Bay seedlings

[quince2figs]

I bought a 15cm pot of bay from garden centre, intending to grow on to a shaped plant to go outside front door.
It’s a few months since purchase, and thought needed to go in a bigger pot as drying out quickly and growing well.
Instead of one stem with branched leaves coming off, it looks like there are multiple small plants, each with roots and shoots - counted 18!
they are very congested; have teased in half (see photo).
What would you do - plant up 2 halves? 4 quarters? Separate each plant let out to a pot? They very in stem thickness from very thin to almost pencil thickness.
I’d love to have lots of plants from this pot if possible.
Thanks for any advice!

Sorry struggling to upload photos

I hate it when they do this, it’s really sneaky because you think you’re buying a much bigger plant and then it’s just lots of weedy ones all tangled together.

I’d pot the strongest ones up Individually, but you might lose quite a few because a lot of the roots will break when you try to separate them.

If you put them in a bucket of water and then tease apart you might have less breakage.

Yes, it’s very common with Poinsettias. You think you have a bushy plant, when what you have is a pot of barely rooted cuttings needing careful attention.

yes, pot up the biggest separately so you can choose one for shaping, then pot the rest separately until you lose the will to live, and plant the rest in bunches.

Love your last sentence🤣 I do this a lot🙈

I had this with my bay(s), though it was only a small pot and I could clearly see it was a lot of separate plants.

I separated one (wish I'd done a couple more). Several years on, both the single plant and the 'bush' look fine, though (having just taken a closer look) the latter has one stem that's bigger than the others so maybe I'll cut off at least the more spindly ones. The single plant, unsurprisingly, is taller than the 'bush'.

With your lot I think I'd pot up the larger stems individually and then put any leftover small ones into one pot.

That sounds great, fairly unanimous advice there! I’ll hope to make half a dozen stronger plants, and a pot of weedy seedlings.

@MereDintofPandiculation, agreed I am likely to lose the will at around 1/3 of way through :)

Any fantasies one has about horticulture as a career can usually be quashed by pricking out a tray of seedlings

Love that!