Hedging Plants – Hazel

Name – botanical name: Corylus avellana.

Description and uses – Hazel is widely distributed throughout much of Europe, from Britain and Scandinavia eastwards to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and as far south as Spain. The leaves are rounded in shape, double toothed, and hairy, which gives them a rough texture. Hazel is deciduous, with the new leaves appearing in April each year, and turning bright yellow before being shed in October. Male flowers are in the form of catkins, which are pale yellow in colour and up to an inch and a half long. They open in February, when hazel is leafless. The female flowers are tiny red tufts, growing out of what look like swollen buds, and are visible on the same branches as the male catkins - fertilised female flowers grow into nuts which are up to an inch in size and occur in clusters of one to four.

Maintenance and problems – For a hedge, hazel should be trimmed in March ensuring you leave some catkins and female flowers if nuts are wanted. Hazel can be coppiced to ground level every second year and the new growth will provide enough pea sticks and stakes for a large garden - these are flexible but soon harden to form rigid sticks which keep for several years. When the hazel sheds its foliage in autumn, the leaves can be left where they fall to form dry leaf litter to protect under-planting like snowdrops and hellebores. Hazel attracts many insects and birds.

Hedging Hazel photograph by lavillleautady, used under a creative commons attribution licence

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