In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:

If we go back to the hard winters we used to have here, 20-30 years
ago, I may well lose it, but it doesn't mind -10 Celsius or the soil
freezing to the depth of an inch or so.

No reason why - our bay trees were originally planted at the end of the
first world war, and they were still there last time I looked.

They were killed in 1962-3 near Salisbury, and used to get killed in
the 1970s and 1980s in Cambridge (mostly pot-planted ones, true).
My experience is that their top growth is killed by sustained cold
(say, -15 at night and -5 during the day), and that only the best-
established plants will regrow from their roots after their top
growth is killed, at least if the ground froze to some depth. My
mother's large ones (Salisbury) didn't resprout until 1964 (sic).



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:21:25 +0000 (GMT), wrote:

In article ,
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹ wrote:
On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:47:31 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

I dried the bay leaves themselves by putting them in a metal dish on top of
my woodburner - I now have enough for a year of soup flavouring ;-)

I never dry off bay leaves. I have a biggish standard bay and just
rip off a few fresh leaves as required. Drying does nothing for the
taste in my view.

Mine is big enough that we light it up as an outside Christmas tree,
I put twigs on the barbequeue and STILL have to prune it annually!
But it's planted in the soil.

If we go back to the hard winters we used to have here, 20-30 years
ago, I may well lose it, but it doesn't mind -10 Celsius or the soil
freezing to the depth of an inch or so.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Don't bay branches burn beautifully. I've not encountered anything
which burns so fiercely immediately after pruning. It's the essential
oils I assume.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
Don't bay branches burn beautifully. I've not encountered anything
which burns so fiercely immediately after pruning. It's the essential
oils I assume.

Pam in Bristol


and make a noise as they burn :-))

--
Mike

The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rneba.org.uk
Luxury Self Catering on the Isle of Wight?
www.shanklinmanormews.co.uk

writes
In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:

If we go back to the hard winters we used to have here, 20-30 years
ago, I may well lose it, but it doesn't mind -10 Celsius or the soil
freezing to the depth of an inch or so.

No reason why - our bay trees were originally planted at the end of the
first world war, and they were still there last time I looked.

They were killed in 1962-3 near Salisbury, and used to get killed in
the 1970s and 1980s in Cambridge (mostly pot-planted ones, true).
My experience is that their top growth is killed by sustained cold
(say, -15 at night and -5 during the day), and that only the best-
established plants will regrow from their roots after their top
growth is killed, at least if the ground froze to some depth. My
mother's large ones (Salisbury) didn't resprout until 1964 (sic).

When we moved into our house in 1990, the previous owner told us that
the bay tree outside the library window was regularly cut down by the
frost. But since then, winters have been a lot milder, so it basically
kept growing until we finally removed it (1) to make way for the fig
that we had to move to make way for the new porch ...

gardening can be so complicated sometimes!

(1) We still had two other bay tree elsewhere in the garden.
--
Kay

In article ,
Pam Moore wrote:

Don't bay branches burn beautifully. I've not encountered anything
which burns so fiercely immediately after pruning. It's the essential
oils I assume.

Yes. I haven't noticed a major flavouring effect when used on the
barbecue, though :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 2010-01-01 12:14:54 +0000, said:

In article ,
Pam Moore wrote:

Don't bay branches burn beautifully. I've not encountered anything
which burns so fiercely immediately after pruning. It's the essential
oils I assume.

Yes. I haven't noticed a major flavouring effect when used on the
barbecue, though :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

FWIW, friends of mine in France used clippings from their grape vines
on barbecues and these gave a lovely aromatic smoke.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:07:48 -0000, "'Mike'"
wrote:




"Pam Moore" wrote in message
Don't bay branches burn beautifully. I've not encountered anything
which burns so fiercely immediately after pruning. It's the essential
oils I assume.

Pam in Bristol


and make a noise as they burn :-))

Who needs fire-crackers! I'm looking forward to pruning mine on the
allotment this year.

