A popular broadleaf evergreen, bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) is easily cultivated for their fragrant and flavorful leaves.
These trees are also highly versatile, adding striking ornamental value in varied forms such as hedges, shrubs, trees, or topiary specimens in both containers and garden beds.
And a key element to creating healthy, lush foliage, plus maintaining a manageable shape and size, is annual pruning.
Cutting back bay, aka true or kitchen laurel, regularly creates dense branching with an abundance of leaves.
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This abundance makes them an outstanding choice for clipping and sculpting into any shape from crisp, boxy screens to abstract or geometric standards.
They can also be grown in a loose form, either as a multi-stemmed shrub or solitary tree, resplendent with a lavish canopy of chartreuse to dark green leaves.
Again, regular maintenance is needed to encourage dense foliage and to keep their ambitious growth in check.
Is your garden ready for beautiful bay laurels with lots of fragrant foliage? Then sharpen your shears and let’s get into how and when to prune bay laurel trees!
Here’s what you’ll find ahead:
Bay Tree Basics
Bay trees do best in a sunny, protected location in humus rich, well-draining soil with a slightly acidic to alkaline pH of 5.5 to 7.5.
They’re hardy in USDA Zones 7 to 11, and outside of their range can be grown as container plants, but you’ll need to overwinter them indoors or in a protected outbuilding like a greenhouse or orangery.
You can learn more about how to grow bay laurel in our guide.
A popular kitchen herb, the leaves are used dried or fresh in a wide range of savory dishes, making them a popular choice for kitchen and potager gardens.
And as attractive evergreens, their heavy branching and thick foliage makes L. nobilis a natural for formal or loose hedges, screens, showy shrubs, standalone trees, or shaped as topiary.
Although growth isn’t fast, it is steady. Mature bay laurel trees can reach an impressive height of up to 55 feet and still retain dense foliage – but maintaining a manageable size is easily achieved by growing a compact variety and some annual maintenance.
These resilient trees respond eagerly to either a light trim or robust pruning, and quickly fill out with a fresh flush of summer leaves.
They can even take a hard cut back, with the main trunk severed if needed – they’ll come back with new growth and produce another verdant canopy in just a few years!
But how you prune your bay laurel trees depends on how you grow them.
Container plants, shrubs, and trees need to be cut back to maintain a manageable size.
Hedges, screens, and topiaries are double cut to produce a luxuriant wall of shiny, scented leaves for maximum ornamental appeal.
And of course, you want to have plenty of leaves to harvest for the kitchen as well!
Okay, that’s the basics… now let’s move on to the particulars of how and when to prune bay trees.
Best Timing for Fast Regrowth
Bay trees can be given a light trim at any time of the year, but the best time to prune is in late spring after new growth has emerged.
At this time, loose-form container plants, shrubs, and trees can be trimmed lightly to head back last year’s growth.
Or if they need to be resized or reshaped, this is also the time for a harder cut back where they can be reduced by as much as one-third of their overall size.
Late spring is also the time to start shaping hedges, privacy screens, and topiary standards with a light trim to establish the desired outline.
By summer, kitchen laurels are growing much more vigorously and putting out plenty of new growth.
This is when hedges and topiaries are given a second trimming to complete the desired shape or give the plant a clipped appearance if desired.
Hedge and Topiary Shaping
To start shaping hedges, screens, and topiaries and encourage branching, remove any winter damaged leaves, and broken or dead stems using clean, sharp shears or a pruning saw.
This Japanese-style folding pruning saw from Garrett Wade is ideal. It’s sharp, sturdy, and folds into the handle for compact storage.
Folding Pruning Saw
Cut back damaged leaves to the closest set of new buds or set of healthy leaves.
At this point, don’t worry too much about unsightly divots or dips left behind after removing cold-damaged leaves – the fast summer growth quickly fills in any gaps.
Use clean, sharp shears to head back last year’s growth, snipping stems just above a set of healthy buds or leaves.
Trim lightly or remove as much as one-third of the overall size as desired.
You’ll need to finish shaping in summer when the trees are pushing out lots of new growth.
To finish your hedge or topiary with a soft, leafy look, use hand shears to selectively cut back tips and stems, refining the shape you started in spring.
If you prefer a crisp, clipped look, use pruning shears or a hedge trimmer to cut back leaves and stems into sharp silhouettes.
Black and Decker Hedge Trimmer
Something like this 16-inch hedge trimmer from Black and Decker, available via Walmart makes fast work of shaping hedges and topiary.
