Bay laurel - pot or plant

[OneMoreForExtra]

I've been given a culinary bay and am ridiculously excited about it. Had been a planning to have it in a pot on the patio but have now seen they can also handle being planted. So now I'm dithering: pot would look fabulous but takes maintenance, plant would probably do better with my benign neglect style of gardening but would it get cold damage next week winter? I'm about 60 miles north of London, light chalky soil.

Meant to say: any advice from anyone who's tried either approach?

Tried both. I would keep it in a pot for a year or two and then plant it on the garden. They are easy and tough

Agree with Trethew Your soil sounds perfect, I have bays growing like weeds with chalky\stony soil, (I'm in mid Fr. weather similar to London's) though they do like to be a bit sheltered. Apart from a bit of water in the pot when it's hot, they'll do well in either situation.

In fact I need to replace a hedge and am thinking of using the bay seedlings.

They live through cold no problem - more likely to have trouble in a pot if you're not a daily gardener :) Bang it in the ground and enjoy.

Thank you all, this sounds very promising! I'll start it off this year in a pot then, and plant it on when it gets bigger. I'd love to have seedlings - what great Christmas presents they'd make in a few years!

Yes Bob but not straight away! It's an idea to see how it goes (obviously take a few leaves for cooking). They do grow big but OneMore's is only little atm.

I dream of massiveness being the issue - mine is teeny! But point noted about the pruning when it's time to plant it. Teeniness means I'm sticking with a lot and moving it under cover in winter for a couple of years at least.

In my experience they don't cope with really cold weather. A few years ago we had -10c for several days (Cambridgeshire) and half my bay in a pot died. I now move it closer to the house for shorter over winter.

For shelter over winter

Sorry to hear that - glad enough survived to carry on! Mine's currently in an unheated greenhouse and I'll be able to winter it in there for a few years until the pot gets too heavy to move in and out. Based on advice on here i think I'll plant it out (and prune it) after that.

didIreallysay A lot of plants that can deal with maybe -5 or 6 died in that year . We managed to get olive trees in pots through last winter with that fleece wrapped RIGHT (including underneath) round the pots. But that really cold winter killed some (though we hadn't insulated).

OneMore I wish I had a greenhouse heated or otherwise