Gadenin日本語Get the appEarly spring: check, repot, feed once
The year starts with an inspection rather than a job. Look at how the plant has come through winter: yellow lower leaves and heavy compost mean the roots were too wet, brown crisp edges mean cold wind, and no damage at all means the position is right. Resist the urge to tidy or cut anything yet, because you cannot tell live wood from dead until growth restarts.
This is the window for repotting. Every three or four years, move a container plant up one pot size, into soil-based compost with about a third coarse grit added, teasing out the outer roots. In the years between, scrape off the top two inches (5 cm) of compost and replace it. Apply the year's slow-release feed at the same time, or start half-strength liquid feeds once new growth is visible.
In open ground, spread a mulch of garden compost around the base, keeping it an inch or two clear of the stem itself. That is the entire feeding program for a bay in the ground.
Late spring: the main flush, and the first pests
The new growth opens pale and soft, and two things need watching. First, this is when bay sucker moves in: check the newest leaf tips weekly and pick off any leaf whose edge has begun to roll and thicken. Catching the first generation here saves the whole season's appearance.
Second, this is when frost damage becomes readable. Any shoot that stays bare and brittle while the rest of the plant pushes new leaves is dead. Cut it back to live wood now. Scratch the bark with a thumbnail if you are unsure; green underneath means wait.
Watering steps up sharply as growth begins and the days lengthen. Move from the winter rhythm of once every few weeks to a thorough soak whenever the top two inches (5 cm) are dry, which in a warm dry spell can be every three or four days.
Summer: clip, water, harvest
Early summer, once the spring flush has hardened and darkened, is the moment for the main shaping clip. Use pruners and cut each shoot individually so no leaf is cut in half. There is a full season of growing weather ahead to cover the cuts.
Strip the leaves off the trimmings and dry them; one shaping session usually supplies a household for a year. Through high summer the job is simply water, and it is the season when a pot in full sun can dry out completely in two days. A bay that has been allowed to dry to the point of wilting drops leaves for weeks afterwards.
Late summer brings the second, smaller flush and often a second generation of bay sucker, so check the new growth again. Give a light tidying clip if the outline has broken, and stop feeding entirely so the new growth hardens before autumn.
| Season | Main jobs | Decision to make |
|---|---|---|
| Early spring | Inspect, repot or top-dress, one feed, mulch in the ground | Repot this year or top-dress only |
| Late spring | Watch for bay sucker, cut out dead wood, increase watering | Which shoots are actually dead |
| Early summer | Main shaping clip with pruners, dry the trimmings | Whether the flush has hardened enough to cut |
| High summer | Water thoroughly and often, harvest mature leaves | How often the pot really needs water |
| Late summer | Light tidy clip, stop feeding, second pest check | Whether there is time for growth to harden |
| Autumn | Clear fallen leaves, move pots to shelter, reduce watering | Where the plant overwinters |
| Winter | Water sparingly, protect the pot, check for scale | Whether to bring it under cover at all |
Autumn and winter: shelter, and much less water
In autumn, stop cutting. Anything trimmed now produces soft shoots that will blacken in the first frost. Rake up fallen leaves and debris around the base, which is where adult bay sucker overwinters, and putting that in the bin measurably reduces next spring's damage.
Move containers against a house wall, out of the path of cold wind, and stand them on pot feet so they never sit in a saucer of freezing water. Wrap the pot, not the plant: it is the root ball freezing solid that does the damage, and a bay wrapped head to foot in plastic cooks and rots. Row cover or hessian around the pot, with the foliage left open to the air, is right.
Cut watering right back. A dormant bay under cover may want water once every three or four weeks, and a plant standing outside in the rain may need none at all. Check for scale insects on the leaf undersides every few weeks, especially on anything indoors, where a light infestation in autumn becomes a serious one by spring.
If you overwinter a bay indoors, choose the coolest bright room, an unheated porch or a greenhouse rather than a warm living room. Warmth and dry air together give you drawn growth, leaf drop and a heavy scale population.
The notes that make next year easier
Bay moves so slowly that a single year of notes is worth more than five years of remembering. Keep the record short and keep it in the same place each year.
Write down four dates: the date you repotted or top-dressed and the pot size; the date of the spring feed; the date of the shaping clip, with a line three weeks later saying whether the cuts still showed; and the date you first saw curled leaf edges or scale. Add where the plant stood over winter and what damage it had in spring. After two seasons those six lines let you time everything a fortnight ahead of the problem instead of a month behind it.