Bay Laurel Tree
Bay Laurel Tree
The herb that built empires — glossy, aromatic bay leaves fresh from your own garden, on a beautiful evergreen you can grow in a pot or in the ground.
Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) is the source of the bay leaves in every kitchen — and growing your own is a revelation. Fresh bay leaves are dramatically more fragrant and flavorful than dried ones, with a warm, herbal complexity that transforms soups, braises, stocks, and sauces. The plant itself is a handsome, dense evergreen with glossy, dark green leaves that stay beautiful year-round. It can be grown as a formal topiary, a container specimen, a hedge, or a small tree — and it's been cultivated in Mediterranean gardens for thousands of years for good reason.
What I love about it
Bay Laurel is the herb garden plant that doubles as a landscape specimen. It's slow-growing and long-lived, takes shearing beautifully into formal shapes (classic lollipop topiaries, cones, or hedges), and thrives in containers that can be moved indoors in cold climates. The leaves are ready to harvest any time — just snip a few fresh whenever a recipe calls for them. It's drought-tolerant once established, pest-resistant, and genuinely low-maintenance. A plant that's been in continuous cultivation since ancient Greece is probably doing something right.
Plant Care Tips
- ☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade — best growth and fragrance in full sun
- 💧 Water: Drought-tolerant once established; water moderately and allow soil to dry between waterings
- 🌡️ Temperature: Hardy to 10°F (Zone 7); bring containers indoors below 20°F
- 🪴 Difficulty: Easy — low-maintenance and long-lived
- 🐾 Pet Safety: Toxic to cats and dogs if ingested in large quantities
- ✂️ Pruning: Shear anytime to maintain shape; takes formal pruning beautifully
Plant Specs
- Mature Size: 10–40 ft in-ground; 4–8 ft in containers
- Growth Rate: Slow to moderate
- Foliage: Glossy dark green; aromatic; evergreen
- Harvest: Fresh leaves available year-round
- Growing Zone: 7–10 outdoors; container-friendly in all zones
Bloom bold. Be cheeky.