The interesting Witch-hazel family has many distinctive and unusual shrubs on its comparatively short roster. One of the best of these, but still a plant rarely seen in gardens, is the Alabama fothergilla.
This shrub is native to the lower Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee to Alabama and cries appropriately. Its scientific name is Fothergilla monticola, “the fothergilla of the hills.”
Origins Of The Plant Name
Fothergilla is the plant name created by Linnaeus to commemorate the outstanding interest in botany and horticulture of an English physician of the eighteenth century, John Fothergill. At his garden in Essex, Dr. Fothergill had gone off the first and most extensive collections of American plants.
He employed collectors in the American colonies to earth out and send rare plants to him.
Among those with whom he kept in close touch during the years before the American Revolution were John Bartram and his son William in Philadelphia.
A More Accessible Coastal Species
Alabama fothergilla was not introduced to gardens until the end of the 19th century. It was the more easily accessible coastal species, dwarf fothergilla (F. garden), which first made it’s how to scientific circles.
This smaller shrub was discovered by Dr. Alexander Garden of Charleston and, through his efforts, introduced to cultivation in about 1765.
Alabama Fothergilla’s Features
As in so many members of the Witch-hazel Family, the individual flowers of fothergillas are not spectacular. Nevertheless, the general effect in their dense clusters is showy and distinctive.
They are borne quite abundantly at the end of the branchlets in early spring, and while petals are lacking, the thickish white stamens furnish considerable brilliance and take the place of showier flower parts.
The compact clusters or spikes are from 1 inch to somewhat more than 2 inches long, and their position at the end of the branchlets makes them stand out effectively against the fresh green of the new leaves.
Handsome Foliage
Fothergillas have markedly handsome foliage, strongly suggesting a close relationship to witch-hazels. The leaves are 2” to 5” inches long and irregularly oval or oblong in outline, with uneven, coarse, blunt teeth.
The leaves are expanding as the flower clusters are at their best in mid-spring, and the foliage is a deep green mass of interesting texture during the summer.
The full beauty of tiny shrubs is appreciated in autumn, however, when the leaves turn rich glowing pinkish orange and coppery red tones.
During the weeks of this unusually fine coloration. It is certainly one of the outstanding shrubs for the autumn effect. At this season, the brown seeds are ripe in their small woody capsules, overtopped now by the shoots of the past season’s growth.
Closely Related To Large Fothergilla
In all these details of flowers and foliage, Alabama fothergilla is very similar to the closely related species, Fothergilla major, which is sometimes called large fothergilla.
These shrubs are often confused—not only in nurseries and gardens but also on herbarium sheets.
One might wonder if the grounds for keeping them separate are sufficient, but a few details of the fruits have been considered adequate on this score.
Distinct Difference of Growth
To the gardener, however, it is not necessary to study fruit characters to separate the two, as there is usually a very distinct difference in the habit of growth of the two species and fairly reliable differences in the leaves.
Fothergilla major has an erect framework of a few or several stiffly upright branches, usually seen in cultivation as a tallish shrub soon surpassing 6’ feet in height and often reaching 10’ or 12’ feet.
Its spread is about half this figure, and the leaves are densely covered with branched or star-shaped hairs beneath. Often they have a bluish sheen on the lower surface, but sometimes this is not particularly noticeable.
On the other hand, Alabama fothergilla rarely grows taller than 6’ or 7’ feet, and it has little of this stiffness and upright habit. Instead, its compact thicket of stems branches freely and make a spreading rounded shrub with height and spread about equal, or in time becoming considerably wider than its height.
The leaves have star-shaped hairs on the midrib and veins beneath, but the intervening spaces are nearly smooth.
Using These Shrubs in The Garden
When using one of these shrubs in the garden, it is well known if it is the tall sparse kind, Fothergilla major, or the rounded spreading one, Fothergilla monticola.
In most situations, the latter is preferable, but for certain positions, the added height of the large type is very useful.
Both are distinctive and permanent shrubs of the first rank.
Growing Requirements
Their growing requirements are simple, and one might say that the two tall larger species at least are sturdy subjects requiring no pampering.
The best growth is obtained when generous pockets of humus are made underneath the roots, and a light sandy loam mixed with humus furnishes the best mixture for planting.
The holes should be prepared at least 2’ feet deep and the bottom portion is filled in with partially rotted leaves, peat moss, litter, coarse rakings, or other material which will be decomposed and augment the supply of humus by the time the roots penetrate the bottom layer.
Any convenient time during the dormant season is suitable for planting, perhaps with April most favored, but November or December is equally good so long as the soil stays open.
Free Of Pests And Disease
Fothergillas are gratifyingly free of pests and diseases. Still, occasionally some specimens are troubled by leaf-consuming worms, which seem elusive because they shyly remain out of sight on the lower side of the leaves.
Dusting with a stomach or contact poison is the simplest way to eradicate these disfiguring pests. In many gardens, however, they do not appear at all and rarely in numbers.
Alabama Fothergilla’s Excellent Uses
Alabama fothergillas are most attractive, perhaps, in naturalistic plantings, particularly in woodland settings in which they appear to have an excellent advantage.
They combine well with azaleas, rhododendrons, shade bushes, magnolias, viburnums, and many other wild garden subjects—including hemlocks, pines, and broadleaved trees.
At the Arnold Arboretum in Boston and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, specimens thrive in full sunlight, making dense roundish mounds of very interesting branch patterns and texture.
These plantings suggest the value of the shrub in borders and background plantings for variety in the ranks of forsythias, deutzias, spireas, and the other tried-and-true but sometimes monotonous favorites.
The neat rounded habit of growth and attractive framework of branches make fothergillas suitable for foundation plantings around large buildings. Still, their ultimate size should be kept in mind when using them around houses.
Dwarf Fothergilla
It may be interesting to note that the two remaining fothergillas are lower and more delicate shrubs of the southern coastal states. Unfortunately, only one of these dwarf fothergilla seems to be in cultivation, and this is far from common in home plantings.
It has smaller leaves and slender branchlets, rarely reaching more than 3’ or 4’ feet in height and lacking the bold aspect of the larger species.
While the two larger ones are perfectly hardy at temperatures well below zero, dwarf fothergilla is inclined to winterkill in some situations.
Its compact and beautifully rounded habit makes it pleasing in refined plantings around buildings and is especially suitable for combinations with azaleas and rhododendrons.
44659 by Ben Blackburn