Plant of the month: January

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' @ Harlow Carr

From the entrance turn left and follow the main path until you come to a long beech hedge on your left. Walk past the beech hedge and turn left, following the path that runs along side the hedge. There should be a grass verge on your right also following the hedge. Walk down the path until you come to a three-way junction in the path. Take the middle path and follow it through the shrub beds. You should be able to find a small triangular bed on your right just before you leave the shrub beds. Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' is in that bed.

Hamamelis

This genus contains five or six species of deciduous, winter-flowering shrubs, found in woodland margins and riverbanks in eastern Asia and North America.

The leaves are alternate, broadly ovate or obovate in shape and they provide attractive autumn colour.

The flowers are fragrant, spider-shaped, yellow or reddish with strap-shaped petals, clustered on the bare branches from winter to spring.

The fruit is a horned capsule containing two shiny black seeds.

Witch hazels make good specimen plants and are also effective in groups in a shrub border.

Hamamelis is the Greek name for a plant with a pear-shaped fruit, possibly the medlar. The twigs are a favourite choice of water-diviners. The bark and twigs of H. virginiana supply the pharmaceutical witch hazel.

Hamamelis x intermedia

This hybrid is of garden origin and is a cross between H. japonica and H. mollis. The name intermedia means intermediate in colour, form or habit.

This large shrub has bright green leaves up to 15cm (6in) long that turn yellow in autumn. In early or mid-winter it bears fragrant, yellow, dark red or orange flowers, with crimped petals, on the bare branches.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena'

AGM

The RHS Floral B Committee awarded Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' an Award of Garden Merit and described it as: a large deciduous shrub of spreading habit, with broad leaves turning red and yellow in autumn. Flowers coppery-orange.

Cultivation

Grow in moderately fertile, moist but well-drained, acid to neutral soil, in full sun or partial shade in a site that is open but not exposed.

Pruning requirements are minimal: remove any crossing shoots in late winter or early spring  to maintain a permanent, healthy framework.

Honey fungus and coral spot may be a problem.

Propagation

Sow seed in containers in a cold frame as soon as ripe. Germination may take a year or more.

Graft cultivars in late winter or bud in late summer.