Pam in Bristol

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
wrote in message ...
In article ,
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹ wrote:
On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:47:31 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

I dried the bay leaves themselves by putting them in a metal dish on
top of
my woodburner - I now have enough for a year of soup flavouring ;-)
I never dry off bay leaves. I have a biggish standard bay and just
rip off a few fresh leaves as required. Drying does nothing for the
taste in my view.
Mine is big enough that we light it up as an outside Christmas tree,
I put twigs on the barbequeue and STILL have to prune it annually!
But it's planted in the soil.

If we go back to the hard winters we used to have here, 20-30 years
ago, I may well lose it, but it doesn't mind -10 Celsius or the soil
freezing to the depth of an inch or so.


Ok, stop showing off about your big bay tree ;-)
Let's not all get distracted by the part of my post that describes how I
dried bay leaves.
My question was: are those peppercorn like things on the stems the
seeds, and can I propagate them?
Does anyone know, has anyone tried it?

No, they are flower-buds.

--
Rusty

aw, what a pity, I was going to start a bay tree farm ;-)
Tina

Christina Websell wrote:
"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
No, they are flower-buds.

aw, what a pity, I was going to start a bay tree farm ;-)

It's been done...

--
Rusty

wrote:
In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:
If we go back to the hard winters we used to have here, 20-30 years
ago, I may well lose it, but it doesn't mind -10 Celsius or the soil
freezing to the depth of an inch or so.

No reason why - our bay trees were originally planted at the end of the
first world war, and they were still there last time I looked.

They were killed in 1962-3 near Salisbury, and used to get killed in
the 1970s and 1980s in Cambridge (mostly pot-planted ones, true).
My experience is that their top growth is killed by sustained cold
(say, -15 at night and -5 during the day), and that only the best-
established plants will regrow from their roots after their top
growth is killed, at least if the ground froze to some depth. My
mother's large ones (Salisbury) didn't resprout until 1964 (sic).

Probably different origins then. We had some very hard winters in the
higher ground above the Thames Valley.

Indeed, I can remember the sea freezing at least as far round the coast
as Shoeburyness.

--
Rusty

Pam Moore wrote:

Who needs fire-crackers! I'm looking forward to pruning mine on the
allotment this year.

Yes please!

Do fire crackers grow from cuttings?

--
Rusty

wrote:

I doubt you have many kaffir lime trees, though :-)

I shall be getting one (and a key lime and a limequat) later this year.

Got three different lemons, a limonello, a mandarin, and a big lemon
which is unlikely to fruit on its own wood for another twenty years.

However - it will become a family tree shortly.

--
Rusty

Christina Websell wrote:

I'm far too scared to take any leaves off my little bay, it sulked for a
year at 3" and has only just got going. I can wait.
Thanks for telling me what bay seeds look like. I now feel a little stupid,
although those little peppercorn like thingies did look like they could have
been seed pods.

One it's started it'll grow like a teenager.

If you dry those buds separately, they can be ground with peppercorns to
improve the flavour of the pepper.

Don't overdo it though, as bay is mildly poisonous.

--
Rusty

On 2010-01-01 16:47:43 +0000, Rusty Hinge
said:

Christina Websell wrote:
"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
No, they are flower-buds.

aw, what a pity, I was going to start a bay tree farm ;-)

It's been done...

Possibly not on purpose.... ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

mark wrote:

alors, le terroir....rien de plus!!
I have spent an entire night (by that I mean until 5.00am in the morning,
slightly ****ed by then admittedly) discussing with a vigneron the *terroir*
and why one piece of vineyard one side of a road is AOC classification and
one on the other side of the road not..... in French!!
I still don't get it.... but then, when you realise that the classification
of wines is carried out locally by the owners of vineyards the whole thing
sort of falls into place..
Completely differently, I was amazed to learn that there was often a rose
bush planted at the end of each row of vines and on asking was told that the
rose acted as a forewarning of disease to the vines...apparently, the rose
would show infection long before the vine showed infection....not sure how
true this is..or indeed if it isn't some sort of *paysanne* folklore but I
still see the roses around from time to time. Less so since the advent of
the machine...!

R4 Listener
You'd be hard put to find 5.00 am at any other time of the day...
/R4

F&RFC

--
Rusty