Hazels

Garden Tasks for December

• Stop peach leaf curl by spraying now with copper sulfate to help prevent this disfiguring disease from attacking your trees next spring.
• Choose living Christmas trees now. Most will be able to be kept in their containers and used for one or two more years as a Christmas tree.
• Clean up rose bushes by removing spent flowers and raking up old leaves, but wait until February for heavy pruning.
• Plant bright red amaryllis in pots now for Christmas gifts.
• Rake and destroy leaves from fruit trees that were diseased this year.

Hazels: Cultivation and Uses

Native to Great Britain, hazels have been cultivated for their nutritious nuts and useful branches for centuries. Hazel branches were once used for fences and wattle-and-daub walls but are used today mostly for basketry, as they send up many slender limbs remarkable for their brown bark and great flexibility.

In Britain, hazels have been coppiced for centuries. This woodland management technique involves cutting all the branches down to the stump every 7 years. Cut limbs are used for firewood, walking sticks, fishing rods, and rustic furniture. The new growth is vigorous, and coppicing actually extends the life of the tree.

The subject of many superstitions, hazel twigs were said to protect houses from lightning, and forked branches are commonly chosen in Europe as dowsing rods to locate groundwater. Grown as hedges, hazels make excellent cover for birds and small wildlife.

Growing Hazels

Hazels are most commonly seen as shrubs and will grow 15 to 20 feet tall at maturity. Also known as filberts and hazelnuts, these large shrubs can produce delicious nuts. They are long-lived and begin bearing in about four years, but it takes about seven years for filberts to become fully productive.

Filberts like sun, average summer watering, and deep, well-drained soil. Don’t let them dry out during long, hot summers. Allow the nuts to drop to the ground and then gather them up. You must have two different varieties for good pollination. Check with your nurseryman for varieties that will do well together.

Ornamental Hazels

There are also some very decorative ornamental hazels. The best known is the Contorted Hazel, or Henry Lauder’s Walking Stick. Twisted and spiraling stems give this variety the common name of corkscrew hazel. In winter, it is a striking addition to the garden and should be planted alone where its unusual form can be enjoyed. It grows slowly and gains character as it ages, eventually reaching a height and spread of about 10 feet.

Similar in habit is the purple-leaved corkscrew hazel called ‘Red Majestic.’ In spring, bright red foliage emerges along with large purple catkins. As summer approaches and temperatures rise, the red deepens to a dark burgundy until, by late summer, the mature foliage turns a beautiful dark green. The large crinkled round leaves turn an outstanding red in the fall. The twisted dark brown bark and brown branches are extremely showy and add significant winter interest. Shrubs grow to about 7 feet tall and wide. Cut branches are excellent in floral arrangements.

Companion Planting

Hazels look lovely with bulbs, like crocus and daffodils, planted underneath them. Good companion shrubs include Forsythia and Witch hazel, with their yellow spring flowers, and red-leaved Japanese barberry or bright green Viburnum ‘Spring Bouquet.’