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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Witch-Hazel

What’s Beautiful Now: Watch Out for Witch-Hazel

Posted in What's Beautiful Now on January 25 2019, by Matt Newman

While we’re still waiting for the snowdrops to nod up out of the frosty winter grounds, another signal of the impending spring is already here: witch-hazels! Keep your eyes open as you make your way around NYBG, and you might catch the streamer-like red, orange, and yellow flowers of Hamamelis opening here and there. They’re certainly hard to miss.

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At Home in the Snow

Posted in Around the Garden on March 24 2015, by Deanna Curtis

Deanna F. Curtis is Curator of Woody Plants at The New York Botanical Garden where she develops, documents, and helps manage the historic hardy tree and shrub collections.

Hamamelis x intermedia Barmstedt Gold
Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Barmstedt Gold’ flowers unfolding

Friday may have been the first day of spring, but as I watched the snow cover the plants, it certainly felt like winter. I know that everyone is anxiously waiting for spring to arrive, but there is something quite perfect about witch-hazel blooms dusted with snow that demands appreciation. The Azalea Garden is full of these bright spidery flowers right now. They are not some anomaly attributed to our changing weather patterns. This is their time. When it is still gray and the threat of snow still looms large, you can count on their light and warmth in the garden.

Witch-hazels have a range of flowering times depending on species and cultivar. The American witch-hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, flowers in autumn. Vernal witch-hazel or Ozark witch-hazel, Hamamelis vernalis, is also native to North American and often blooms in winter months despite its name. However, this species typically has small flowers and a strong tendency to hold on to its leaves all winter long, obscuring its fragrant flowers. Look for cultivars that were selected for their early leaf drop. The Chinese witch-hazel, Hamamelis mollis, and the Japanese witch-hazel, Hamamelis japonica, flower in late winter. These species are prized for their large and fragrant flowers, as well as their perfect timing – just when we need them the most! The majority of selections available today are cultivars of the hybrid between these two Asian species, Hamamelis × intermedia.

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Spring is Finally Here!

Posted in Around the Garden on April 9 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

'Barmstedt'
Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Barmstedt Gold’

It’s come in fits and starts this year. Snow falls one day, only to vanish in an instant through heat or a heavy rain. With all the yo-yoing we have experienced this winter, oscillating from warm to cold, the fluctuating temperatures have sent me and many of my colleagues home with lingering ailments as our bodies try to figure out what’s going on.

While walking through the Garden in these early days of spring, I notice that Mother Nature is equally confused. The persistent cold has slowed down the cycle of spring, leaving us somewhere between one and two weeks behind schedule in terms of spring bloom. Once the warm temperatures arrive in earnest, things will accelerate. What this means for now is that some of the early signs of spring–the ones that we usually like to see from our living room windows–are out and worth perusing.

The Cornelian cherries (Cornus mas) started flowering around the very end of March this year, whereas they usually bloom sometime in the middle of the month. As one of the many cheerful harbingers of spring, they’re a welcome sight; the 15-foot, multi-stemmed branching shrub is smothered with tiny umbels bursting with golden yellow, star-shaped flowers.

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