Dear friends who responded here - I am mostly addressing Gyr falcon and Calistoga! ! It is spring and I am starting to look for bay leaves again. What you sent me some last year worked perfectly, I hope you got what I sent back? Anyway, I am going to try and locate anybody with a bay tree, whether noble bay or Oregon one, again. Which means I will start new threads re-posting this old message, I hope nobody minds. And I will send individual messages, I hope you don't mind repeated messages again. Thank you. Katya.

Dear gardening friends in Georgia, I am looking for somebody who is able to help me with fresh bay leaves. My use for them is not "food" so they needn't be certified as food. But they must be fresh leaves from a real tree. Dry leaves from a grocery store won't do. Fresh leaves seen sometimes at exorbitant prices at grocery stores could work except I need a lot of them which makes a purchase prohibitive. What I am trying to locate is somebody who has a tree and wouldn't mind cutting some branches for me and mailing them. I know that those trees grow very well in mild climates. Just to make sure, I am looking for leaves of bay tree - Laurus nobilis, not anything called laurel in this country. However, there is a native tree called wild bay which would also serve my purpose - this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbellularia . This tree grows wild on the West Coast and it is just possible somebody is growing it. I actually located somebody in Georgia who gives away bay leaves to walk-ins but absolutely won't ship them....I would greatly appreciate any information and I am willing to discuss the conditions. Thank you very much.

I thank you for your input. The problem 1st arose before I started exposing it to more direct sun in early spring. The plant seems to be doing better outside but I still wonder about the health of the plant given the condition of the leaves after they drop. I did prune it somewhat recently and have started feeding it some liquid fish fertilizer. I guess I'll keep fingers crossed.

Mine has recovered from worse conditions. Also need to watch out for too rich a soil for bay laurel. Mine usually dries out between watering, and has continued - kept fairly small with severe cut-back at times (to keep it manageable for bringing in and out for spring and fall), for many years - maybe 10 or 12 so far.