standard bay tree just a trunk!
By Karenlr
United Kingdom 
Hi Wonder if anyone can help. I had a beautiful bay tree
like a lollipop but due to being away a lot it didnt get watered and all the leaves went brown.
There were loads of little shoots coming from the roots.
I cut them all of and replaced the potting compost in the pot.
I have strached the stem and it is still showing green underneath but the ball shape at the top has no leaves or shoots it is just brown twigs!
Will the leaves eventually come back or have to my shame ,I killed this tree
4 Jun, 2009
Answers
i think it should be ok, leave it a while to recover, its not trying to grow from the bottom, bays are notorious for suckering from the bottom and you did right in taking them off.
make sure you water it well...
4 Jun, 2009
Why not retrain it as a pyramid. Or, choose one strong shoot and grow it up into a new stem. Then remove the tip and let the top bush out, remove all lower shoots.
5 Jun, 2009
Hi
thanks for all your comments
It was our local garden centre who
advised me to remove all the lower shoots They said this should force the growth to the top.
I have no shoots at all now; It is just a six foot stem with a round circle of brown twigs on the top!
I think I will do as Stevebuk says and leave it for a while as I said before the stem is lovely and green. What i.m not sure about is if I should remove the dried out twigs at the top
5 Jun, 2009
you can remove the dried out ones, shouldn't cause any concern at all..
5 Jun, 2009
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Sounds like you have killed the top off, the bit that makes it a standard - it's now trying to regrow from the base, where it's roots are and where, presumably, it's still alive, and you cut those off! If you want a standard immediately, you'll have to buy another, or you could just have a bay tree in a pot, which will be a bush at first, if you let the shoots regrow. If you do this, cut off the standard trunk down to the base.
4 Jun, 2009