Yes, this weather is freaky, and I think global warming will make freaky weather for the rest of our lives. I have daffs and Iris reticulata coming up, and the Galanthus have been in bloom for weeks.

It has been a strange winter! Just noticed today that Hama. Diane is blooming and Arnold Promise is ready to burst. Surprised me too :)

Diane, Jelena and Arnold are all in full bloom in my garden now. Gotta love those witch hazels! Last year Arnold started before our awful cold set in, and its blooms were apparently preserved by the long cold spell, because it kept on showing great color from mid January until about mid April. Wow. I don't expect to see that kind of performance again, but I sure appreciate the color at this time of year.

I am a huge witchhazel fan. We are not quite as mild here as most of you above, though we have indeed been having a very mild winter since late December. January was the 2nd or 3rd mildest in the past 100 years -- I'll take it.

I have color showing in most of the buds on my Jelena, now about 17 years old though moved to my new garden a year ago. I also have Hamamelis mollis, my favorite of all the asiatic witchhazels and hybrids, showing definite bud color and some fragrance. The straight mollis is usually the first to bloom most places I have seen, sometimes starting in December. I will never forget one early January when I visited Winterthur in Wilmington DE, and the mature H. mollis in full bloom there were just lighting up the somber woods and filling the air with their fragrance. It was one of the most quietly beautiful garden scenes I have seen anywhere, ever.

Around here, Arnold Promise never blooms till March or late Feb at the earliest, even in mild winters. It is definitely later.

Too bad more people don't know these fabulous shrubs; in the midwest, they are still little known and used, and uncommon in nurseries.

It's something I'm having trouble making a go/no go decision on. Too expensive to plant as an experiment, but enough questions about hardiness and lime tolerance to make a planting anything else.

Soil & Water had seedlings of the fall blooming American species a couple of years ago, and I put them in the swamp. H. virginiana?

Jelena usually starts blooming for me in early Jan and continues until early March. This year it was actually a few days late (mid Jan). But it has put on a good show for the past few weeks.

pontesmanny

I read this forum, but I don't think I've ever posted prior to this:

H. vernalis 'Autumn Embers' has been blooming in my backyard since 23 December. I had gotten the plant last spring, so I can't say for certain that it began to bloom exceptionally early for this area. We're listed as zone 6; however we are about 10 miles from Camden and close to the Delaware, so it feels like 7b.

On the University of Pennsylvania campus, I noticed that H. x intermedia 'Arnold Promise' and 'Diane' have started this week. It's normal for those two particular plants to begin blooming in the first week of February at that location, so they are right about on schedule.

Cheers,
Constance

lt looks like just the experts I'm seeking! I'm making up my plant list for spring and was planning on putting some witchhazel in the bush I am planning at the back of my property. What I'm not sure is which would be the best variety as they are not common around here.

1) it will be set back quite a bit from my house (although I will see it out the windows no problem) so "bright" colour I think would be important. Which have the best show from afar? (Would the reds show up?)

2) Could you recommend a combination of 2-3 that would extend my bloom time?

3) Since they bloom so early do you set them back in the landscape?

Thanks all. I've read the info in the books and seen the small pictures but it just doesn't give me a feel for what it would look like in the landscape.

Sharon

Mine are tiny but thriving. I have them planned so the low Winter sun is behind them, as viewed from the house. They catch the morning and evening sun and glow. I have tried to back them up, without blocking too much sun, with dark evergreens, for contrast. Mine started about the third week of January. They are Jelena, Diane and Arnold Promise. Their underwhelming photos are included in my blog with aol for January.

January is the normal bloom time for Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena', an early blooming variety. Later bloom -March, for 'Arnold Promise'.

Ok I have Jelena, Diane and Arnold Promise on my list and I will check those out at the garden centres in the spring. There is a local garden show in Toronto while it is still too cold out to plant, I can probably see some there. Bogturtle, nice journal!

OK a couple more questions. Today the temperatures is -19C! with a windchill of -30C. If the flowers are out would they survive this cold? Also in our cold weather will the shrubs get as big as the books say? Arnold's Promise says 6m x 6m (21feet). Just wondering for plant placement.

Sorry for the silly questions.

Sharon

I hope to plant several witch hazels and you all are experts. I am curious as to which witch hazel you have found to be the most fragrant?

Thanks in advance,

Teresa

Hamamelis mollis , the Chinese witch hazel, is reported to be the most fragrant. They also have a tendency to hold their leaves, you may want to balance this with your decision on most fragrant. So you need to 'shop around'. A visit to a nearby arboretum will help you select.

I have been reading the posted's re: witch hazel and was considering planting one in my front yard next to an azalea bush which is very small right now (about a foot or so tall) and in front of a verbernum. My verbernum is about three feet tall right now and is my "fence" which of the witch hazel plants would be the best for this area. Some say it is a tree other say a bush, is there one or the other? I live four houses from Lake Erie, would this effect the witch hazel?

I've been thinking of getting H. vernalis 'Autumn Embers' because Dirr recommends it as an outstanding cultivar for northern gardens (I'm in Zone 5). I noticed only one person mentions it in this thread. Is there a reason why it's not as popular as 'Jelena' and 'Arnold's Promise'? I've had a little trouble finding a source for it locally. Something I should know???

Hello kate3253,

I saw 'Autumn Embers' in the Klehm's Song Sparrow catalog and decided that I wanted to try it. It's been a satisfying plant so far -- good red color last fall in the warmer range of zone 6. I looks as it may be their own H. vernalis cv and that may be why you haven't seen it locally.

They have a new H. vernalis ('Orange Sunrise') in this year's catalog; however, I didn't buy it because I already have two orange/gold flowered witch hazels and I want to get a red one this year.
Cheers,
Constance

Here is a link that might be useful: Klehm's Song Sparrow