What it is
Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) is in the Lauraceae (Laurel) family. The bay leaf in every pot of beans, growing fresh outside your kitchen door - a tough evergreen that thrives in Texas heat and shrugs at drought once established.
How to grow it
It wants full sun to part shade, water it low; well-drained is the rule, and give it well-drained; great in pots soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0-7.5. Space plants about 4-6 ft apart. Expect roughly Harvest leaves year-round after year 1. Evergreen; protect below ~15F.
How it's used
Bay Laurel is used: dried or fresh leaves in cooking.
🔎 How to identify it
- Stiff glossy aromatic leaves, classic bay smell when torn
- Leathery evergreen shrub habit
- Small yellow flower clusters in spring
Edibility
How to grow & propagate bay laurel
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate bay laurel
Bay Laurel comes up from seed and, once it's a few years old, can be lifted and divided in cool weather to make more plants and keep the clump vigorous.
Growing bay laurel in Texas
Give it full sun to part shade and well-drained; great in pots soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly harvest leaves year-round after year 1 before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting. The part you're after: leaves (flavoring - remove before serving).
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.