Hamamelis Orange Beauty - Witch Hazel
Overview
Hamamelis 'Orange Beauty' is a spectacular winter-flowering shrub that transforms the darkest months of the year with its brilliant orange-red blooms and delightful fragrance. This outstanding witch hazel cultivar produces masses of spidery, ribbon-like flowers on bare branches from January through March, creating one of the most welcome displays in the winter garden when colour and scent are most precious.
Key Features
Stunning Winter Flowers: Produces abundant clusters of bright orange-red flowers with twisted, ribbon-like petals that create a spectacular display against bare winter branches.
Delicious Fragrance: Flowers emit a sweet, spicy fragrance that carries on still winter days, adding sensory pleasure to the visual impact.
Exceptional Timing: Blooms during the bleakest winter months (January-March) when few other plants provide colour, making it invaluable for winter interest.
Attractive Autumn Colour: Foliage turns brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red in autumn before dropping, providing a second season of spectacular colour.
Growing Conditions
Sunlight: Thrives in full sun to partial shade, though flowering is most prolific in sunny positions with protection from harsh winter winds.
Soil Requirements: Prefers moist, well-draining, slightly acidic soil enriched with organic matter, though tolerates neutral conditions and various soil types.
Hardiness: Fully hardy throughout the UK, withstanding temperatures well below -20°C and showing excellent resilience to harsh winter weather.
Water Needs: Requires consistent moisture, particularly during dry spells in summer, though established plants show good drought tolerance.
Planting and Care
When to Plant: Best planted in autumn or early spring when dormant, allowing the root system to establish before the stress of summer heat or winter flowering.
Spacing: Allow 2-3 metres between plants and other large shrubs, giving adequate space for the mature spread and ensuring good air circulation.
Feeding: Benefits from annual spring application of ericaceous fertiliser or well-rotted compost, particularly important for maintaining flower quality and autumn colour.
Mulching: Apply organic mulch around the base to retain moisture and keep roots cool, which is essential for optimal performance.
Garden Uses
Winter Focal Points: Creates outstanding specimen plants positioned where winter flowers can be easily seen and fragrance appreciated from indoors.
Woodland Gardens: Naturalises beautifully in woodland settings, providing winter colour beneath deciduous trees when the canopy is bare.
Shrub Borders: Anchors mixed plantings with reliable structure, contributing both winter flowers and spectacular autumn foliage to seasonal displays.
Fragrance Gardens: Essential for gardens designed around scent, positioned near pathways, seating areas, or windows where fragrance can be enjoyed.
Seasonal Performance
Winter: The star season with masses of bright orange-red flowers creating warm colour against bare branches from January through March.
Spring: Flowers gradually fade as fresh green foliage emerges, though late flowers may overlap with new leaf development.
Summer: Provides attractive green foliage and good structure, creating a pleasant backdrop whilst building energy for next winter's display.
Autumn: Transforms into a blaze of yellow, orange, and red foliage that rivals any autumn tree for spectacular colour before leaves drop.
Growth and Development
Growth Rate: Slow to moderate growth, typically adding 15-30cm per year, taking several years to reach full flowering potential but worth the wait.
Ultimate Size: Reaches 2-3 metres in height and similar spread after 10-15 years, forming an attractive, open, vase-shaped structure.
Flowering Maturity: Young plants may produce few flowers initially, but flowering improves significantly with age and establishment.
Maintenance Requirements
Pruning: Minimal pruning required due to naturally good form. Remove any crossing or damaged branches immediately after flowering if necessary.
Pest Management: Generally pest-free, though young plants may occasionally suffer aphid attacks during soft growth periods in spring.
Long-term Care: Very low maintenance once established, requiring only annual feeding and mulching to maintain peak performance.
Special Characteristics
Cold Tolerance: Flowers are remarkably frost-resistant, continuing to provide colour even during harsh winter weather when other plants are damaged.
Longevity: Extremely long-lived plants that improve with age, often becoming family heirlooms passed between generations of gardeners.
Wildlife Value: Early flowers provide vital nectar for emerging insects when few other food sources are available in late winter.
Design Applications
Winter Gardens: Essential component of gardens designed for winter interest, combining with evergreens, coloured bark, and winter berries.
Scented Plantings: Perfect for positioning near windows, doorways, or seating areas where the delightful fragrance can be fully appreciated.
Autumn Combinations: Works beautifully with other autumn-colouring plants like maples, nyssa, and amelanchier for spectacular seasonal displays.
Container Growing
Large Containers: Suitable for very large, permanent containers in courtyards or patios, though requires consistent watering and annual feeding.
Positioning: Container plants should be positioned in sheltered spots where winter flowers are protected from harsh winds but still visible.
Long-term Commitment: Container growing requires dedication as these are long-term plants that need several years to reach flowering maturity.
Companion Planting
Winter Partners: Combines beautifully with winter-flowering plants like mahonia, viburnum, and early bulbs for extended winter colour.
