Herb · Lauraceae
Bay Laurel
Laurus nobilis
Slow, steady, and evergreen, bay laurel turns one plant into a lifetime of fresh leaves for the kitchen.
Full sun
Every 5–10 days
USDA 8–11
3–10 ft · 0.9–3 m
Overview
Bay laurel is the evergreen tree behind the bay leaf in your spice rack. It hails from the Mediterranean, where it grows into a tall, aromatic shrub or small tree, and it carries the same glossy, leathery leaves whether it stands in a garden bed or a pot by the door. People have grown it for cooking and for clipping into topiary and standards for centuries.
It grows slowly, which is the trait that shapes everything else about it. A bay takes its time filling out, so it tolerates hard pruning and holds a shaped form well, but a plant you damage or lose to cold is not quickly replaced. It is hardy in the milder zones and frost-tender below about 25°F (-4°C), so colder gardens grow it in a container that can come inside for winter.
Bay asks for little once it settles in. Give it sun, free-draining soil, and water that never turns into a swamp, and it rewards you with fresh leaves you can pick year-round. The main ways people lose a bay are soggy roots and a hard freeze, and both are easy to head off.
Care
The short version: full sun to part shade, soil that drains freely so the roots never sit wet, a balanced feed through the growing season, and shelter from hard frost since bay is tender below about 25°F (-4°C).
Light
Bay does best in full sun but takes partial shade without complaint, and a spot with good light keeps the growth dense and the leaves richly colored. Indoor plants want the brightest window you can give them.
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist but never soggy, letting the surface dry slightly between waterings. Container plants are the ones to watch, since standing water rots the roots fast, so ease off through winter when growth slows.
Soil
Plant in fertile, well-drained loam or a good potting mix. Bay takes a range of soils as long as the ground is not soggy, and it is comfortable across a pH of 6.0 to 7.5.
Temperature
Bay grows happily from about 25°F to 86°F (-4°C to 30°C), but the low end is its limit. It is frost-tender, so a hard freeze browns the foliage and a colder snap can kill it outright.
Humidity
Average humidity around 40% to 60% suits it well, which is easy to meet outdoors. Indoors over winter, the bigger risk is dry, still air that invites scale, so keep some air moving around the plant.
Feeding
Feed with a balanced general-purpose fertilizer through spring and summer while the plant is in active growth. Container bays draw down their soil quickly, so a regular monthly feed during the season keeps them going.
Pruning
Prune in spring to early summer to shape the plant, hold its size, or train it as a topiary or standard. Bay takes hard pruning and clipping well, so this is also the time to cut out damaged, frost-burned, or crossing branches.
Repotting
Move container plants into fresh mix every 2 to 3 years, or refresh the top dressing each year in the meantime. Repot when roots circle the pot or push out the drainage holes and water starts running straight through.
Size & spacing
Bay grows slowly to 3 to 10 feet (90 cm to 3 m) tall with a spread of 3 to 8 feet (90 to 240 cm), though clipping holds it to whatever size you want. Give an in-ground plant room to reach those numbers, or keep it compact in a pot.
When to plant
Bay keeps its leaves all year, so there is no narrow planting season the way there is for a vegetable. Set young plants out after the last frost once the soil has warmed, prune to shape in spring through early summer, and pick leaves whenever you need them. In cold zones, the real calendar is bringing a potted bay under cover before winter and back out once frost has passed.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Sow: Seed can be started indoors but germination is slow and erratic; cuttings are more common
- Plant: Plant outdoors after the last frost once soil has warmed; in cold zones grow in containers and move indoors or to a sheltered spot before winter frost
- Harvest: Small, inconspicuous yellowish flowers appear in spring on mature plants; aromatic leaves can be harvested anytime, year-round
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 8–11
Temperature: down to -12°C
Troubleshooting
Bay is tough, and most of its problems come down to water and cold rather than disease. Watch the leaves and the roots, since that is where trouble shows first. Match what you see below, then act before a small setback turns into dieback.
Yellowing, wilting top growth with soft, sour-smelling roots
This is root rot, almost always from soil that stays too wet. Tip the plant out and check the roots, because healthy ones are firm and white while rotted ones are brown, soft, and slough away. Cut back on water, repot into fresh well-drained mix with the dead roots trimmed off, and never let the pot sit in a saucer of water.
Fix:
- Reduce watering and allow soil to dry appropriately
- Repot into fresh, well-drained mix, trimming away rotted roots
- Ensure pots have drainage holes and never leave plants standing in water
Sticky leaves, black film, and small bumps on the stems
Those bumps are scale insects, and the sticky coating is the honeydew they leave behind, which then grows the black sooty mold you see. Wipe the leaves and stems clean, treat with horticultural oil or insecticidal soap, and cut out any badly covered shoots. Better airflow keeps it from coming back, since indoor winter plants are where scale takes hold.
