‘Sicilian Sunshine’ Sweet Bay Laurel

Laurus nobilis ‘Sicilian Sunshine’

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 8a-10 Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub or Tree

Height at Maturity: 4 to 10′ depending on pruning

Width at Maturity: 6 to 10′ depending on pruning

Spacing: 5-6′ for hedges or privacy screens; 12’+ for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Upright, Dense, Pyramidal

Growth Rate: Moderate

Flower Color: Yellow-Green

Flower Size: Small

Flowering Period: Spring

Flower Type: NA

Fragrant Flowers: No

Foliage Color: Golden Yellow aging to Green

Fragrant Foliage: Yes, aromatic

Berries: NA

Berry Color: NA

Sun Needs: Full Sun or Mostly Sun, Morning Sun with Dappled or Afternoon Shade, Morning Shade with Evening Sun

Water Needs: Average

Soil Type: Clay (Amended), Loam, Sandy, Silty

Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist

Soil pH: 6.5-7.5

Maintenance / Care: Low to Average

Attracts: Visual Attention, Birds

Resistances: Deer, Disease, Heat, Humidity, Insect, Mildew

Description

A highly colorful edition to the edible landscape, the ‘Sicilian Sunshine’ Sweet Bay Laurel shares all the landscape and culinary attributes of its cousins but add on bright yellow leaves and red stems! Most known for its flavorful and aromatic leaves that are used to add earthy flavor to stews, soups and sauces, and for potpourri, Sweet Bay is an exceptionally versatile ornamental evergreen tree for the landscape. It can be grown outdoors in USDA Zones 8a-11 or indoors as a year round house plant! The breeder of Sicilian Sunshine says it grows slowly to 10 feet tall and equally as wide, but the plant responds very well to pruning so can be kept at half that size. Plants growing indoors or outdoors in pots can be kept even smaller. Enjoy using this Sweet Bay in both the landscape and in your favorite recipes!

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing 4 to 10 feet in height and 4 to 10 feet wide (depending on pruning), the Sicilian Sunshine Bay Laurel is ideal for use outdoors as a specimen, in groupings or as a hedge or privacy screen. It is also excellent for use in pots that can be kept outdoors or indoors as a houseplant year round. The thick and leathery golden leaves of Sicilian Sunshine make this Bay Laurel a perfect choice as highly colorful and aromatic screen plant outdoors. As it grows taller lower branches can be removed to form a highly attractive evergreen tree. Because it responds so well to pruning it’s a fine candidate for various topiary shapes including cones, columns, pompom, poodle tier and standards. A fine addition to culinary gardens, edible landscapes, yellow theme gardens and cottage gardens.

Suggested Spacing: 4 to 5 feet apart for solid privacy screens and hedges; 12 feet or more apart for space between plants

Note: For our customers who live and garden north of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8a, where Bay Laurel is not reliably winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

Growing Preferences

The Sicilian Sunshine Bay Laurel is exceptionally easy to grow in most any moist but well-drained soil of average fertility and full sun to part shade. It grows in a very wide range of soil pH. Four hours or more of direct sunlight per day is suggested for best leaf flavor. Minimal if any maintenance when left to grow natural. Occasional pruning will be necessary to control size and for shaping purposes.

Helpful Articles

Outdoors:

Plant as you would a Holly Tree

Prune as you would a Holly Tree

Indoors:

Plant in a pot at least 12 inches in rim diameter (larger is better for long term). Use potting mix or quality potting soil to fill the pot within 1 inch of the top. Lining the bottom of the pot with a landscape fabric is suggested to keep the drainage hole from becoming stopped up by roots. Keep pot situated near a sunny window and away from heating and air vents.

Harvesting Leaves

You can pick leaves anytime. Leaves that dry and fall off the tree are still fragrant and usable as well. Annual pruning for size control or shaping purposes is usually done in late winter to early spring. You can prune as much or as little as you like.

Plant Long & Prosper!

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