{"product_id":"witch-hazel-hamamelis-x-intermedia-arnold","title":"Witch Hazel - Hamamelis x intermedia Arnold","description":"\u003cp\u003eWitch hazel flowers when almost nothing else in a cool climate garden does. On bare branches it opens clusters of narrow, crimped, ribbon like petals, and in most forms a sweet, spicy scent carries on a still day. Arnold is a selection of Hamamelis x intermedia, the hybrid of the Chinese and Japanese witch hazels, and like the rest of that group it flowers from mid to late winter. On a frosty morning the petals curl up tight, then unfurl again as the day warms, which is how the flowers ride out cold snaps that would brown softer blooms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt earns a second season in autumn, when the broad, hazel like leaves turn yellow, orange and red before they fall. For autumn colour on a bigger scale, \u003ca href=\"\/products\/parrotia-persica-persian-witch-hazel\"\u003ePersian Witch Hazel\u003c\/a\u003e is a relative grown as a small tree, with only small red flowers in late winter. Through summer witch hazel is a quiet, open shrub with a vase shape that broadens with age, so choose a position where the winter flowers are seen up close: beside a path, outside a window you look through every morning, or in front of a dark evergreen hedge that sets off the flowers. Hellebores flower at the same time and suit the same soil, which makes them a natural planting underneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eA cool climate shrub, and where it struggles\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCheck your district first. Witch hazel needs a proper winter to flower well and a mild, moist summer to keep its leaves in good order, and it is at home in the cool tablelands and hills: the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands and New England, Canberra, the ranges around Melbourne, the Adelaide Hills and, in Queensland, the Granite Belt. Hard frost and snow do it no harm. What it cannot take is the long, humid heat of the subtropical coast, or the hot dry winds and baked soil of the inland plains, where the leaves scorch at the edges by midsummer and the plant declines over a few seasons. In the warmer coastal cities it may survive in a sheltered spot with afternoon shade, but expect fewer flowers and tired summer foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn cool districts give it full sun or light shade for the heaviest flowering. Elsewhere, morning sun with shelter from the afternoon is the safer choice. Soil should be acidic to neutral, rich in organic matter and moist but well drained. It sulks in alkaline soil, in heavy clay that lies wet, and in the dry root zone of a big tree, so give it a bed of its own rather than squeezing it under a gum.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSlow growth, grafts and a light hand with the secateurs\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a slow plant. It adds modest growth each year and takes several seasons to fill out into a broad shrub, so place it where it can widen without being cut back to fit. Many witch hazels are grafted onto a seedling rootstock of a related American species, and if this one is, any shoot rising from below the graft or from the ground beside the stem should come off as soon as it appears. Left alone, rootstock suckers outgrow the named plant, carry smaller flowers at a different time of year, and can take it over.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePruning is mostly restraint. Take out crossing, rubbing or dead wood just after flowering, before the new leaves open, and otherwise leave the framework alone, because hard pruning spoils the open shape and costs flowers the following winter. Keep the root zone mulched, water deeply through summer dry spells, especially in the first few years, and feed once in spring with a fertiliser suited to acid loving plants such as camellias and azaleas. Other plants grown for their flowers are in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/flowering\"\u003eFlowering Plants\u003c\/a\u003e, and for more that thrive on cold, read \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/news\/frost-tolerant-plants-australia\"\u003efrost tolerant plants for cold Australian gardens\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"pd-size-guidance\"\u003eChoosing a size\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis plant is supplied in one size, 300mm, at $189.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/news\/when-to-plant-trees-and-shrubs-australia\"\u003ewhen to plant in Australia\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Plant Drop","offers":[{"title":"300mm","offer_id":67672076157297,"sku":null,"price":189.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1017\/1049\/6113\/files\/witch-hazel-hamamelis-x-intermedia-arnold.jpg?v=1791523884","url":"https:\/\/plantdrop.com.au\/products\/witch-hazel-hamamelis-x-intermedia-arnold","provider":"Plant Drop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}