How to Grow Bay Laurel || Potting || Indoor Care and Propagating

Oh, hey pumpkin. How you doing? So nice to see you. Hey, what's up gardener friends? Jeff here. How's everybody doing? I'm doing well. I'm great. A beautiful day. Nice, you know, southern summer. Northern, upper, south. I don't know. We're in St. Louis. It's not really that south, but it's kind of southern. Middle summer. How about that? Hot, steamy, but the air is still kind of fresh. I don't know if it's made any sense at all. I need to repot my laurel. My sweet bay. Sweet laurel. Bay laurel. Thought I'd bring y'all along. There's a lot to talk about with this guy. Get this guy potted up and talk about how we care for these as a houseplant versus in the ground, because there's some pretty big differences. There are some pretty big differences. Part of my grammar. So sorry. Jeez, this guy's a little bit too tall to get into frame on the camera. Maybe we'll just focus on this little guy for right now. You can see it better. Now, this is a cultivar of your typical bay laurel, and this one is called Little Ragout. It's a monarch. That's the actual name on that one. Now, Monrovia, this one is a hardy zone 8 through 11. We're going to get into that. We're just going to be 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Feels a little conservative to me. Again, we will talk about that. Heights are going to vary. So this is one that's smaller, which just makes sense. I'm going to be keeping this as a houseplant, so I don't need one that's going to get anywhere from like, you know, 20 to 60 feet tall, depending on your climate. The bay laurels can get very, very big in certain parts of the world, certain parts of the country even. This one right here, they're saying only goes 8 by 8. So much more manageable for something going to be keeping in a pot in the house part of the year. Okay, let's just do the broad care with this guy. Broadly speaking, your bay laurels, your regular type, will grow anywhere from 10 to 60 feet, depending on your climate. Zones 8 through 11 is typically what a lot of people say, though I think they can grow much cooler than that. They're going to want full sun. They want their soil to be slightly more on the acidic side. It's not going to do very well in an alkaline soil. And as far as pests are concerned, you have to watch out for scale, spider mite, mealybug, pretty much all your typical houseplant pests. Those can be an issue more so in the house than outside. Their watering needs vary. We'll get into that too. It's nice to be able to just have a straightforward answer to things, but typically if there's a lot to say, that usually means it's a pretty versatile plant. I unfortunately don't have a pot yet to move this one up into, but I have one over here for the standard, so we'll just keep that one in the background. Just appreciate its stoutness and its glossy leaves while I re-pot this bigger one over here. And then do we need to discuss the culinary uses for these? I assume if you're here, you already know. Well, I'm trying to be educational, so may as well. If you didn't know, it's a really nice plant for cooking. The leaves are typically dried. I think they have much more of a punch if you can use them fresh. Typically with a bay plant, I like to harder... harder? No, that's not the right word. Harvest older foliage than over the newer foliage. It has more of a that bay bite to it when you use older leaves. You can dry them. It's easy to do. Just cut them off, tie them up, hang them up, and let them dry. That's all there is to it. Pretty easy. All right, so as far as container culture goes, the care for these is different than in the ground. These are your typical Mediterranean type plant in that they can grow with drier conditions than you would think for a lot of plants that you find growing from the Pacific Northwest of all places, but they really don't have to have all of that moisture. They're a tolerant plant, so if you have all that moisture, they can handle it, but they don't have to have it. In a container, these are going to be more prone to rotting out than if you're growing them outside, so having a mix that drains really, really well is important. It is just going to make your life a lot easier having these in a mix that doesn't hold on to water for too terribly long. Organically rich is also good. Organically rich, that's, you know, something we say with a lot of plants just because, well, it helps with moisture. More organics means more of a moisture holding capacity, but organically rich also means that you will hopefully have a good amount of slow breakdown of nutrients around the roots of your plant, which is nice too. I don't worry about that as much when I'm going to be having this in the house because this is a plant that is already prone to having some insect issues, so the more organics, sometimes the more pests that can come along with that, the more they'll get drawn to it, but I will top dress this with some compost every single year in the springtime. That'll pretty much handle the organic issue there. This is a pretty peaty mix right here. This is a Pro-Mix. I don't remember. I don't remember which Pro-Mix is. This one has mycorrhizae in it. It's what I'm using because it's what they had at the hardware store closest to my home. Regular Pro-Mix is fine. Just any soil that drains well is good. Don't want too many sticks or twigs in your mix either. I'm adding this in there to a point where it's going to seem high, but that's because I know when I water this and that's going to burp out and the level is going to drop quite a bit. So