Fix:
- Wipe off scale and sooty mold with a damp cloth or soft brush
- Treat with horticultural oil or insecticidal soap, repeating per label
- Prune out heavily infested shoots
- Improve air circulation and reduce overwintering stress
Scorched, browned leaves and dieback after a cold snap
Bay is frost-tender and takes damage below about 25°F (-4°C), so a hard freeze or cold drying wind leaves the foliage brown and the tips dead. Scratch the stems to find living green tissue, then wait until spring and prune the dead wood back to it. In cold zones the answer is a pot you can move under cover or indoors before winter.
Fix:
- Wait until spring and prune out clearly dead, brown wood back to live tissue
- Move container plants to a sheltered, frost-free location
- Protect in-ground plants with mulch and wind protection
Toxicity
Bay leaves season a dish, but they are not something to eat or to leave where animals can reach them. The leaves hold essential oils like eugenol that upset the stomach, and the stiff whole leaf is a choking and laceration hazard that never softens. Keep trimmings away from pets, livestock, and small children, and always fish the leaf out of the pot before serving.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds · People
Cats Mild
A cat that chews the leaves usually gets vomiting and diarrhea from the essential oils, and a swallowed stiff leaf can also choke or scratch the gut on the way down.
Dogs Mild
Expect an upset stomach with vomiting and loose stool after a dog eats the foliage. The rigid whole leaf adds a real choking and gut-laceration risk on top of that.
Horses Toxic
The same aromatic oils irritate a horse's digestive tract, bringing on stomach upset and drooling, so keep clippings well out of reach.
Rabbits Toxic
Bay's oils are too strong for a rabbit's sensitive gut and can leave it off its food with diarrhea. Keep the leaves out of the hutch entirely.
Livestock Caution
Grazing animals tend to leave the bitter, oily leaves alone, but an animal that does eat them can suffer digestive upset, so don't toss prunings into a pasture.
Birds Caution
The concentrated oils are risky for a small bird, and the stiff leaf is a choking hazard, so it is best kept away from pet birds.
People Caution
Bay is a kitchen herb that flavors a dish and is fished out before serving. The leaf itself is never eaten whole, because it stays stiff and can choke or cut, so always remove it from the pot.
Keep leaves and trimmings away from pets and small children. Beyond the mild GI upset from the essential oils, whole bay leaves are stiff and do not soften, so a swallowed whole leaf is also a choking and laceration hazard; bay leaves are removed from food before eating.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Most bay sold is the plain species, but a few named forms turn up for their foliage or hardiness. These are the ones worth knowing by name.
'Aurea'
The young foliage comes in a golden yellow that glows brightest when the plant gets plenty of light.
'Angustifolia' (willow-leaf bay)
Its narrow, willow-like leaves set it apart, and it has a reputation for taking a touch more cold than the species.
'Undulata'
You can pick it out by the wavy, crinkled margins along the edge of every leaf.
How to propagate
Bay is one of the harder herbs to multiply, and patience matters more than technique. Both routes are slow, so most gardeners simply buy a young plant rather than start their own.
Stem cuttingsDemanding
Late summer to autumn using semi-ripe cuttings · Several months; cuttings root slowly and unreliably, often taking a season or more to establish
Take semi-ripe heel cuttings in late summer to autumn, dip them in rooting hormone, and keep them warm and humid. Be ready to wait, since bay roots slowly and unevenly and a cutting often needs a full season or more before it is established.
SeedDemanding
Spring, from fresh seed · Slow; germination is erratic and seedlings grow slowly over several years to reach usable size
Sow fresh seed in spring, since it sprouts far better than stored seed once soaked and kept warm. Expect a slow, uneven start, and count on the seedlings taking several years of slow growth to reach a usable size.
Myths
Any plant called laurel is interchangeable, so any laurel leaf works like a bay leaf in the kitchen.
Only true bay, Laurus nobilis, is the laurel you cook with. Several other plants share the name and are genuinely poisonous, including cherry laurel, which is cyanogenic, mountain laurel, which carries grayanotoxins, and oleander, which is dangerous throughout. Check the botanical name before any leaf goes near food.
Bay leaves do nothing in cooking since you pull them out before eating.
You remove the whole leaf only because it never softens and can choke or scratch on the way down. While the dish simmers, that same leaf releases its aromatic oils into the food, and flavoring the pot is exactly why it went in.