Bay Trees suckers?

I've just come back from my brothers and after sorting his rose out he asked me to sort the very poorly looking bay trees. These are standard bays and although they've recently re potted them the pots are smaller than the one's mine were delivered in!

One has hardly any leaves and what are left are brown and it has 2 or 3 what I presume are suckers growing out of what looks like the roots. How do I get rid of these suckers and why would it loose all its leaves please?

The other one has more leaves, no suckers but still has brown leaves.

They are both in a south facing garden.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

 

Hi Little Miiss.

1) Welcome to GC.
2) Nice of you to sort out your brother's garden.
3) Re his Bay trees.

I really can't say why the trees are so poorly but it sounds like perhaps they are underwatered and/or need fertilising, although mine gets little of each.

I brought mine over from the IoW about four years ago at 30cm tall. It is now 130cm tall in a 42cm pot.

A couple of years ago when I went back to the UK for the summer (which I now don't do) my Portuguese neighbour asked if she could pick leaves in my absence for her casseroles and of course I said yes. I was horrified to come back a few months later to find she has actually 'topped' the tree and there were two large suckers coming from the base.

After much deliberation I decided to 'braid' the three together ....



The result is this with one of the suckers being the leading stalk now ...



I'm sure others will have completely different views of how to deal with this situation.

I get occasional yellowing leaves and scorched ones but that's the life of a tree.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Usually on something like this, if its producing suckers then the top part is dead.
As to why it may be dead is not easy to say, but a picture would be nice.

My best guess at the moment is that both plants have become very dry at some stage, and after shedding the top growth are now regrowing.

 

I cut them off just below the soil. I also give some a tug and pot up to make more bay trees. I'm not saying that is the correct thing to do - but it is what I do and it works. One of mine in a pot is going yellow and I am going to give it ericaceous fertiliser as recommended on here

 

Agree with UJH take the suckers off with a bit of root if possible and pot them up you can get loads of bays doing this,it probably has been neglected as Pete says but even healthy bays can throw out lots of suckers, if the soil is turned over with a trowel in the pot and a root gets damaged this can cause suckering at the point of damage

 

Thanks everyone I'll let my bro know