With bay trees, you can cut through the leaves without concern about leaving behind unsightly brown edges – once they heal, only a slight gray scar remains at the cut edge.
As summer progresses and new foliage emerges, give your plants a light trim to maintain balance and the desired shape.
Suckers and Shoots
Removing suckers and shoots is necessary for topiaries and trees, or anywhere you want to preserve a single trunk with a clean, bare appearance.
Suckers emerge each year around the base of plants as new, tender stems. Shoots are the little baby limbs that emerge from bare trunks.
For hedges, shrubs, and screens, suckers and shoots can be left in place because they expand the base into clumps and improve the density of the foliage.
To remove suckers from trees and topiary, scrape away soil from around the suckers then use clean, sharp shears to cut them below the soil level.
The lower you can cut them, the less chance they have of surviving to sprout again.
To remove shoots emerging from bare trunks, use clean, sharp shears to snip them off as close to the trunk as possible.
Trimming Shrubs
As mentioned, when shoots and suckers are left in place bay laurel forms bushy clumps with multiple, densely foliated stems.
Over time, clumps extend outward into new territory, adding girth to their overall size and creating lovely evergreen screens.
To manage the appearance of your shrubs, start by removing any winter-damaged leaves as well as any broken, crossing, or dead branches.
To maintain their size and shape, cut back last year’s growth to a set of healthy buds or leaves, cutting back the tips of each branch by up to one third of its length.
If your shrub has spread out too much for your liking, you can reduce its width by removing up to one third of the stems from the exterior perimeter, cutting at, or just below the soil level.
Heading Back Trees
Although bay trees can grow tall without getting leggy or sparse, regularly heading back the branches helps to preserve an appealing shape and keeps plants healthy with vibrant foliage as well.
“Heading back” is a pruning term to describe the process of cutting the terminal stem of a branch back to a bud. “Thinning” refers to the complete removal of a branch where it joins the main stem.
To maintain the shape of your tree, start by removing any dead and damaged limbs, and ones that are crossed or growing towards the center of the canopy.
Use clean, sharp hand pruners on small branches and loppers or a sharp saw on larger ones.
To reduce the size of the specimen, head back the growing tips by up to a third of their total length.
To reshape the profile, cut back the growing tips as desired and thin out small limbs by cutting them off where they emerge from a strong side branch.
If you like your trees to have a bare trunk, remove the new shoots that appear each year. Cut as close to the trunk as possible.
Rejuvenate Overgrown Specimens
Mature, overgrown bay laurels can also tolerate a very hard cut back and can even recover when the main trunk is cut off.
But regrowth is slow and cutting down the trunk leaves an unsightly bare stump. Instead, plan to carry out a hard cut back over two or three seasons.
For a hard cut back, in late spring remove one-third of the overall size for your first year cut.
In the second year, cut back by another one-third, shaping as you go. Just try to avoid cutting away last year’s growth and any new shoots on the lower parts of the plant – leave them in place so they produce foliage to cover bare branches.
In the third year, head back the tips of the previous years’ growth, cutting them away at a strong side bud. Selectively thin out any remaining branches in areas you’d like to reduce, removing secondary stems or smaller twigs at the junction where they emerge from a strong side branch.
Spread out over two or three years, you can significantly reduce the overall size of your tree but still enjoy the lush foliage and harvest leaves as well.
Harvesting Leaves
Speaking of harvesting, bay leaves are delicious and used dried or fresh in a variety of dishes!
They can be harvested at any time of the year for fresh use.
But the summer months of June, July, and August are when they have the highest concentrations of aromatic essential oils. If you plan to dry the leaves, use those collected in summer for the best flavor.
For the freshest, most intense flavors, leaves should be picked in the morning after the dew has evaporated and before the hot sun disperses their oils.
Learn more about how to harvest bay leaves in our guide.
Fine Foliage
Robust and versatile plants grown for their flavorful leaves, bay laurel trees also make highly attractive foliage plants that can be grown in containers or as hedges, screens, shrubs, topiary, and trees!
Cut back in late spring after new growth has emerged and give hedges and topiary a second pruning in summer to refine their shape or to create a crisp profile.
For large, overgrown trees, cut them back over the course of a few seasons so you can still enjoy their fine foliage in the kitchen and garden as you resize.
Any questions about how to prune bay laurel trees? Ask away in the comments section below.
And for more information about growing bay laurel in your garden, read these guides next:
