Safe to plant bay tree near house?

Jim Roberts

I bought an ornamental bay tree today. It's about 1m in height and pruned to create that "lollipop" shape.

I was planning on keeping it potted, but am tempted now just to plant it in the garden. However, our garden is quite small, so it would be within 3m of our house. 

I would like to allow the tree to grow a little taller, perhaps to 1.5m and then keep it pruned back. Is it likely that the roots would ever grow out to such an extent that the foundations of the house would be put at risk?

Dovefromabove

If it's a lollipop standard bay then it won't grow any taller as it's had it's growing point stopped and that's why it's bushed out into a lollipop 

In my experience standard bays are best kept in pots - they are prone to sucker from the roots, and if planted out into the garden they can throw out enough suckers to grow into an absolute thicket - and can reach over 20 feet in height quite easily if not kept under control.

nutcutlet

I've got one of those thickets. Very nice for the birds to nest in but far too much for the average sized garden.