there that is. You may notice this is a pretty big pot for this little plant. That's because, well, we still have several weeks to a couple of months, really, until I need to move inside. So it has plenty of time to adjust to a larger pot. You know, it's usually not a great idea to bump things up too big. If you're nervous about it, then just go about one to two inches on the outside diameter of your container. So that was in a six-inch pot. You bump it to an eight-inch pot. This is a 12-inch pot, so it's a pretty drastic upgrade. It'll be fine. Just mind your watering. Don't overdo it. These guys in a container, I grow these in a style where they're going to be getting more frequent watering because I want that soil that's draining really, really, really well. Now, in the ground, these can handle plenty of moisture. I know some of y'all talk about growing these in Scotland and I know that they're all over the Pacific Northwest where it's very wet and parts of Oregon even where it gets really cold and there's some snow. So, you know, the zone 8 through 11 thing, I'm kind of like, you can probably go colder than that. Thing is, it's about the duration of colds, which this isn't something that is factored in when we talk about growing zones. So for these little plants right here, maybe they can handle some snaps where it might go down to zero, maybe a little bit below zero Fahrenheit and, you know, re-leaf out and look fine the next year. That is possible. But that's probably also happening in a climate where your winters are consistently over freezing temperatures, but you just, you had a cold snap, right? Most of your days are going to be above freezing. Where I live, 6B, 7A, our winters are typically, uh, well, they're all over the place. I think typical's difficult here. We're smack down in the country, so we get our weather from the south and from the north all winter long. We just ping pong and yo-yo all over the place. Let's put it this way. I've lost my Scypnorils before and they're rated to zone 5. So this is not going to survive my winters. Winters here, we usually have several weeks where it can be below 40 Fahrenheit. Everything I'm saying here is Fahrenheit. And we will typically have a couple of weeks, if not, I mean, sometimes up to six weeks where it doesn't even go above freezing and our temperatures are hovering around zero to 10 degrees Fahrenheit at nighttime. Ice, snow, it all happens. So I'm just not going to risk it, especially because oftentimes those really cold temperatures are accompanied with ice. That's, they're not going to do well. But if you live someplace that's just a little bit more mild semi-climate, then you should probably give them a try outdoors. See how they do. For me, it's got to be a house plant. And just pretending here, this is a regular bay laurel, and that's a little regu. Size on these fluctuates all over the place. As I mentioned, anywhere from like 10 to 20 feet, maybe 60 feet. It really is just all about your climate. So even though this is considered a Mediterranean plant, a plant where they're going to want the cool, more mild, consistently mild temperatures, that really sharp draining soil with not a ton of precipitation. These get absolutely huge in areas where you have mild temperatures, but lots and lots of precipitation, even in clay soils, which is not how anybody would ever recommend growing them. But I know plenty of y'all have talked to me in the past about the way your laurels grow. And a lot of you are growing them in clay. I'm not saying I'm going to recommend that, but it seems to be pretty common. So I'm going to say the main thing to focus on is going to be that they don't have wet feet, right? They don't want to be in a low oxygen, wet environment around those roots when you have really cold temperatures. I mean really in general, but especially if you're going to be having extended periods of hard freezing, that's probably where your problems are going to come from. But if you have more mild temperatures, they don't really seem to care. Acidity is probably going to play much more of a factor in an alkaline soil. Probably just not going to do all that well for you. You can go ahead and add some aluminum sulfate or whatever you want to do. There's various ways to increase the acidity of your soil. Keeping these in containers makes that a lot easier for me. This is a peat-based mix. Coconut-based mixes just don't work well for me with my house plants. I think it's because my tap water is a pretty high pH. So that neutral coconut plus the high pH of the tap water, the plants just, they don't grow well in it. So it is peat-based. You know, you can try and ethically source your peat or maybe just heavily amend your coconut if that's what you need to do. I grow my bay laurels very similar to how I grow my oleanders. So I will let these take pretty cold temperatures before I'm going to protect them or move them into the house and their care and size pretty much identical to my oleanders too. Which I guess that doesn't help you if you don't know what I'm talking about. I have a more hands-off approach with these guys in the winter months. Our day lengths are very short during the winter time and they're in the house or they'll be in my grow space in a cool area of my grow space. So it'll be, you know, between 55 and 70, somewhere in there. And I'm not gonna be watering these very frequently. If I have this inside of my garden window, it's a southeast facing window, a little bit warmer there, I'll probably be watering this plant once every, I'd say, 10 days. And then if I have it in just that