IN the January garden when the vast majority of plants are still showing little to no sign of growth there are a handful of plants that buck that trend.

Few do this as impressively as the witch hazel or to use its botanical name; Hamamelis.

What they disguise during the summer as a fairly ordinary veil of foliage is made up for with intensely coloured petals that have a distinctive, ribbon-like appearance where the strands of colour are held in tight bunches that run up and down the stems in dense clusters.

To have a plant flowering like this in relative isolation from any other plant only accentuates what a charming and alluring shrub this is. They are shrubs as opposed to trees and as such you’ll typically come across them as low, broad growers that dominate the space on the horizontal axis as opposed to the vertical.

With their dramatic winter flowers, it makes sense to plant them so that they can be seen from your home. If you can set one against a backdrop of a dark evergreen so much the better as the colours will be all the more apparent even in low light.

When it comes to selecting a suitable site, avoid heavy shade as although they will grow in light shade the darkest position can often lead to disappointing results. The pH of the soil (the acidity or alkalinity) is not critical unless you have extremely limey ground which can cause lime-induced chlorosis, if this is the case you can add sequestered iron to remedy the situation.

What Hamamelis need is that utopia of soils, that is, one which is freely draining but moisture retentive. If your soil is heavy, with clay dominating the scene, then adding organic matter will help improve the environment around the roots but it will require some long-term improvement. Annually mulching the ground will make an enormous difference. Hamamelis do not like to dry out in the summer, this is partly why avoiding the shade and subsequent roots of large trees is important.

You can help yourself by digging a generous hole when it comes to planting, opening up the soil structure beneath the rootball. Finally, avoid the coldest frost pockets. as although they are fundamentally hardy, late frosts can damage the living tissue when the sap begins to rise. If a frost pocket is unavoidable, arm yourself with some horticultural fleece to wrap around the plant on the coldest nights. It really is worth the effort.

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