The Winter Garden: Witch Hazel

Chinese Witch Hazel ~ Hamamelis mollis

Please forgive the extended absence from my blog posts. Since the gardening season is in its hibernation, I have had to go to the hinterlands to get work ~ an adventure in and of itself that merits its own blog. I have been working on a bean farm in Maine and will write about that unusual, elemental and in every way, life-giving subcategory of gardening/farming in future posts.

But for now, I continue with thoughts of the winter garden. Even in its most stark season, the life of the garden is ever generous and ready to give.

I learned this, notably, after a year of having worked in the Long Hill Gardens at the Sedgwick Estate, in Beverly, MA. After nine months of seasonal on-site classes, I returned for a winter visit to see the property in its naked winter architecture. Property superintendent, Dan Bouchard, took me to a shrub I would easily have missed had he not pointed me that way. “The Chinese Witch Hazel’s blooming,” he said. I looked but could not see what I was supposed to be looking at. So he took me over to it. What does one do when surprised by alarming and unexpected beauty? I took a photo (above). Why? Because when one is confronted with explosive intricate splendor of these winter blossoms, like little bursts of light, one wants to keep it and to hold the magic.

Helpful Information

Habitat: garden hybrid between H. japonica and H. mollis; Zone 5

Habit: a deciduous, large shrub or small tree 15’ to 20’ tall, multi-stemmed, loosely branched, upright oval outline in youth, more rounded and spreading with age.

      

Foliage: Alternate, simple leaves

3” to 6” long; somewhat rounded

acuminate tip; leaves are a downy, gray-green high quality. In the Fall they turn yellow to yellow orange and can be very showy.

Flowers: Four, long, narrow petals; spider-like open early, late January to March; flowers open and close, depending on weather conditions

different colors depending on cultivar; long lasting, slightly fragrant

very showy for late winter.

           

Fruit:  a capsule, not of major ornamental importance.

Bark: smooth gray to gray brown.

Use: specimen border for late winter bloom, for fall color of foliage;

good with a background of evergreens or snow.

Liabilities: relatively problem free; must prune suckers from below graft union.