more cooler environment, maybe even a more dark-ish environment, because it's so cool they're not going to need the light, just kind of let them chill out for a few months, then I'm probably watering about every two to three weeks. You really just have to watch the plant and see what it wants. Their leaves, though they have a really hard stiff leaf, right, they will still start to show you when they need water. They'll go a little bit limp and sometimes they'll start to lose their gloss. If they start to lose their gloss, then that's, you've gone too far with it. They don't usually get that back, so you want to make sure you get to it before that starts to happen. Get to watering them before you start to see that issue. As much light as you can give them, if you're trying to keep them actively growing during the wintertime, then that's, you know, something you got to keep in mind. These plants do like a good amount of sun. The cooler your temperatures, or the more mild your climate, I should say, the more sun they can take. I like to keep these in a situation where they'll be getting afternoon shade when I have them outside during the summer when it's really humid and just muggy outside. And so what do we say about a plant that you can find growing in the UK, you can find growing in Seattle, San Francisco, Alabama, the Middle East. I know there's somebody from, I believe it was Jerusalem, commented in a video a long time ago and was talking about laurels, that they get huge out there and they just pop up all over the place. These are wildly different climates, which means versatile plant, fairly simple houseplant. That's why the care, unfortunately, just isn't cut and dry. It just depends on your climate how you're going to care for them. But in a container, general rule of thumb, don't overwater them, give them lots of light, and then watch out for spider mite scale mealy bug. Plenty of light is a vague thing to say. Full day sun if you can, and if you have some place like I do where it gets really, really hot, you know, pushing triple digit temperatures in the summertime and really humid, then some afternoon shade's not gonna be so bad either because they're in a container that's just a more harsh environment for the plant. Or perhaps you have them set out somewhere on your patio with other plants around them to shade the roots of the plant. That can make a big difference too. Keeping things cooler down low can help you get away with more sun. You know, just have to be a little bit more careful when they're in a pot. Okay, I just double-checked on my phone, found a form online. Somebody's talking about growing these in Scotland. All right, you're growing these in Scotland. You can grow these around a lot of the U.S. It's pretty cold and wet there during the wintertime. Of course, proximity to the water does make a huge difference in how they're going to do as well. So if you're, you know, right out there on the outskirts near the Atlantic, then maybe you don't have to worry as much about the cold. I mean, it's still cold, but it's just it's a different kind of cold. Okay, I should have mentioned when I talked about how I water these when I have them inside during the winter when the daylings are shorter. Otherwise, when they're in their active growth period, which where I am that's going to be probably I'd say early April all the way through mid-November to late-November, I'm going to want to water them more frequently. And then the warmer it gets, the more frequent water them during the summer months. Like, you know, right now, I'll probably be watering this every single day. That soil is going to dry out fairly quickly. And I'm not worried about it drying up in between waterings like I am in the house. In the house, I want that soil to dry out almost completely. I'd say at least 50% of the way between waterings, assuming it's getting full sun. Whereas outside, you got airflow and warmth, and it's going to actually use all that moisture and pull it up. It's not just going to sit there and lead to what could potentially be problems with rot. They hedge up really, really well. So a great plant if you need some privacy and you also want some nice seasoning for your plant, some herb, then plant the bay laurel. They also propagate very easily. Now, legally, I can't, I can't prop this guy, right? I don't look at the tag. Let's see. You got a TM or anything by your name? Yep. Yep. That's a, got a copyright on it. So the little ragu, I can't legally propagate this for you, but we can talk about how I would do it if I were going to. Don't screw up Monrovia, forgive me. This is for demonstration purposes only. It's not for making money. Cut a piece, I'd say at least four inches long. Strip off the majority of the leaves. You only need about three or four leaves on the end of your stick there. Then you're just going to put that into a container with some damp soil. Using a rooting hormone is usually a good idea with hardwood cuttings, which this is just about there. I like to use the ones that you soak. So the root and dip or whatever it's called and let that actually soak in some of the rooting hormone. But if you can just use a powder, just make sure you get the sweat, dip it in the powder. I want to insert that down about a good inch to inch and a half into the soil. You may need to cover the entire thing with a plastic bag to help hold in some moisture while it's establishing some roots. If you're doing it outside and you have the humidity outside, I wouldn't worry about it. So make sure everything is consistently moist around the part you're trying to