Laurel in the garden? They definitely have to go inside for the winter. Or maybe not? “Sometimes they stay outside all winter,” explains our expert Jana Bucharová in the podcast consultation. And we’ll explain why that is.
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You can find whole groves of them around the Mediterranean Sea, but here we grow them in pots. They are not frost-resistant, so they would not survive in the garden in winter. But this may be a lesson that was valid, for example, thirty years ago, when we started taking our laurels from vacations.
Due to global warming, it doesn’t freeze or snow nearly as often here. So unless you live in the mountains, at high altitude, or on the contrary in a frosty basin, it may well be that your laurel will be much better outside in the off-season than if you moved it.
Does the cold hurt?
In the case of some plants in containers, it is completely out of the question. But the laurel belongs to those for whom the answer is not so clear. After all, even in its homeland it can freeze occasionally and for a shorter period of time.
“Therefore, a shorter and milder frost does not harm it, and if you don’t mind looking after it a little, and in the event that it will freeze more, at least move it home for a short time, where you have a suitable place, you can leave the laurel even in the frost,” explains Jana Bucharová, expert on the garden topics of the magazine Receptář.
Better than heat
This is precisely what can kill the laurel much more reliably. “For laurel to thrive and be healthy, it needs to overwinter in a cool and bright place. It’s really a necessary condition,” says the expert.
What does this mean? In the normal conditions we have today, it might be better to leave the laurel outside. Frost down to minus five won’t hurt it, and according to the expert, it can handle even ten-degree frosts, as long as they don’t last longer than a week.
It is necessary to winterize
But this does not mean that you can leave the laurel in the garden just like that, completely unprotected. Always insulate the container, preferably with polystyrene, and you can also add felt over it. Thanks to this, the roots will not freeze. Ideally, the tree should stand in a sheltered place, for example by a wall, which warms up during the day and generally provides a friendlier environment for similar plants.
It is also important that all these rules really apply to trees or larger shrubs, which are generally more difficult to move. If you have a small laurel, find the coolest place for it at home and return it to the garden again in the spring.
