Witch Hazel Flowering

Even in the dead of winter there are plants that have evolved to flower. Along with a random Snowdrop that came with an Easter bulb set one year, our Witch Hazel has decided to open up. I'm not sure if this is technically early for this species due to an unseasonably warm winter or fairly normal for this species but we're glad to see it flowering all the same. 

Normally Witch Hazel has yellow or orange flowers but many hybrids have vivid combinations there of the two. The Rare Find Nursery catalogue we get in the mail has about a page and a half devoted to assorted cultivars in lots of different colors. This particular one is called "Amethyst" and hues more on the purple/red side of the spectrum. 

Regardless of the cultivar, because they flower int he late fall mid winter range they're almost exclusively pollinated by flies. There are reports of honeybees working them too and I'm sure dozens of other little insects that over winter in the adult stage. These insects all require warm days above 45F in order to function, that's also when Witch Hazel plants produce a faint fragrance to attract them.

I'll be keeping my eyes out for any pollinators on our shrub. It's still fairly little though so I'm not expecting to get much.

Hope your winter is going well.

"Native"

Alright so earlier I posted the image below of a Witch Hazel which I was happy to have bought from Rare Find Nursery.

It's listed on their site as Hamamelis vernalis 'Amethyst'. H. vernalis is native to the United States but not New Jersey where I live. It's actually a species more common to the Ozark area of the US. (think northern Texas and Arkansas, that general region.) Had I wanted to be a native purist I should have bought the straight true species of H. virginiana which is native to pretty much the entire eastern half of the US and Canada. The thing is H. virginiana flowers in autumn-early winter, while H. vernalis flowers in late winter-early spring which is why I bought the thing. And I know all this information because I made the mistake of posting the image and name in a Facebook group.

The actual posting wasn't the mistake, rather the fact that it was a group specifically for native plants of the northeast. H. vernalis and all it's cultivar incarnations really don't have any place in that group as even I'll admit it's not a true native. My mistake, and in future I'll try not to make it again.

Overall though it got a ton of likes, loves, and wow! (more than 50!) but in the comments one or two people weren't really having it. There wasn't any huge argument or anything like that. It was all quite civil but one comment struck me in particular. They commented something along the lines of "Just Don't" which is really dismissive, and I'll explain why in a moment.

Another comment though went as follows:

"It's a complex hybrid derived from mixed parentage including Hamamelis vernalis and Hamamelis x intermedia. Hamamelis x intermedia hybrids are crosses between Japanese witch hazel (H. japonica) and Chinese witch hazel (H. mollis). Basically not a true native" 

And they might be right. I actually don't know where either the nursery or the person commenting got their information from. Rare Find Nursery certainly sells a whole lot of H. x intermedia cultivars which suggests the plant farm they're getting their inventory from crosses a lot of different species. I'm sure I could inquire as to what makes a cultivar labeled as one species over another or how they control for contamination from one species, but I just don't feel like it right now. It seems like the kind of question that I might get different answers depending on who I ask too. 

The real test though, in my eyes at least, is weather or not it's still used as a host plant to moths and butterflies. 

I've had similar luck planting other things such as a Sourwood tree. Not native to NJ, but still used as a host plant.

 Every other year now I've found at least one Azure butterfly laying eggs  on the tree, and a few caterpillars nibbling at the flowers while being tended to by ants.

A number of these even make it to adulthood. 

I don't believe I'm increasing the range of a species, rather offering an additional host plant for the species that were already here. I see Azures also using the Dogwoods and New Jersey Tea in my yard. (Azures are a complex though so it's unclear if it's just one species doing this or several.)

I'm hoping to do the same thing with Pawpaw trees and Zebra Swallowtails. Pawpaws are just barely native to NJ. There's a population all the way at the north of the state and then a very tiny one along the coast somewhere down south. But overall, Pawpaws are rarely found in NJ. It doesn't even come up on the Native Plant Finder for my area.

Witch Hazel is surprisingly host to a whole lot of species. According to the Native Plant Finder website, Witch Hazels in New Jersey are host to 128 species of moths, including the paddle caterpillar and unicorn which I've always wanted to see in person. This would be way more productive than Sourwood and Pawpaws combine.

For best results I should probably be planting H. virginiana but I see on the range and distribution for a lot of the moths that use it as a host do overlap with H. vernalis's range. It seems more than likely to me that a significant number would use both species as hosts regardless of what state they're in. The Native Plant Finder website does list a few moths that ONLY use H. virginana in NJ but that may be because they haven't had access to H. vernalis. Whatever the case I'm eager to see what, if anything, uses it. I may well turn out that my plant has genes from H. x intermedia in that that block it from being used by our indigenous Lepidoptera but I won't know unless I plant it and see.

Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel, Hamamelis, is an odd genus of shrubs that flower during the colder times of the year. Depending on the species flowering can be early from November to January to March. It's a popular one to cross breed too because of all the color combinations. Pictured above is Hamamelis vernalis 'Amethyst' which has reddish purple flowers. More commonly though they're a bright yellow with some having varying shades of orange to them, but others are full on red or pink with hints of everything in between. Some are fragrant but not all of them.

'Amethyst' is supposed to be fragrant but it's either very faint or only something that happens on warm days or when the flowers first open. I just bought this one today and haven't really noticed any kind of odor coming from it. I suspect it's a temperature thing though because I was in a greenhouse earlier today that was full of a couple dozen different Witch Hazel varieties, most of which were flowering and labeled fragrant, but I didn't smell anything.  

Flies are the most common pollinator of these plants because of their mostly winter blooming habit. On warm days they emerge from leaf litter and safe hollows in trees and seek out other early flowering plants like Skunk Cabbage. Honeybees also take advantage of these plants for the pollen but only on days above 45F which seems to be the temperature threshold for lots of insects in the winter time.

Size wise they range from small shrubs to small trees depending on the cultivar. Part to Full Sun in a wide range of soil types. I believe they like being on the wetter side of things

Witch Hazel Flowering

Well despite our region getting about ten inches of snow over the course of two days, the little Witch Hazel plant I planted decided to flower. It's only a few twigs currently so it's nothing special right now. In years to come though hopefully it will turn into a nice sized small tree/shrub. But that's what worries me.

There are two main species in the US when it comes to this genus. Hamamelis virginiana, grows to be 20' tall and flowers in winter sometime before the new year. Hamamelis vernalis, grows to be 10' tall and flowers sometime between January and April.

This particular shrub was a cultivar of which there are now dozens on the market, tweaking the flower and leaf color to all new extremes. I was told that this one was more closely related to the smaller H. vernalis but the bloom time is early, suggesting it's actually more closely related to H. virginiana. I'm grateful to have flower in winter regardless of when it blooms but I planted it right up front by the street light where a medium sized shrub would look good, not a tree. I may have to move this plant next spring.