Witch-hazels are among the most typical undercover shrubs of eastern forests. Great diversification in the places where they grow wild offers a good index to their usefulness in landscape plantings.
The natural range of common witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blankets the Appalachian Mountain system from the Province of Quebec to Georgia.
From the Atlantic Coast, it sweeps westward, crosses the Mississippi, and extends into Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.
This most familiar species often makes thickets in groves of oaks and maples, as well as more vigorous, often treelike, specimens in clearings where the dominant trees have been blown over or cut down.
One finds them overhanging stream banks and maintaining a foothold among rocks and ledges of dry uplands.
Common Witch-Hazel’s Growth Patterns and Characteristics
The vigorous growth of all witch-hazels shows a marked zigzag pattern, which is emphasized by the alternate leaves. In Hamamelis virginiana, these are from 3” to 6” inches long and oblong to elliptic in outline but unsymmetrical and with scalloped margins.
The naked buds can be described as cleaver-shaped, and their unusual stalks are well shown in the terminal buds. Flaplike stipules make a temporary covering for the buds, but sooner or later, these fall away, and it is evident that the rudimentary folded leaves have no bud-scale covering.
Common witch-hazels go through the growing season quietly and modestly, making no special claim for attention. But in passing a group in the crisp, bright days of autumn, one notes the leaves taking on their fine golden and orange colorings.
Then, often suddenly and unexpectedly, one is in a wave of clean, spicy fragrance. This refreshing scent is very delicate and carries several yards in elusive currents so that it is often some time before its origin can be traced. It comes from the spidery yellow blooms, which are only faintly fragrant when smelled closely.
The flowers open in small clusters along the branchlets for several weeks in autumn; occasionally, a plant blooms well into winter. Sepals, petals, and stamens are arranged around the two-lobed pistil in fours.
When studied under a magnifying glass, these structures are very attractive, but the strap-shaped crinkled petals, about ¾ inch long, give the flowers their modest claim to showiness.
The Beauty of Autumn: Colorful Leaves and Fragrant Blooms
Autumn is indeed the crowning point of the year for this American shrub, for the woody fruit capsules from the previous year’s flowering are mature at this time.
Admirers of the modest flowers and their refreshing fragrance who cut branches for indoor decoration are often puzzled by the Lilliputian bombardment that soon starts in their living rooms!
As the capsules are warmed and dried, they snap open, and a single black seed ⅜” inches long is catapulted from each compartment.
Witch-Hazels In Different Spaces and Landscapes
Common witch-hazels sometimes surpass 20′ feet in height, but these tree-like individuals are exceptional.
The more typical growth pattern shows from three to five trunks spreading into an irregular framework of gray branches reaching about 10′ feet. Even though they attain substantial proportions, these shrubs can be adapted to much less space when necessary.
Planted as close as 2′ or 3′ feet to a building, they will develop in the sector open to them with a balanced and interesting framework of branches. As a study in line and balance, the winter picture of the bare branches is very pleasing.
Ozark Witch-Hazel and Asiatic Species
For the Ozark witch-hazel (H. vernalis), as well as the even more decorative Asiatic species (H. japonica and H. mollis), winter is the season of bloom.
These were discussed in the February 1946 FLOWER GROWER by Charles Doney.
Cultivating and Planting Common Witch-Hazel
Common witch-hazels are easily collected from the wild, and strong, well-grown plants are available from many nurseries.
Seedlings can be raised with little trouble, although seeds rarely germinate before the second spring after sowing, and rabbits have a fatal liking for small plants.
Spring is the best season for planting, preferably just as the leaves expand. Peat or any other form of humus mixed with the soil around the roots helps plants become established.
Once they have taken hold, growth is rapid, and plants require virtually no attention except such pruning as may be required to keep the tops well-balanced.
Witch-Hazel Pests and Diseases
This species is outstanding for its hardiness, and diseases and insect pests are rarely of serious concern.
The work of two ‘gall-forming aphids occasionally becomes noticeable, though it rarely impairs the vigor of specimens.
One species makes a gall on the leaves resembling an ovoid fruit structure, the other a conical hobnail-like gall.
The Historical and Medicinal Uses of Witch-Hazel
The use of witch-hazel decoctions in medicinal preparations is said to have come from the Oneida Indians. Other Iroquois nations used the leaves for tea.
Apparently, The shrub was recorded in the “Catalog of Virginia Plants” by John Banister, the Oxford graduate who settled in Virginia in 1678 and worked for the spiritual welfare of his neighbors and to survey the colony’s plant novelties. He came to an untimely end due to a fall during a plant-hunting trip in 1692.
The colony’s famous botanist, John Bartram, admired the native witch-hazel and, in 1736, sent seed or plants to his friend Peter Collinson, a London textile merchant.
The autumn combination, unique in a hardy shrub of golden fading leaves, mature fruits, and spicy yellow flowers with a rare fragrance, endowed this shrub with great interest for eighteenth-century gardeners, and it became a popular novelty.
Even among the dozens of new and exciting plants available in later years, this combination of qualities has not been duplicated.
Many American gardens would be more interesting in autumn if the former appreciation of this shrub were revived.
44659 by Ben Blackburn