A good witch for your garden

October 29, 2012|By Beth Botts,, Special to Tribune Newspapers
(Jens-Urrich Koch, AFP/Getty Images photo)

Fall-blooming witch hazel is an unexpected sparkle in the dusk of autumn. The fragrant flowers, like little clusters of slender yellow ribbons, appear along the branches just as the golden leaves are about to fall. This small tree or large shrub with arching branches is "one of the most beautiful, underused ornamental trees," says Kunso Kim, head of collections and curator at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle (mortonarb.org).

In Midwestern woodlands it grows beneath larger trees. But Kim recommends planting all witch hazels in full sun in the home landscape.

Common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), the fall bloomer, is a relative of spring-blooming vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis), which is native farther south but also is hardy here. The spring-blooming cousin may flower as early as January (it can fold up its flowers again if frost threatens). Though they lack the common witch hazel's spicy fragrance, hybrids of Asian species (Hamamelis x intermedia) have good potential for the Chicago-area gardens, Kim says. He suggests "Diane," reliably hardy with red flowers, and "Arnold's Promise," which blooms pure yellow.

Vernal witch hazels tend to sucker, forming dense, tangled thickets in the wild, but can be controlled by pruning out unwanted sprouts and occasionally removing some of the largest, oldest stems.

Why would these plants flower at such cold times of the year? Scientists suspect they are avoiding competition for the attention of pollinating insects. There may not be many bees and flies in October or January, but there are some, and they've got to eat. A witch hazel that blooms when it's the only open cafe has a better chance of getting its pollen carried to another witch hazel flower.

Oh, and the name? Nothing to do with witches. The origin has been traced to an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning weak or bendy. Native Americans and early settlers often would use a pliant branch of witch hazel for water witching or dousing, in the belief that it would bend toward an underground water source.

Beth Botts is a staff writer at The Morton Arboretum.