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Is this Witch Hazel? It's never bloomed.

4 years ago



7 years or so we have had this plant that we ordered off of ebay and I have never seen any blooms. Even wondered if its Witch Hazel. It was cut to the ground after a tree fell on it this March and the photos show what it looks like now in November. Is this Witch Hazel?

Comments (12)

  • 4 years ago

    Doesn't look right for witch hazel, Hamamelis. Looks much more like Corylus, or hazelnut.

    (Witch hazel would never regrow that rapidly but a hazel would.)

  • 4 years ago

    Thanks for the reply, I was pretty sure it wasnt witch hazel but this photo in a better homes and garden article kinda looked like it.


    https://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/shrub/witch-hazel/

  • 4 years ago

    LOL! I'm not at all sure that first photo on the BHG website is an actual witch hazel :-) It too looks too much like a hazel/filbert. The growth habit, leaf size and speed of growth would argue against it being a witch hazel.

    Do all the leaves fall off cleanly? What does it look like in winter?

  • 4 years ago

    It does lose its leaves in winter and soon I would expect. 3 weeks maybe. In the past it was more vertical before the tree fell on it. We thought it would have died but came back way fuller than its ever been. I'll keep an eye out for the hazelnuts this time, never noticed them before.

  • 4 years ago

    You may never see any nuts......the trees are self incompatible so need a second to pollinate.

    But you should see catkins that look like this:



    Also hamamelis tend to have a very layered, spreading, almost horizontal growth habit, rarely erectly upright like in the photos.

  • 4 years ago

    Not all corylus foliage looks the same. Depending on species, leaf margins can be quite smooth, the apex or end point may be missing and venation can have variable degrees of indentation.

    And there is no way a witch hazel would regrow to that size if cut to the ground in March!!

  • 4 years ago

    It's a Witch Hazel. If this a species plant (which I believe it to be) the blooms are not really noticeable unless you know what to look for, and they occur in late winter ...

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I so want to believe it is a Witch Hazel, I will take a closer look in late winter but I have never seen any blooms. I think they look kind of like a loropetalum (fringe flower) bloom but yellow right? I have never seen them on this plant, but I'll see what happens this winter.


    One thing we did notice this year was that the leaves had turned brown and stayed on the tree until about a month or so ago and started to drop and it now has full green leaves that grew back. But in that time we never sae flowering.

  • 4 years ago

    Since there is nothing else on the plant in late winter when it booms, the spidery, bright yellow flowers are almost impossible to miss. If it's never bloomed or you have never noticed any bloom, then I seriously doubt it is a witch hazel. They are very hard to overlook when in flower, both because of color and scent.


  • 4 years ago

    Foliage and habit are consistent with a vigorously growing Hamamelis vernalis (the "species plant" which aegis1000 was referring to). The upright, vigorous shoots would be explained by the fact that it was "cut to the ground after a tree fell on it". And the rapid vegetative growth could also explain the lack of flowers, although vernalis often tends to hold its leaves (brown) through the winter which may have obscured any flowers that were present.

  • 4 years ago

    In case it helps to identify better, this is what it looks like today closer up. At first I thought it might be flowers like a tea olive has but there isnt any scent.


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