Gardens

RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Plant of the Month January

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida' @ Harlow Carr

From the entrance turn left and follow the main path 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. Take the middle path and follow it through the shrub beds. Just before you leave the shrub beds you will come to a small triangular bed on your right. Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida' 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 many provide attractive autumn colour.

The flowers, produced from winter to spring, are spider-shaped, yellow or reddish with strap-shaped petals, clustered on the bare branches. Many cultivars have very fragrant flowers. 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 midwinter it bears fragrant, yellow, dark red or orange flowers, with crimped petals, on the bare branches.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida'

This cultivar bears clusters of large, sulphur-yellow flowers in mid and late winter.

AGM

The RHS Woody Plant Committee awarded Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida' an Award of Garden Merit and described it as: 'Large deciduous shrub with a spreading crown and broad oval leaves turning yellow in autumn. Flowers bright sulphur-yellow, with relatively broad petals and some scent'.

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.