Evergreen Backdrops: Shows to best advantage against dark evergreen backgrounds that emphasise the bright flower colours.
Seasonal Succession: Plant with spring bulbs and early perennials to create seamless seasonal transitions as witch hazel flowers fade.
Why Choose Hamamelis Orange Beauty?
This cultivar offers one of the most rewarding winter experiences available to British gardeners, transforming the bleakest months into seasons of unexpected beauty and fragrance. The combination of spectacular winter flowers, delightful scent, and brilliant autumn colour makes it a true four-season plant that earns its space in any garden.
While witch hazels require patience to reach maturity, the years of spectacular winter displays they provide make them among the most valuable shrubs for temperate gardens. 'Orange Beauty' represents exceptional value for gardeners seeking reliable winter colour combined with low maintenance requirements and outstanding longevity. Once established, it becomes an irreplaceable garden treasure that provides decades of seasonal joy.
Buying Shrubs from Jacksons Nurseries
At Jacksons Nurseries we sell a variety of shrubs both evergreen and deciduous with a variety of flowering times throughout the year. At certain times of the year our shrubs you buy from us may not look like the images shown on our website when deciduous leaves have fallen, the shrub has finished flowering or has been trimmed back.
Some leaves on evergreen shrubs can be damaged in winter by frost or harsh winds but in spring new leaves will readily replace those damaged. This is quite normal on many evergreen varieties and is preferable to plants grown with excessive protection that show cold shock once planted out and establish less satisfactory initially.
Availability: Stock availability figures are provided as a guide only. There is a delay between orders being placed and the plants being gathered by our pulling team. During this time it may be possible for a member of the public to purchase these plants from our Garden Centre, while this is rare it is a possibility and we will notify you of any problems as soon as possible. This figure may also include plants that have not yet be flagged as unsaleable.
Pre-order: Pre-order times are given as a guide only and may vary dependent on the growing season. Orders containing Pre-ordered products will be shipped as a single order when all items become available. Large orders may be part shipped, please contact us on 01782 502741 or email sales@jacksonsnurseries.co.uk.
* Please Note: Shrubs in 20 litre pots and above might require a pallet delivery starting at £79.99 per pallet. Depending on the exact pot size and height it may be possible to get approximately 5 plants per pallet at no extra cost. The maximum height we can dispatch on a pallet is 2.0m, this includes the height of the pallet and pot.
Shrubs are deciduous or evergreen woody plants, and often provide fragrant flowers, berries and foliage. They are good for structural framework, and they can provide a wonderful shelter and food source for wildlife.
Planting and Conditions
Container grown shrubs can be grown at any time of year. It is a little known fact that shrubs planted in the autumn and winter will be easier to look after than those planted in the spring and summer, because they will have time to establish and become hardy in the cooler months.
Plant the shrub at the same depth as it was in its original pot. Planting too deeply can result in root and stem rot.
One of the biggest causes of death in new shrubs is drought stress, so keep it well watered until it’s established.
Make sure you loosen the soil prior to planting. Most shrubs are tolerant of most soil types as long as it is fairly well draining.
Most shrubs will grow happily in containers, but they will be much more demanding on feeding and watering than shrubs in the ground would be. They will also need potting on every couple of years so that they don’t suffocate or become stunted in their pot.
Aftercare and Pruning
Once established, shrubs generally do not require much water. However, at first they need careful, frequent watering and should not be left to dry out.
Shrubs in the ground are generally not demanding and in most cases, annual feeding with general purpose fertilizer will suffice. Shrubs in containers may need more feeding; usually from early spring until late summer.
Shrubs also benefit from mulching in order to supress weeds, conserve moisture and provide vital nutrients. Mulch also greatly improves soil conditions. Shrubs can be mulched in late winter, after fertiliser has been applied, but it can be mulched through autumn to late spring as long as the ground is damp.
All shrubs benefit from dead-heading once spent flowers become apparent. Rhododendrons and Lilac especially benefit from the removal of dead flowers.
Some shrubs may show signs of reverted growth or ‘sporting’. This is where random shoots of different leaves associated with the plant’s parentage begin to appear. Most commonly this is where plants with variegated leaves sprout pure green growths instead of variegated ones.
To control reversion, remove reverted shoots promptly to discourage them. Reverted shoots are usually much more vigorous than the variegated ones, and thus should be completely pruned out and cut back into wood containing variegated foliage.
Potential Issues
Although shrubs are usually very robust garden plants, they can sometimes start to decline with no apparent or obvious reason.
This will start with browning leaves, which could indicate plant stress due to lack of water or waterlogging, an establishment failure or, in the worst case scenario, honey fungus. Another cause of leaf browning is a high salt content in the soil. This could be a natural occurrence, especially if you live near the ocean, or it could be from over fertilisation.
To remedy a high salt content, cut back on fertiliser and step up your watering regime for the next few weeks. If you live by the ocean, this will be harder to remedy—but stepping up your watering will help to wash some of the salt away all the same.
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