TREE TALK | The paramour of winter bloom

It takes a real seductress to compel an insect out of its lair of comfort to pollinate a blossom in the cold chill of a Northwest winter. Ah, but Chinese witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis) and its hybrids and cultivated varieties can hold their own with Cleopatra, Madame du Pompadour, Mata Hari, Wallis Simpson and others of the great femme fatales of history.

And like these, nothing can be said of her great beauty. This is not a stunningly gorgeous plant, but, ah, she has magnificent and exotic secrets.

Come late January and into February, this relatively small and insignificant garden-scale tree — most often multi-stemmed — explodes, covering her branches with small, brilliant-yellow tassel flowers, with dark-red centers, each emitting a strong, spicy fragrant. Walk the sidewalks of our neighborhood this month and you’re likely to be hit by its pungent perfume, only to look right or left and see the plant in all its splendor.

Nowadays, Hamamellis x intermedia (a cross between H. mollis and H. japonica) and its varieties are most commonly available in nurseries. The plants are, for the most part, improvements on the species so long grown and celebrated in winter gardens.

These plants have blossoms that range from pale to sulphur yellow on to deep burnt-orange. Most all are famously fragrant: H. ‘Allgold,’ H. ‘Pallida,’ H. ‘Sunburst,’ H. ‘Ruby Glow,’ H. ‘Diane,’ H. ‘Carmine Red,’ among them. For many of these varieties, the autumn foliage is spectacular.

Caring for a beauty

Growing to a height of 12 to 15 feet, the witch hazels are perfect small trees for city gardens or for a tight spot in any garden.

Give them a spot in full sun, with rich, well-draining soil. And plant them where you’ll see them put on their grand winter performance from a window or where you’ll pass them coming into or leaving the house.

The scent is overwhelming. Shop for this winter wonder now, when it is in bloom.

Bring it home in a container and move it here and there until you find the perfect spot, then plant it next month. You’ll have something that will lift you from your winter doldrums for the rest of your life.

But one caution is important: Buy plants that are fully defoliated, sporting blooms on totally naked branches. Some plants are sold that do not drop their leaves until spring, thereby obscuring the flowers, making that floral display less than the grand, seasonal experience it can and should be.

This tree grows up in a wide vase shape, narrow at the base, stretching up and out as it grows. So give it space on both sides. If an errant branch seems to destroy its elegant form, cut that off when it is in bloom and take it indoors to fill your house with its robust fragrance.

Most witch hazels for sale in nurseries now are grafted. So about July or August, you may see branches shooting up from the base of the plant away from the main trunk. These are suckers produced by the grafted roots. Just get down under the plant, and cut these off at ground level before they mature, sapping energy from the grafted plant and grow tall to trick you with inferior flowers.

Not difficult to grow, deep summer watering for the first two years until the plant is established and an annual top dressing of compost around the root zone are enough to keep it thriving and floriferous.

Beyond that, it’s easy to grow. Indeed, it is a bewitching hazel.

STEVE LORTON, a Madison Park resident, is former Northwest Bureau chief for Sunset Magazine.