Vernal Witchhazel or Vernal Witch Hazel

(Hamamelidaceae - Witchhazel Family)

Form

• medium-sized (to large-sized) ornamental shrub
• maturing at about 8' tall by 8' wide under typical urban conditions, but sometimes much larger
• upright vased growth habit in youth, quickly becoming rounded and spreading with age
• slow growth rate

Culture

• full sun to partial shade
• performs best in full sun in moist soils that are loamy or sandy, but is very tolerant of rocky to gravelly soils, poor soils, clay soils, wet or dry soils, and soils of various pH
• propagated by seeds or rooted stem cuttings
• Witchhazel Family, with no significant disease problems, and occasional leaf gall being the only cosmetic pest problem
• commonly available in ball and burlap or container form
• roots that are close to the multistemmed shrub will often sucker with maturity, forming tight colonies (unless they are pruned away)
• dead foliage is often persistent on all but the first-year wood, and if maximum floral effect is to be achieved, they must be hand-picked by the time that flowers emerge in Winter

Foliage

• medium green to dark green, alternate, distinctly obovate, rather thick, and about 4" long, having deeply crenate margins, impressed veins, a cuneate asymmetrical base, and a short petiole
• fall color is chartreuse in many years but golden-yellow in good years, with much of the dead brown foliage persisting throughout the Winter, when it partially covers the small but fragrant Winter flowers

Flowers

• variable from bright yellow to dull orange to red-orange for the species form, being extremely fragrant
• the flowers are in tight clusters on the short lateral stems, usually opening during the few warm days of January or February and persisting into March or early April
• flowers are small (about 0.5" long), with four narrow petals having a slight waviness along their length and curvature at their tips, elongating and unfurling on relatively warm and sunny days, but rolling up and withdrawing on cold days as a survival mechanism to avoid freezing damage
• stem cuttings can be forced indoors (or taken indoors once bloom has started) to usher in the coming of Spring with the strong fragrance of the petite flowers

Fruits

• two-valved capsule is a drab chartreuse-olive color in late Summer, eventually splitting open and flaring at its ends; not ornamentally significant, but a good identification feature that is persistent into the following season

Twigs

• densely pubescent when young, becoming smooth during the second year, transitioning from tan to gray, with distinctive knobby floral buds on the old wood (especially on the short lateral shoots) and small, linear, naked vegetative buds (without scales) on the terminal growth

Trunk

• not applicable

ID Summary

• obovate leaves with sunken veins and crenate margins, with dead foliage that generally remains on the stems throughout Winter, mid- to late Winter petite but extremely fragrant flowers that mature as persistent capsules, and naked vegetative buds typify this medium- to large-sized, environmentally-adaptive shrub

USAGE

Function

• shrub utilized as a specimen, in a group planting at the border, naturalized along streambanks or wetlands, planted for erosion control at wet or dry sites, or as a non-thorny informal barrier hedge

Texture

• medium-bold in foliage and when semi-bare
• thick density in foliage and when truly bare

Assets

• extremely fragrant flowers in Winter or very early Spring (this genus represents the first group of woody plants to flower)
• stem cuttings can be forced indoors for fragrance in Winter
• equally tolerant of wet or dry sites, sunny or shady sites, and gravelly or clay soils (and therefore an excellent choice for naturalized areas, erosion sites, or neglected areas)

Liabilities

• dead foliage often persists on most shrubs throughout the Winter (which also partially hides the most-welcome miniature flowers)
• fall color is often poor
• suckering and forming a tight colony with age (this can be an asset for erosion control sites or naturalized areas)

Habitat

• zones 3 to 8
• native to regions of the United States between the Deep South and the Great Plains

SELECTIONS

Alternates

• shrubs with fragrant blossoms (species and hybrids of Clethra, Hamamelis, Itea, Philadelphus, Syringa, some Viburnum, etc.)
• shrubs that bloom in late Winter or early Spring(Corylus avellana 'Contorta', Viburnum farreri, Pieris japonica, Salix discolor, etc.)

Variants

• Hamamelis x intermedia - hybrids of Hamamelis japonica (Japanese Witchhazel, contributing heavy fragrance) and Hamamelis mollis (Chinese Witchhazel, contributing hardiness, fall color, and crinkled petals with wavy margins) constitute some of the best early-blooming Witchhazels in commerce today, with cultivars possessing hybrid vigor (including larger flowers to 1" wide and a 15' tall by 15' wide mature size) but are often grafted onto other Witchhazel species rootstock (therefore prune away any suckers that arise below the graft union); the most common are listed below:
  • Hamamelis x intermedia 'Arnold Promise' - sulfur-yellow flowers are strongly and pungently fragrant, growth habit remains vased longer than most Witchhazels, and fall color is an outstanding mixture of green, yellow, orange, and red, often occuring in horizontal rippled bands on the leaves as if "painted on", with the foliage fully abscising to expose the beautiful floral display the following season on barren stems
  • Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' - flowers are coppery-red to bronzed-red and mildly fragrant, but dead foliage is somewhat persistent in Winter
  • Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' (also known as 'Copper Beauty') - flowers are a glowing copper-color from a distance, but are actually red at the base, orange in the center, and yellow at the tip of the petals; also having red-orange Autumn leaves that abscise well

Translation

• Hamamelis translates from the Greek as "hooked fruit", referring to the curling backward of the dehiscent fruit capsule of another plant very similar in appearance to Witchhazel.
• vernalis translates as "of spring", referring to the Winter flowering that heralds the coming Spring.

Purpose

• Vernal Witchhazel is the earliest-flowering shrub, blooming during the warmer days of Winter and persistent into early Spring.

Summary

• Hamamelis vernalis is known as a very early and fragrant-flowering shrub, with a rounded to spreading growth habit at maturity, and is adaptable to a wide range of soil, sunlight, and moisture conditions.