and largely forgot about them: they look
miserable, but only two of them have actually died.

--
Mike.