© The Dabney Nursery
Plant: Common Witch hazel
Witch Hazel · Hamamelis virginiana
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A deciduous shrub or small tree native to eastern North America, grown for fragrant, ribbon-petaled flowers that open in fall and carry into winter. Leaves are velvety and turn yellow in fall. It prefers full sun, moist, acidic, humus-rich soil, tolerates clay and deer browsing, and suits woodland edges, winter, native and pollinator plantings, or a screen.
- Part Shade
- Grows to 20 ft tall and 15 ft wide
- Blooms in fall, winter
- Hardy in USDA zones 5-8
- Deciduous foliage
Plant description
A deciduous shrub or small tree native to eastern North America, grown for fragrant, ribbon-petaled flowers that open in fall and carry into winter. Leaves are velvety and turn yellow in fall. It prefers full sun, moist, acidic, humus-rich soil, tolerates clay and deer browsing, and suits woodland edges, winter, native and pollinator plantings, or a screen.
- Flowers
- Four to five crinkly, ribbon-like petals borne in cymes in the leaf axils from October into winter.
- Foliage
- Simple, alternate, elliptical to obovate leaves with toothed margins, 3 to 6 inches long, velvety and hairy, turning yellow in fall.
- Fruit
- Two-valved dehiscent capsule, green when immature and maturing to brown, holding two black seeds.
- Bark & stems
- Light brown to light gray and smooth. Young stems zig-zag and are pubescent; older stems are smooth.
- Pruning
- Usually unnecessary except to maintain shape. If needed, prune in early spring, since flowers form on old growth.
- Native range
- Eastern North America, from Quebec south to Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma.