root. They propagate very easily. You can water prop them too. I think it's easier just to move them straight into a soil mix and start them that way. And sometimes if you're in a more dry climate, you may need to come in and cut your leaves. So you can cut your leaves in half like this, and all that's doing is making it so there's not as much surface area to lose moisture for the plant. Right? So there's still some green in there, plenty of chlorophyll left for photosynthesizing, so the plant can have some energy to put out roots, but not as much space to lose water. So I didn't propagate it. I just told you how to do it. Obviously you wouldn't do that with this one, right? You wouldn't, would you? No, you just do that for the regular bay laurel that doesn't have a copyright on it. A patent. It's not patented. Wouldn't want to do that. Yeah. I think the little ragu is pretty awesome. Like I said, it just makes more sense to me for something that's gonna be keeping these inside as a house plant. However, laurels respond to pruning very, very, very well. So just having a regular bay laurel is totally fine. You're gonna be cutting on it anyways, so try and hold onto those leaves and dry them out and use them for your soups or salads and sandwiches. There's a little mealybug in there. That didn't take long. Yeah, I always got mealybugs out here. Actually, that might just be, I think it's a mealybug. I always have mealybug issues. That's another reason that I like to make sure that it's in a soil that drains really well, because I'm going to be eating on this. That's something I'll be using a spray on, even a safe spray, maybe a diluted soap. I could use that. Some soapy water, rubbing alcohol, something like that. But I still prefer to not spray anything at all that I'm going to be eating. So when these have pest problems, I usually wrap a cloth around here and I just dunk the whole thing in a bucket of water and pull it up, dunk, pull it up, dunk, pull it up and take it to the sink and wash it off with high-pressure water and try and just blast the bugs off of them. Is that a scale? I see a scale on this leaf. Nope, not a scale, just a little cluster of mealybugs. All right, so I'm gonna need to spray this guy down. A lot of high-pressure water, really just a q-tip cotton swab with some rubbing alcohol on there. You can go in and get them off by hand with a plant this small. That's another reason I kind of like using the smaller plants. It's easier to manage the pests on them. I don't eat a ton of bay. I don't really eat any of it. I don't use it that often in my cooking. You know, maybe a couple times a month at most. So I don't need that much of it, you know. So having a great big huge plant, this isn't necessary. And I really like the topiary form. I think that as that grows, that's going to look really stinking cute in my garden window in the house. And you know, laurels, I really think they're just nice looking plants. In general, the whole family, they're nice looking plants and especially the bay laurel. I like the shape of the leaves. I like that there's some color inside on those stems. I love the gloss that they have and the fact that you can use it for cooking. That's just a bonus. I always feel bad when I do a how to care for video and it comes down to me saying like, it just depends. But that's a sign of a plant that's usually pretty sturdy and pretty tough because they have all that versatility. You'll find a lot of sources. This is actually one of the reasons I did this video. It's because there's so many sources when it comes to bay laurels that say, keep them dry. Put them someplace sunny and dry. Don't let them take any cold and that's what you need. And it's just, that's not really true. These can take very consistent moisture so long as it's warm enough outside and you have good drainage. They can take that consistent moisture even in a clay soil as long as it's not too cold. These will also grow just fine for you in a much more dry desert-like climate. You know, Southern California, these things are growing all over the place. It barely rains there at all. And compared to here, right? I mean, you know, they get some rain, but it's not much. Not what I would call reliable for keeping your plants watered, right? But they can take it. That's why I love them. Comment down below, tips, tricks, suggestions, anything I forgot to mention. Go ahead and let us know some things you do with yours if you are also growing them as a house plant or where you're growing them outside. Because that's probably what fascinates me the most is hearing about the diversity and the climates with the plants, you know, like this one that's said to be an 8 through 11. I'm thinking it's probably more a 7b through 11, maybe 7a, maybe 7a, which is where I am. But I just, I wouldn't try. Like I said, my skip laurels down there, they barely survived the winters here. So this one right there, no way. So I am tempted now to throw a few in the ground just to see if like, watch these flourish while my skip laurels just dwindle away. The irony. Hey, I'd prefer these are the skip laurels anyways. All right. Hope everybody's doing well. Having a great day, great life. It's going absolutely beautifully for you. And of course, as always, and most importantly, everybody, keep on growing. I thought I saw a hummingbird. That's why I was over here by the gingers. I was hoping there'd be some hummingbird action while I was filming, but they're flying right over us. They're going. I just saw like three of them fly right over us. Did you see it? Probably not. All right. That's enough. Bye.