Info about Online Florists
Simple Tips on Growing Witch Hazel
Witch hazel offers nice smelling fragrance and beautiful colors to your garden landscape. When there is little flower blooming in the landscape, the witch hazel will add colors of yellow and cream to the landscape. Witch hazel blossoms have four narrow petals with spider like pattern. Witch hazel is often found at the edge of a bog in Canada, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma.
Witch hazel will do well in zones 3 – 9. For colder region, the flowering season for the witch hazel is in the early autumn. In warmer region, the flowering season tends to be later. You can grow witch hazel as single stemmed shrub or multi stemmed shrub. Both types of witch hazel shrub will reach up to a height of 12 – 20 feet.
The first step to growing witch hazel is to buy the young plant. The witch hazel plant can be purchased from the nursery. To ensure it is a healthy plant, you can look for the signs of newly grown flower buds. If the plant has dry or wilted leaves, you should not buy them. When shopping for witch hazel plant, you should look for the one that is planted in a 4 inch to 1 gallon container.
After purchasing them, you can plant them in the designated site. Witch hazel will performs best in moist and acidic soil. However, it can adapt in all types of soil condition. The witch hazel can be grown in full sun or partial shade. The soil should also be well drained. Well drained soil prevents water clogging in the ground which can cause root rots. Too much water can damage the root of the plant so that it will wither away. The planting hole should be as large as the root ball of the witch hazel plant.
Once the hole is dug, you can add organic materials including composts, peats and manure in the soil. You should not use horse manure because it contains lots of seeds of the weed plants.
Before planting, you must remove the burlap that wraps around the root ball. If there is soil in the root, you can loosen the burlap and remove it after placing it in the planting hole.
During the first year, you are to water the witch hazel plant daily. If the weather is dry, you must water it more often. If there is lot of rains, you can water less often.
Witch hazel requires minimal pruning since it is a care free plant. This plant is not susceptible to any pests or diseases. Witch hazel is often planted to create a mixed shrub border. It is also planted at the back of a border in the perennial garden bed. If you are using it to make bouquet, you must trim it. However, you must not prune it too many times per day. The best time to prune the plant is during the winter seasons when it is dormant. Witch hazel is deer resistant. Deer that are browsing the witch hazel plant will not harm it but help it to create a fuller shrub. You can surround a fence for the young witch hazel plants to protect them from wild animals.